But but but they have Brenda back where he belongs
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Manager Ange Postecoglou
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But but but they have Brenda back where he belongs
The precedes to read into it too much
He should be, but the media seems to be giving him a pass on losing 5 of 6 games. I'm in the minority on this, but when I listen to Postecoglou I hear "I, me, my" constantly. What I don't hear normally is accepting responsibility or an acknowledgment or understanding of why the team is not performing. To me, the defining story at this stage of the season isn't his tantrums or philosophizing or what fans thought or didn't. It is that the second time this season teams faced Spurs our record is decidedly mid-table.
I am not mate, that's the thing, what I said is face value stuff, what Chapman said in that clip you shared is face value stuff.
Point to me where I read into things too much?
I am not trying to dissect his mindset, like I said, he can feel how he wishes to feel but the simple fact is, the supporters aren't the reason we were in that situation, it was the manager and players and that is the ONLY thing a professional manager who wants to "win" should be concerned about.
Like many have said, he needs to now remain focused on his job, stop with the bluster in the media and get into the next window, strengthen the side and show us how much of a winner he is and back up the talk, otherwise it's just another ego talking at the end of the day.
You are a smarmy shitehawk
Yeah... Ahemhurhir ahem. Now look mate... ahemhur!
Pretty sure that's not one of His teachings, mate.
I don't trust people who don't capitalise their names, makes me think you're a bit of a peasant tbh.
It comes as no surprise that you think that.
This is fun
Any thoughts on our manager or are you keep gonna tagging onto my leg like a homeless dog?
Ange brought in the players that make Celtic tick: Kyogo, Hatate, Maeda,
Bloody well said ol chap!
True but the sift goals, losing games isn’t that partly down to him and his coaching (lack of) / tactics?Not sure anyone's posted this yet, if so apologies (but it answers a couple of questions):
Postecoglou's 'fragile foundations' comment could go down as his Conte moment
Spurs’ manager was hailed as the antithesis to predecessor Antonio Conte – but his comments on Tuesday mirrored the Italian's infamous rantwww.nytimes.com
After Tottenham Hotspur pushed Manchester City all the way to the end, producing their best performance in months, it felt, for a few happy minutes, as if this could be the starting point for some optimism at Spurs. This pragmatic, innovative performance could even light the way for Ange Postecoglou’s second season at the club.
But when Postecoglou walked into his press conference soon after the final whistle, he instantly blew away any hope that this might be a positive evening for the club.
This was the most explosive press conference delivered by a Spurs manager since Antonio Conte ended his tenure with that infamous performance in Southampton in March 2023. Postecoglou was brought in two months later to be the anti-Conte, and while he was not quite as wilfully destructive as the Italian, you could almost hear the ghost of Conte in Postecoglou’s words.
It all started when Postecoglou was asked whether Tuesday evening’s performance could be the foundation for what Spurs do next season. (You could certainly see why it might be: Spurs tried a new formation, worked hard, restricted City and, on another day, could have taken something.)
But, instead, Postecoglou silenced the room when he said that “the last 48 hours has revealed to me that the foundations are fairly fragile”. It was the most surprising and jarring thing Postecoglou has said during his time in north London.
It was the type of comment that has to be unpacked, but Postecoglou would only go so far in doing so. He said that “the last 48 hours have revealed a fair bit to me” and this means that he has “got to go back to the drawing board with some things”. Again, Postecoglou was asked to clarify and expand on who exactly he was angry with and why, but again, he did not want to get drawn into too many specifics.
Asked whether his frustrations were outside or inside the club, Postecoglou said they were “outside, inside, everywhere”. Asked again to move into specifics — whether he meant his players — Postecoglou again refused to engage.
“I’m not going to tell you because it’s for me,” he snapped. “I probably misread the situation as to what I think is important in the endeavour to become a winning team, but that’s OK. That’s why I’m here.” (At this moment, he could hardly have sounded more Conte, cursing himself for not understanding the size of the job in changing the mentality here.)
Clearly, Postecoglou was not happy with the sense that a lot of fans were relaxed about Spurs not winning this game because they did not want Woolwich to win the league. He was clear in his message on Monday that he had no interest in “bragging rights” when there was a game to be won and habits to instil.
But here, after a night when Spurs fans were louder when they were losing than drawing and when Postecoglou himself got drawn into angry exchanges with a fan behind the dugout, he could not hide his feelings.
“Maybe I’m out of step but I just don’t care. I just want to win,” Postecoglou said when asked whether the Woolwich rivalry had been a factor. “I want to be successful at this football club. It’s why I was brought in. So other people, how they want to feel and what their priorities are, are of zero interest to me. I know what’s important to build a winning team. That’s what I need to concentrate on.”
When asked whether Tuesday’s subdued atmosphere affected Tottenham’s players, given how loud the stadium was earlier this season, Postecoglou said yes. “Of course it does,” he answered. “I can’t dictate what people do. They’re allowed to express themselves any way they want but, yeah, when we’ve got late winners in games, it’s because the crowd’s helped us.”
But even then, frustration at fans cannot sufficiently explain Postecoglou’s comments. He said that his issues were outside and inside the club, remember. And he said that they would force him back to the drawing board. Fans are ultimately outside of the manager’s control, so did he mean an issue closer to home?
So Postecoglou was asked whether he had an issue with his players, but he refused to criticise them in public. “Unless I was watching a different game, we matched it with the best team in the land for the last four years, unless someone saw it differently,” he said. “Why wouldn’t I be happy if we’ve matched the team that is kind of the benchmark? Yeah, I was happy with the application.”
Ultimately, Postecoglou left it open who exactly inside the club he was unhappy with. He must have known that by not making his complaints more clear, he would unleash a cycle of speculation about what exactly had upset him. Some may ask whether he was playing politics with the board over transfers — another Conte throwback — but Postecoglou insisted this had “nothing to do with summer plans”, which are already in place.
The generous interpretation of Postecoglou’s comments is that this is all part of trying to ensure the football club — board, staff, players, fans — makes that mental leap into competitiveness and ambition. He kept coming back to the importance of becoming a “winning team” and after a few days dominated by talk about not winning, his sporting ego will have been challenged.
So much of this season has been about positivity, shared ethos and goals, and perhaps Postecoglou decided it was time to switch to bad cop, to replace the carrot with the stick.
But many people will read this and fear this is a repeat of ‘the history of Tottenham’. So many Spurs managers have started well and seen their tenures descend into acrimony and frustration, exasperated by their inability to steer this ship where they want it to go. Postecoglou was meant to be different, replacing the friction of the Jose Mourinho and Conte eras with unity, togetherness and optimism.
But less than one year in, he is already making similar noises, criticising the mentality of those around him, as if he hopes to shame them into becoming more like him. It is a risky move and no one who has tried it before has come out on top. The question is whether this is a new phase or just a brief moment after a strange few days at the end of a tiring first season.
For what it's worth, I think the last few games have fucked Ange right off, he doesn't like losing, then on top of that he just got a bit fucked off with all the talk of Spurs not wanting to win and not trying to win etc, when it's very much against his ethos. Apparently a couple of people on the spurs staff were joking at him about throwing the game and picking youth sides, which pissed him off as well.
Basically, the combination of losing a bunch of games (all to rival teams as well), conceding really soft goals, followed by lots of people inside (staff etc) and outside (media/fans) the club talking about wanting to lose another big game, then losing another big game we'd played reasonably well in, I think just fucked him into blowing a bit of a gasket.
Let's not forget, his job's on the line here. He wants to win every game (especially after losing a bunch of games lately) and wants a team that wants to win every game. We still had a chance of CL football. I think he felt the attitude around the club in the last 48 hours was really fucking losery.
The soft goals and, zonal marking which isn't working, is down to him and the coaching team.
Some of what he said maybe valid, but a lot of it was deflection technique.
I think you're onto something here and to be fair it worked. Look who the media has been blaming all week? It wasn't Ange or even the players.
He'll likely walk it back at the next presser but the damage will be done with a lot of fans I feel.
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We’re about 8 wins from top. If we’d had Harry this season do you think some of the draws would have been wins, some of the losses draws? I don’t think we’re far off. Just having a striker to straighten us up will make a huge difference.
Yeah for sure. I'm not an Ange apologist. I was just offering an opinion on why he had a hissy fit.
I get some of it, most managers do it. I get him being a bit pissed off at the whole "lose to Arse" bollocks, it was taken to fucking embarrassing levels, but I thought the whole rant was a bit daft. Personally I've also been a bit baffled by several of his interviews (post match and otherwise) lately. Likewise, all the fucking hissy fits by fans at Ange, who don't get him not buying into the whole "throw the game" bollocks.
Generally speaking, I'm not getting all the Ange angst. There's definitely issues with his ethos, but what did we all think, we'd start a rebuild, sell Kane, completely change the way we play from reactive/proactive polar opposites and 12 months later be a flawless winning machine?
Do any of think this squad at this stage should be achieving Better than it has? I fucking don't, I'm surprised we are where we are to be honest. We've had no bench all season and for two-three months of it we lost half the team, and they were mostly the better players.
I don't know whether his arse can cash his mouth's "I'm a winner mate" cheques, I definitely have doubts, but we ain't getting Pep or Klopp, and we aren't spending 1bn in two windows, so....
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Agreed. Haven't settled on a consistent front 3. It's a real shame that Soloman was injured.
Whilst the figured-out thing is overused, it did become apparent to other coaches that in defense we overload the middle of the park and leave space out wide, especially on the opposite flank. Soi the switch ball is always on.
In attack, it was clear that we have no target man and were looking to play through balls and low crosses. So, we always were going to struggle when teams allow us to have the ball and defend in numbers.