Daniel Levy has broken his silence on sacking Ange Postecoglou, saying that winning the Europa League was not good enough.

The Tottenham Hotspur chairman declared that “failure is not an option” as he set Postecoglou’s successor as head coach, Thomas Frank, the target of winning the Premier League. Tottenham last won the league in 1961.

“You saw the outpouring of emotion with the parade. It was just incredible. We’ve won a European trophy,” Levy said after Tottenham’s triumph over Manchester United in Bilbao.

However, he then added: “But it’s not enough. It’s what we haven’t done that is more important. We need to win the league. We want to win the Premier League. We want to win the Champions League. We want to win.”

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As expected, Postecoglou was sacked – described as a “unanimous decision” by the Spurs board – just 16 days after winning Spurs’ first trophy for 17 years and their first European trophy in 41 years which also qualified them for the Champions League.

However, Spurs finished 17th in the Premier League, their lowest-ever placing, having lost 22 of their 38 games, and this prompted the club to dismiss Postecoglou and bring in Frank from Brentford.

There were no comments from Levy in the announcement to sack Postecoglou because – apparently – it was regarded as that collective board decision. He therefore talked for the first time about why it happened to Spurs’ in-house media team where he sat alongside the newly appointed chief executive Vinai Venkatesham.

“You know I have got very broad shoulders. Failure is not an option,” Levy claimed. “The desire to succeed – because it is so difficult I want to succeed even more.