Ange Postecoglou has admitted that his wife told him off for his altercation with the Tottenham supporters after the defeat at Bournemouth.
The Spurs head coach went over to applaud the travelling supporters at the Vitality Stadium on Thursday night but their anger at the team’s dismal performance poured out at the head coach and his players. With some of it personal abuse, Postecoglou reacted to those individuals before pointing to himself as if to say he will fix the problems and then turning away.
The Australian was asked whether he regretted reacting to the more abusive supporters and he had little hesitation in his answer.
“No. They felt like they needed to give me feedback, so I thought I’d get close enough for them to make sure they were heard,” said the 59-year-old.
However, by showing that he can be provoked may have marked the Tottenham boss out as an easy target in the future and he admits that Mrs Postecoglou was not impressed.
“Hopefully after 18 months, you’ve realised that I am who I am. I don’t really care. Whether people think I’m an easy target, soft target. I’m going to shy away from it. I’ve fought my whole life and I’m not going to race down the tunnel because some people feel like they need to give me some direction,” he said.
“It doesn’t bother me, it doesn’t. From my perspective, what motivates me and what drives me on a daily basis is continually staying true to my values and what I believe is the right thing to do in every situation. Maybe people thought it wasn’t the right thing to do. My wife certainly didn’t. So I got some feedback there as well. But that’s ok. I’m not going to change. It’s who I am, mate. I’ve been like that my whole career and I won’t change.”
Postecoglou explained what it meant when he was pointing to himself during the exchange with the supporters.
“It’s on me but also whatever you’ve got to direct, direct it at me. And I’m listening. I’m listening, I’m looking, I’m understanding,” he said.
This inconsistency harming Tottenham right now is something new for Postecoglou in his second season at a club. Spurs have comfortably beaten Manchester City at home and away in recent weeks, won at Manchester United and beaten Aston Villa, all with a hail of goals, yet they have also been dreadful in Premier League games against Crystal Palace, Ipswich, Fulham and now Bournemouth.
“It doesn’t sit well with me, nor should it. I’m not going to accept it,” said Postecoglou. “My role within that and my responsibility is to change that because if we’re going to get to where I want us to get to, we need to break that cycle of not showing the belief and resilience in key moments. It doesn’t sit well with me mate but nor should it and that’s why we do what we do.
“[The fans’ reaction] will be dependent on what people see, what people feel. The only way I can affect that is by what we produce on game days. I’ve got to concentrate on the controllables, and the controllables are the team, how we prepare, how we play and hopefully through that vehicle we get everyone on board.”
On whether it’s a weakness in mentality at Tottenham to be so inconsistent, the Australian said: “It’s a funny one because if you talk about mentality, you’d think mentality would be ‘well, against the big teams, you come up short.’ I didn’t go into this job where I felt there was something institutionalised here that would stop this club having success. I just don’t think that way.
“I think everything while I am here is in my control. So I’m not going to palm off responsibility to whatever we’re going through to things that have existed in the past. From the moment since I’ve come in I have the ability and the opportunity to change things so that’s what I am endeavouring to do. The key is to understand that Bournemouth is not a lesser team. They have beaten City and Arsenal at home so we knew it was a tough game last night, particularly in the spell we are in at the moment where we have a lot of football with a thin squad.
“We prepared ourselves for a tough game, that was going to be tougher than any other game we were going to face last night, and the disappointing thing is, like I said, that in a game where we started well, we once again allowed the opposition to play the game on their terms by us lacking discipline and conviction in a key moment and we can’t keep doing that.”
Tottenham face an in-form Chelsea this weekend just over a year after the chaotic meeting between the two clubs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium which ended 4-1 to the visitors. Spurs had Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie sent off but still continued to play their way with nine men and could have snatched an equaliser before the Blues netted two late goals.
The home fans applauded their team off the pitch that night despite the defeat and Postecoglou believes the core values have not changed.
“No, not really and I think we have seen evidence of that this year. Nothing has changed in terms of my resolve to play the type of football I want to play and be that kind of team,” he said. “It’s just that we haven’t understood the other side of that and that is that the discipline and resilience to overcome difficult moments so that the football we have can come through.
“When we have won this year, we have been pretty compelling. It’s not just struggling victories. Every game we have won we have been very dominant and exactly the team we want to be so we have shown the potential of what we can be but that kind of gets diminished by performances like last night.”
Those poor performances bring the usual response from pundits and disappointed fans claiming that Postecoglou has no Plan B. It is those kind of doubts that have followed him around for his entire coaching career.
“I keep saying I have had 26 years of that. I come in here right and I can only be really myself and answer questions the way I want to if I really believe in what I am doing,” said the Australian. “I am not going to change my values, I’m not going to change my beliefs, I’m not going to change my sense of purpose or the way I do things because then I can’t come in here and defend what I am doing.
“I can defend this to the day I’m gone if I’m doing it my way. So like I said it is not unusual for me, it’s not unique and sometimes you kind of understand that people are going to see what we are doing in that light. ‘Well, why don’t you change?’ But change to what? To something somebody else is doing or somebody else did? I was brought here to do it my way otherwise what is the point of me being here.”
He added: “I’m sure at other clubs, if you stick to a plan and got through difficult moments, there’s dissension among supporters in this moments. You forget about that when you’re on the other side.
“It’s about winning but it’s about belief as well in what you’re doing sometimes. You look beyond the results I think. That’s what happened at the start of my tenure last year. We lost against Chelsea but there was a sense that we were building something. Obviously it kind of went off the rails after that game. It’s not just about winning, but where we are right now it will certainly help.
“I’d be surprised if [the players] think I was happy with this. I don’t think they are either. I don’t think they’re comfortable with where we’re at. It’s not just about anger and screaming and yelling. It’s about purpose and direction and responsibility and charting a way forward. That’s much more important for me.”
Tottenham made the biggest signing of the Premier League summer transfer window in getting Dominic Solanke from Bournemouth for £60million but have also spent approaching £100million on five teenagers. So does Postecoglou actually have a stronger squad than the one he had last season?
“If everyone was fit, yeah. Where we are now, no, but that’s pretty evident. Vicario, Van de Ven, Romero, Bentancur, Richarlison, Odobert, if five of those were available last night or four of those were available last night… Look the players who left, it wasn’t a slight on them,” he said.
“They were good, experienced players, absolutely, but we can’t change if I keep everyone, I can’t just keep adding to the squad without letting people go, and when they left we couldn’t replace like-for-like, I couldn’t let a 28-year-old go and sign a 28-year-old because that wasn’t where we were at. We had to sign younger players and start building, and in the perfect world, we wouldn’t have got the injuries and suspensions and illnesses that we have, and the squad would look a lot healthier, but where we are right now, we’re nowhere near the level we need to be.”
One player that Postecoglou will be hoping to have back is Cristian Romero, especially with Ben Davies picking up a hamstring injury on Thursday and leaving Spurs with one fit centre-back in Radu Dragusin.
“He just hasn’t been able to feel 100%, but we’re closer now so there’s definitely light at the end of the tunnel. The first thing is that he feels more comfortable so hopefully he’s available soon,” he said.
Will the Tottenham boss have to ask the World Cup winner to do a job for the team on Sunday regardless?
“I don’t think I have to ask him. Cuti’s the kind of guy if he feels he can get out there and help us, he will,” said Postecoglou. “I won’t have to twist his arm.”
