Manager Watch: Ange Postecoglou

[funkycoldmedina]

Kane has seen so many false dawns here I don’t think he owes it to us to give yet another manager a chance beyond ‘if you don’t agree a fee I’ll give my all for as long as I’m contracted to’. Ange seems great, and I hope it works out with him. But Kane isn’t going to be making his decisions based on hope at this stage of his career.

Ange alluded to that as well when asked if he's tried to convince him. He said he's heard it all before so there was no point

 

[muppetman]

I can't see it, but what about if Ange picks Dier as VC as a hypothetical?

I'd love it - would absolutely wind up so many.

 

[spurs mental]

Everything Ange Said:

Every word Postecoglou said on his Kane chat, transfers and new Spurs captain

Here's every single word Ange Postecoglou said ahead of Tottenham Hotspur's first Premier League match of the season at Brentford

www.football.london

Spoiler

Every word Ange Postecoglou said on Harry Kane chat, transfers to come and new Tottenham captain​

Here's every single word Ange Postecoglou said ahead of Tottenham Hotspur's first Premier League match of the season at Brentford​

Alasdair Gold
Ange Postecoglou has been speaking about the departure of Harry Kane and Tottenham's Premier League match at Brentford
Any guesses for the first question?

No idea, but good turn-out. We had to cancel it last week because no one was interested in what I had to say. It is obviously not about me (the first question).

What's the latest on Kane?

Yeah, look fair to say I don't have a blow by blow account of the whole thing but my understanding is it has progressed to the point where it looks like it will happen. That's all the information I have at the moment. From that perspective at least it gives us some clarity unless anything unforeseen happens and we move forward without Harry.

Does it need to happen quickly?

No, I don't have feelings either way in terms of needing anything. From my perspective it is just about understanding where we are at and where the status of it is. The information I have at the moment is the deal is imminent but like with all these things, until it happens you leave yourself some leeway but for the most part moving forward and certainly with training today and preparing for Brentford, we are doing it without Harry.

How should Harry Kane be remembered?

I guess it is best Harry speaks for himself in terms of the decision but look, there's no doubt he is one of the greats of this football club and that doesn't change. His record speaks for itself, his standing amongst our supporters stands for itself. I am only new in the building mate and I am certainly not a spokesperson for this football club in the sense of proclaiming people's status but it is fairly evident Harry Kane will always be one of the greats of this football club.


Oh I don't think there is a like-for-like replacement for Harry mate but yeah in terms of a striker again we've been planning for this, fair to say, for a while. It doesn't take too much investigative work to realise that this was going to happen so we've been sorting of planning for it to happen anyway so a lot of our business up to now is with that in mind. This doesn't change things dramatically from my perspective anyway in terms of what we're trying to build.

There is still movement in the squad, absolutely. We've still got a fairly big squad and we need to move out some players. I think some players will seek an opportunity elsewhere and there is still three or so weeks to go in the transfer window so I think there will still be movement but not because Harry has gone, that's always been in the plan.

Have you given Daniel Levy a shopping list?

I don't think it works that way. It is not my wife handing me a shopping list to go and get milk and bread for the kids. Our whole strategy has been around the fact Harry wasn't going to be around more than likely so it is not like we've had a pow wow this morning and jeez what do we do. We knew it was coming and we've been working towards that. From my perspective we're preparing for Brentford and there won't be anyone incomings between now and Sunday so that's where my focus is.

How has Micky van de Ven settled in? Can he play against Brentford?

It is good to get Micky in and he's settled in well. It is always easy for me to say but having been through it myself it, it is not as simple as him coming out and training, you have to settle yourself off the field as well and all these things take time. He's had a pre-season with Wolfsburg but he hasn't played 90 minutes yet so match-conditioning wise he is probably not at the level but he's definitely available for the weekend. He trained well today and we've got a session tomorrow so in terms of the team selection I'll make some decisions after that but he is available.

Any injuries?

No, we've obviously got some long-terms who won't be available but everyone else who played against Shakhtar and Barcelona, apart from a few minor knocks, they've all trained today. There's no-one who will miss out from the guys who've been involved.

Is the team ready for the start?

The league is not going to wait for us so we've got to be ready for it. Obviously it's a great test for us, Brentford away is tough for anybody in the league, they showed that last year, and I think you've seen growth from their team every year they've been in the Premier League. Again they've made some astute signings and it's going to be a great challenge. It's a great physical challenge, they work hard, they're well organised, difficult at set pieces. We've got to try to counter all that but play our football. We've been working hard on that in pre-season and this our first chance to lay some foundations.

Was there any part of you that thought Harry may stay?

If you're involved in the football business as long as I have [you know] clubs aren't talking to each other unless the player knows about it. We weren't negotiating with Wolfsburg for Micky van de Ven and then trying to figure out if he wants to come to us. All those kind of things are decided. I had a conversation with Harry the first day arrived and he was up front and honest, and I was the same. You kind of get an indication there that he kind of made up his mind that if the clubs agreed he would go, particularly if it was before the first game. That was my preference as well.

There's nothing along the way that's sort of made me feel there's anything other than this outcome. None of these things happen in isolation, everyone is pretty clued into to what's going on, so my perspective I hadn't received anything from Harry, the club or anyone else to suggest to me anything had changed about his stance.

Will James Maddison fill part of the hole left by Harry?

He was one of the first pieces of business we did. He was available and I was really excited to bring him into the group, knowing what we needed to build here. And again, knowing if Harry was going to leave that's a fair few goals walking out of the door and knowing you can't just replace that with one player. An area of the club that needing bolstering was midfield threat in terms of goals, and that's what Madders provides - goals and assists. If we've going to cover the fact that Harry's gone and all the goals are leaving with him, we're going to have to spread that out and Madders provides that. He's been brilliant since he's come in, he's been outstanding. Not just in the games but in training and the way he's embraced the club and developed in the football we want to play.

Can you unite the fanbase?

Look I think it probably belies the general impression of managers but we're all eternal optimists or else we wouldn't do this role, mate. There's enough people telling you you can't do things that if you don't go into any challenging believing you can be successful and bring success, there's no point in being in it. I was under no illusions about the enormity of the challenge but bullish that we could accomplish something here. In terms of the supporters, I've said all along they've got the right to feel the way they want to. If there's a negativity amongst them, it's up to us to turn it around. It's not up to them.

They'll always have this faith in their football club but in terms of us, the people who represent it, it's up to us to prove to them there's something to get behind there. Sunday is an opportunity for us to begin to do that and hopefully that positivity transfers to our next home game because the energy they provide the players will be enormous for us.

Have you decided on your captain yet?

Yeah I have mate [decided]. I’m not telling you. (Laughs)

We’ll go through that process tomorrow. Knowing that Harry wasn’t going to be here, it was something I had on my radar. I’m not a massive one for having an outstanding captain,. Leadership is very transferrable through the group. Your youngest player can show leadership skills. It’s about creating a culture and environment that’s driven by the players.

The people you have, have to drive that, and that’s been part of my brief here. I’ve observed the players and how they interact, and the environment they’ve set for themselves and which players seem to take the lead in that. I’ll go through the formalities of that probably tomorrow.

Is Sonny a strong candidate?

It’s not like a leadership poll. I’m not having votes or anything, but there are some players here who have already contributed outstandingly to this club. It’s not just about experience, or playing ability, it’s more about the person they are, and how they’re going to represent us as a club and the playing group.

I’m really comfortable with the group we have. We’ll get a strong leader out of it and hopefully some lieutenants alongside him.

Is Ivan Perisic in your plans for this season?

He’s been playing, and playing very well. I’ve followed his career for a long time, he’s an absolute professional, the way he looks after himself, and he’s had a really strong pre-season, in games and training. So he does have a future with me and the club.

Did you try to convince Harry?

I didn’t see the point [in trying to convince him to stay]. Whatever I was going to say was going to be irrelevant to what he felt. I could give this grand vision, but I’m sure he’s heard it all before. It’s how people feel and what they see and perceive in how the group works. My feeling was, we’ll get to know each other over the next month, and that’s the best way to navigate this early bit of our relationship as manager and player.

In my mind, after that initial conversation, it seemed like Harry had made up his mind that if the clubs could agree he was going to go. If not, he was happy to stay. It’s not like he was forcing it on me., He was very professional about it and I tried to treat him with the respect that someone of his standing deserved.

Are you frustrated that it's taken this long?

I’ve been around for long enough not to get frustrated by these things. I’ve been involved in negotiations, so I know it’s never a simple process. Us managers would love it to be. You’re talking about one of the greats of this club. There’s got to be some torment and turmoil on either side. So while it would have been great to have it clarified earlier, I didn’t feel like that was going to happen. It was always going to be borderline.

The one thing we’ve tried to stay strong on is we don’t want to go into the first game with stuff undecided, because then it gets even murkier. It’s happened, hopefully we’ll get confirmation over the next few hours and we can move forwards and so can Harry.

Do you have any reassurances that you'll have the money to spend?

I don’t need assurances. We’ve been working on that premise already. Nothing has changed from today, or yesterday. We’ve had a clear idea of what we wanted to do in terms of bringing in players. There still needs to be some movement out. Within that context, we’ll wait again to see how this unfolds. There are still areas we need to do business. But that’s not because of what happened today. That’s been planned from day one.

What does a successful season look like for you?

The same thing it looked like for me yesterday. Nothing changes. We'll try to build a team that hopefully plays football that excites our fans and brings success to this football club and the ultimate measure will be our fans.

They will tell me whether they're satisfied with what I've done. That will soon be relayed to the people here and to you guys and that will happen as a running measure of how we're going. I'm not putting any specific goals on it. What I want to achieve is a football team that excites our fans.

Harry wasn't able to bring Spurs fans trophies so what does your team in the post-Harry Kane era need to do to change that?

I think that's a little bit unfair on Harry as well. They've got close a couple of times but that's the reality of this business that until you lift the trophy, that kind of thing is always sort of branded against you.

That doesn't diminish his contribution and I think it's only fair that on a day like today that our supporters do have a sense of mourning and less because irrespective of the lack of success at the club he has been a hero to them and he will continue to be so. Again him going doesn't change my vision of what I'm trying to bring to this football club.

It's fairly obvious that a club of this stature has to find a way to win things. I think you can do that in many different ways. I have a very specific way of trying to bring success to a football club and that is playing the game a certain way and that is what I'm going to focus on and that's all I've ever done in my career is to get my teams to play in a certain way because I know it brings success and that's my challenge here as well.

Hopefully moving forward, not just the fans but the players and everyone involved at this football club will see that the road we've embarked on will give us the opportunity for success because it's all you can do. You can try to put yourself up here to try to be successful. Nothing is guaranteed but we want to be in a position where we can bring success to this football club.

Will the club and the fans give your project more time knowing that Harry isn't here now and he was such a big player for the club?

I don't know if you lot are going to be that forgiving to give me some more time. I think it's just the nature of football these days. The reality is that it does take time but none of us know how much we have.

I've worked on that premise my whole career. I've gone into every job thinking I'll be there for life but knowing I won't be. So when that end date is who knows, but that's not going to affect what I'm going to try to put in place, and I don't expect people cut me slack or give me time if I'm just bumbling along or making mistake after mistake.

Then it's evidence. That's always the best way forward if you want to move forward and build something sustainable that lasts a bit longer if along the way people can see progress rather than me just telling them it's going to come after three months, six months or 12 months.

If they can see it and feel it then that buys you the time because they can actually see what you're saying happening, rather than me saying 'can I have an extra six months because Harry's gone?'.

Why should they give me six months if I'm not doing my job. Hopefully they see that I'm doing that anyway and then they should give me another six months, another year, because they like what they see and we're closer to where we want to be.

What's your message to the fans as they process it all?

I'm not going to tell them how to feel. They need to go through that process themselves and I guess for me and the players what's really important now is that when they see their team play that fills them with hope and potential that we can build something they're going to be proud of.

So I'm just really reticent to tell people how they should feel. If they're not feeling great about things then that's their right. There's probably a reason for that and a good reason for that. What I want to do is hopefully give them something tangible on the field that excites them and if we do that then they'll find their own way to get to the point where we're all united and feeling good about the prospects of the football club.

Is Richarlison fit and as Brazil's number nine and relishing that tag, do you think he will relish this chance to step up into Harry's place?

Yeah, he's fit. There's no issues with him. He didn't feature against Shakhtar but to be honest he was never really going to. I was going to play two different XIs. He picked up a slight knock in training and he got through the Barca game really well.

Richy is a fantastic player and I said before he's got some really strong attributes that fit in well with the way my team is set up. He's a hard worker for the team and apart from doing the stuff he needs to in front of goal there are other aspects of his game.

He's represented his country at a World Cup which is not an insignificant thing and sometimes when things like this happen, opportunity exists and it's up to somebody to step through that door. That's Richy or anyone else. That's all you can ask for in football, just to have that opportunity.

I wouldn't be expecting one player, and it's not the way we'll be set up, to cover the absence of Harry. It's about the collective and how we can become a really strong offensive force with the players we have. We have some really fantastic attacking players and Richy is one of them.

How excited are you about your first Premier League game?


I'm looking forward to it. Every new challenge, the beginning is always exciting. That's the way I see them and when the real stuff starts, in the league, you know that you're up and running. I'm looking forward to it.

We'll have two or three who will be making their debut potentially and I'm sure they will be excited as well.

All us managers are deep down eternal optimists and I'm sure there are 20 Premier League managers who are looking forward to their first game and we'll assess our feelings after the first game and see how many of us are still bullish about it.

I bloody love him

 

[chas vs dave]

unfortunately i'm just getting 'we'

Mines a wrap around....

 

[Bluto Blutarsky]

I'm getting "welcome to spurs Ange, to dare is to didgeridoo" tattooed on my member....

I continue to be amazed at what they can do with micro-tattoos these days.

 

[Tucker]

Bumped in to a player the other day

He said it was toxic under conte, and the players are loving Woking under ange.

Which fits all the ITK.


Conte was a great manager but massive tW£%

I think deep down we all knew Conte was a toxic person and disaster waiting to happen. We’d seen what he was like at all his other jobs. But we were all so desperate for success that we pretended it would be different this time.

Conte is a fucking joy thief.

 

[yido_number1]

I will be shocked if Ange doesn't bring us silverware. He just has "it".

Ange definitely does have it. I don't think he will be the reason if we don't win anything.

 

[yido_number1]

I think deep down we all knew Conte was a toxic person and disaster waiting to happen. We’d seen what he was like at all his other jobs. But we were all so desperate for success that we pretended it would be different this time.

Conte is a fucking joy thief.

Let the Conte shit go, FFS it's weird and so counter productive. Every thread is conte this, mourinho that. Let's just enjoy Ange.

 

[Jlimbac0]

I like what he said about everything. The Perisic comments were interesting.

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

I think deep down we all knew Conte was a toxic person and disaster waiting to happen. We’d seen what he was like at all his other jobs. But we were all so desperate for success that we pretended it would be different this time.

Conte is a fucking joy thief.

Speak for yourself. I was on his case from day one, to the extent that some senior posters on here still have me on ignore.

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

I like what he said about everything. The Perisic comments were interesting.

What did he say about Perisic?

 

[PaulThurston]

I like what he said about everything. The Perisic comments were interesting.

Yeah, me too. There's a lot of talk about which players fit Ange's system but he just seems to be looking at them all individually and finding them a role.

 

[ultimateloner]

I just hope he gets backing even when we under-perform last season.
Personally I wouldn't want to see him gone at least until after Xmas, and that's only if relegation is a threat.
I think of all our managers in recent memory, he has by far the hardest job.

 

[Tucker]

Speak for yourself. I was on his case from day one, to the extent that some senior posters on here still have me on ignore.

Yeah there were one or two who knew all along. I actually think Conte was more damaging to the club than Mourinho. Anyway, like someone else said, we should be looking forward to life under Postecoglou now. There are plenty of reasons to be excited. Even on a day as depressing as this one.

 

[Finchyid]

What a great interview.....the look mate and giving my wife a shopping list....His interviews are gonna top viewing

 

[SonicSarr]

I think deep down we all knew Conte was a toxic person and disaster waiting to happen. We’d seen what he was like at all his other jobs. But we were all so desperate for success that we pretended it would be different this time.

Conte is a fucking joy thief.

Can we please bring some positivity back. Squad is shaping up nicely, manager seems great, Levy has played a blinder. What are people getting so negative about all the time?

It is the start of the season, the time of optimism. Cry if it goes wrong, not because you think you know it will.

 

[hughy]

I like what he said about everything. The Perisic comments were interesting.

I'm hoping we get the Perisic this season which we thought we'd get last season. I don't think he'll start as many matches, but coming on as a sub in an advanced role his delivery from open play could be a difference maker towards the end of games.

 

[DJS]

Speak for yourself. I was on his case from day one, to the extent that some senior posters on here still have me on ignore.

Who said that?

 

[Bluto Blutarsky]

I like what he said about everything. The Perisic comments were interesting.

It's been kind of hard to ignore Perisic this pre-season. Fit and firing in the left-wing role. I can see him getting lots of minutes and starts this season.

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

Yeah there were one or two who knew all along. I actually think Conte was more damaging to the club than Mourinho. Anyway, like someone else said, we should be looking forward to life under Postecoglou now. There are plenty of reasons to be excited. Even on a day as depressing as this one.

I can look forward, appreciate the moment and still hate Conte. Proper multitasker, me.