Here’s every single word the Tottenham Hotspur boss said ahead of the Premier League game against Chelsea on Sunday
Ange Postecoglou held his press conference on Friday morning ahead of Tottenham’s Premier League derby against Chelsea at the weekend.
Spurs will host Enzo Maresca’s in-form Blues at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday afternoon looking to bounce back from another frustrating defeat, this time at the hands of Bournemouth on Thursday evening. Postecoglou lost Ben Davies to a hamstring injury which meant he has eight players out of action and the spine of his team missing.
The Tottenham boss also went over to the travelling fans after the final whistle and along with the players received some vocal feedback from the angry Spurs faithful.
Our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to Postecoglou on Friday morning at Hotspur Way after travelling back from Bournemouth. We’ve got a full transcript with every word the Australian said which you can find below
How do you reflect on last night and the scenes at full time?
Not a lot of time for reflection, mate, we got back at 2am. Same way I felt last night, I guess. It was a disappointing night and we’ve got a lot of work to do.
Do you feel like the majority of supporters are behind you?
They’re not behind me, they’re behind the club. I’ve got no interest in who’s behind me. You got to figure the ones who travel to Bournemouth are pretty hardcore supporters, they weren’t happy with what they saw, they felt like they needed to give me some feedback, I took the feedback on board and we move on.
Was this defeat the result of having a stretched squad?
That’s to one side. We know that. We knew that going in [to the game]. For me, the disappointing last night was the repeat of the cycle of us going into games, starting well enough but allowing the opposition to get a sloppy goal like we did last night or not taking our opportunities. We need to break that cycle, irrespective of where we’re at at the moment. We know we’re really thin on the ground in terms of squad numbers. We know there’s not a lot of opportunities to rotate and rest players. We obviously paid the price with Benny last night. They’re known things. But what also is known is that we’ve repeatedly shot ourselves in the foot in those kind of games like last night and we need to change that.
Can we have a Ben Davies and Cristian Romero update?
Ben, too early again mate, he’ll go for a scan today, we’re talking 10 hours after last night’s game, so we’ll find out more. Cuti is due to train, we’re not doing much today but we’ll see how he goes tomorrow.
With a big game like this against Chelsea, is it a chance for your team to show what they’re really about?
Yeah to a certain extent but that won’t eliminate what happened last night. We’ve done well against the teams up the top end of the table this year, not just wins but played really well, whether that’s City or United away or Villa at home. But that doesn’t eliminate what happened last night.
That still needs to be addressed. That’s to one side. It’s a big game on Sunday, they’re obviously going really well Chelsea. They’re in a good space at the moment with a fairly healthy squad and in good form. Always a tough game against them and we are at home. We need to make sure we produce a performance like we have in the other games which have been similar to get something out of it.
This is an incredibly busy month, how do you go about making sure energy levels are where you need them to be?
Just by continuing to try to prepare the players in the best way we can. We’re really stretched thin in terms of the squad and losing Benny last night doesn’t help that. We’ve got European games, we’ve got Carabao Cup in there as well so we’ve just got to try and manage the players the best we can to make sure we’ve got the maximum performance out of them.
What is your message to the fans?
As I said last night, no message. I’m here, I’m going to fight to make sure we bring success to this football club. Nothing really changes. Whether there’s doubt, whether that’s internally or externally, it just makes my resolve even stronger to get it right.
Does it concern you that the fans are seeing the progress you get to see in working with the players every day?
Again, the supporters are the supporters, they’re invested in this club whoever is in charge, whichever the playing group is. They will feel what they feel, whether they can see what we’re trying to do or not. I can’t change that materially without there being evidence on the pitch that they can see. If they can’t see it at the moment then it’s up to me to make sure they can see it.
Have you worked out why the team are struggling with inconsistency?
No, not yet but we will keep searching for those answers. Look, some of it in sport is just around having a competitive squad where there is competition for places which keeps people on edge all the time and we don’t have that at the moment. We haven’t had that for a while. Within the absence of that, we have to find other ways to make sure the players are clear on their responsibilities.
Son is in the final year of his contract. How important is he and would you like to keep him long term?
Right now all I care about is Sunday. I couldn’t care about people’s contracts. I couldn’t care about their situations. What I care about is Sunday and I want to make sure we have a group of players on Sunday who are ready to go out there and fight.
How do you process defeats? Do you speak with coaching staff or do it personally?
It’s me, mate. I’m the one responsible for it. There is no point in the toughest moments palming off the responsibility to other people. I’m the person in charge. I’m the person that has set us off in this direction and I am the person who needs to fix it.
Tottenham have spent a lot of money, approaching £100m on five teenagers. That is great long-term but does it make it difficult for you in the short-term?
It is still the right decision and I own them [transfers] because I believe they are the right decisions for this club. I have said numerous times, I make these decisions with the kind of background that I’m going to be here for a while to see this through. To be honest, if I was worried about my own existence I would have fought tooth and nail to block Harry Kane leaving but it wasn’t the right decision for the club because he was in the last year of his contract. That is not what drives me. The decisions we made around signing young players are the right decisions for this club for where we are at right now and they will bear fruit.
But from the outside it seems like you have lost a lot of experience?
Yeah we have but we needed to do that. We needed to do that because it was a team that was coming towards the end of its cycle and we were rebuilding not just the squad but the playing style and you couldn’t replace experience with experience because that is not a rebuild. That is kind of topping up because you feel you are close to something and we weren’t close to anything.
Archie Gray had a lot thrown at him, how did you feel he dealt with it?
He’ll be better for it. It was a good experience for him, it wasn’t easy, it was tough, particularly when we put him at centre-back but it will do him the world of good, make him a better player and a stronger personality for our football club.
You copped some unacceptable abuse last night and lots of frustration. Even though you had eight players out, you want to win every week and it’s one win in six, how much are you hurting right now?
I’m not hurting, I am determined and that’s all. I don’t want to say it is unacceptable because like I said, it is what it is. I have lived in this world for long enough to know that when people aren’t happy, they’ll express their opinions and I am never going to hide. I am never going to shirk that responsibility, that’s fine. I will take on board. Is it nice? No, because like I said last night I am not just a manager, I am a human being like everyone else and none of us like to hear those sorts of things, but it is what it is. It doesn’t disappoint me, it doesn’t frustrate me, it doesn’t make me angry. I am just as determined as ever to get it right, not because of that but because of my resolve to bring success to the football club
How much do you feel supported? It’s a difficult period with players out, a Thursday to Sunday period, but you signed a four-year deal and Rome wasn’t built in a day. Do you feel support from the key figures?
I don’t need support. I don’t worry about contracts, I don’t worry about support. I just want to make sure that what I set out to do, I accomplish and that is to bring success to this football club. I will work my backside off to make sure that happens. I am not going to be deterred in my ambitions or endeavour to do that and that’s what I’ll keep doing
