Tottenham Hotspurs boss Ange Postecoglou talks on the rate of manager's being sacked after a short tenure at clubs saying that "I maybe a dinosaur but i still believe in legacy coaching". Ange wants to build something sustainable at Spurs to get them to the stage of being constant contenders for trophies.
18/12/2024
Tottenham Hotspurs Training Ground, London, UK
18/12/2024
Tottenham Hotspurs Training Ground, London, UK
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00:00When you took this job, I presume it was just about previous years
00:05and what would have happened and how the fans have vocalised it.
00:10Can't it be a surprise when things are going not as smoothly as you'd hope?
00:17That's a brilliant head game.
00:19I guess my question is, were you expecting that at the first sign of an issue?
00:25Oh, look, I think you just deal with it as I've always done.
00:28It's not my first experience.
00:30I think it was the first maybe two or three games at Celtic
00:35they were throwing tennis balls on the pitch,
00:37but in protest, actually, it disrupted games.
00:39So it's not the first time I've had to face this kind of thing.
00:42I always feel my role in that is, again,
00:44it's not telling people what to do,
00:48but it's hopefully trying to guide the football club
00:51into a place where all these things can be resolved in a secondary way
00:59where the focus, particularly on match day,
01:01is just on us winning games of football.
01:03And I think that's always been, I always felt that's been my role
01:07and that's what I've tried to do my whole career.
01:09Like I said, it's not the first time I've kind of been in a club
01:12where there's disenchantment with, you know,
01:14whether it's a board or an owner or some aspect of a football club.
01:21The reason I don't take positions on this
01:23is because I think my more important function
01:26is to make sure that, you know,
01:29the football side of the football club I'm involved in
01:33is guiding us forward rather than sort of the other way around.
01:37Because I just think there's no real, you know,
01:40there's no real kind of benefit in any other focus
01:46for me being as the manager of this football club
01:49as just me putting my energies into convincing people
01:52one way or another about anything,
01:55whether that's fans or the board or the media.
01:59I think what we do on the field,
02:02particularly on match days, is of primary importance.
02:05It feels like it's more of a frustration from the lack of focus.
02:09It seems to be a primary factor.
02:11This is a, I think, a primary effort.
02:14This is a chance.
02:15I mean, whilst your focus is on yourself and the team,
02:19do you feel like that's winning a good side of the field?
02:23Well, it's the unknown, isn't it, Tom?
02:27If I go on the general sentiment since I've been in this job,
02:34it feels like a trophy will just, like,
02:37make this place transform into something.
02:40So, let's see.
02:44Me, personally, like I keep saying, I want more than that.
02:47I just don't think it's just about getting a trophy.
02:50I think when you want to build a successful, sustainable club
02:54in terms of competing for trophies every year,
02:57it's more than that.
02:58But it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong about something,
03:04even whilst being in this job,
03:05that maybe a trophy is what it needs.
03:07I don't know.
03:08And just finally, when you were talking about last month
03:10and Gary Hill, it kind of goes against
03:13what you were talking about in terms of building something.
03:17What gives you confidence that you're going to have that kind of success?
03:21It could be confidence, could be naivety, could be I don't care.
03:28What sort of, whether people, whether I'm allowed to see it out,
03:32I'm just not going to change.
03:33Look, I kind of may be a dinosaur in that,
03:37but I still believe in legacy coaching.
03:39I still believe in doing things that will last and make a difference.
03:45And it goes in the face of everything else
03:47that's happening in the world of football.
03:48I mean, you guys will know better than me,
03:50I don't know what the average tenure of a Premier League manager is,
03:52but I'd hazard to guess it'd be less than 18 months probably.
03:56I see very rarely managers going beyond their second year
04:00unless they've won something
04:03or the club's stuck by them for some particular reason.
04:07But I just, you know, I keep saying I kind of feel blessed
04:14that I'm kind of, you know, at the stage of my career where I am,
04:17where, you know, I'm just not interested in any other kind of methodology
04:23in terms of coaching, of just going in and, you know,
04:26winning something and then moving on and then winning something else.
04:29It's, you know, I still believe in the things I enjoy,
04:34like I said, stuff that lasts.
04:36And no one's found a way yet to do that in a quick manner.
04:43No one has in one year or in two years built something that's sustainable.
04:48They've had success, but then it usually falls apart pretty quickly after.
04:51So I'm not going to sort of change who I am at this stage of my career,
04:57but if I was starting out, I'd probably, I've got no doubt,
05:01I'd have a different mindset.
05:04You'd go in as a firefighter, you'd just go,
05:05you know what, I'll get some results, just get this club up and running,
05:09you know, think it's not going to last more than maybe two years
05:14and see what my next move's going to be.
05:19Can you tell us more about Destiny, was that just fatigue then?
05:22Yeah, yeah, he's probably the only one we haven't given a rest to.
05:27So he actually wanted to continue on the night,
05:30but obviously the game had started well, so we took him off.
05:34Yeah, it's just fatigue and, you know, again,
05:37the reality is if he plays tomorrow night, he won't play Sunday or vice versa,
05:41because he's one of the few,
05:43we've managed to give Pedro a bit of a rest on the other side.
05:46I mean, the full-back positions are pretty demanding for us.
05:49But Destiny, every time I've kind of wanted to,
05:53he's had to play Europe because obviously Jed's not available for Europe,
05:57and since Ben's been out, he's just played every game, so it's just fatigue.
06:00You had him on the bench for a couple of games, but he wasn't there.
06:04Yeah, he had a dental or tooth extraction that kept him out of the weekend,
06:10so he was bedridden, but he's back available.
06:14Is he someone who's probably going to leave you next month?
06:18I was just wondering if you brought Jed back into the team.
06:22Well, he's available, yeah, so he's available for selection,
06:25and again, tomorrow apart, we'll get Biss back,
06:28but apart from that, that still means everyone else is out,
06:31so he'll definitely be back in the squad
06:35and the opportunity to use him here,
06:37because again, we'll have probably only four first-team players
06:40on the subs bench, of which he'll be one.
06:45Just to pick up on a couple of things,
06:47you said how important it is for the crowd to get behind your team.
06:50Conversely, have you experienced in your career
06:52when negative reaction from the crowd has impacted the team?
06:56Does it impact when there's sort of a noise around,
06:59on the pitch?
07:01I think it does in terms of, like I said,
07:04when you play at home, I think it can be a major advantage
07:07when the support is all aligned
07:15with everything else in the football club, for sure.
07:18It does help, but at the same time,
07:22you can't mandate that, you can't tell people how to feel,
07:25as I keep saying.
07:27If there are sort of fractures in that,
07:36then of course you're not getting the maximum out of you,
07:39you can't lock anything else in your organisation.
07:45It can have an effect.
07:47At the same time, we as the people out there,
07:52particularly the players and myself on game day,
07:55we've got to be able to still maintain the level of performance
08:00to get the job done, irrespective.
08:02Hopefully that means that we bring everyone along on the journey.
08:07One other thing about Russell Martin,
08:09just striking on the outside,
08:10it just seems a bit cruel that he gets wheeled in post-match,
08:13has to stand up in front of the cameras
08:15and get sacked ten minutes later.
08:17As a fellow manager, do you get that feeling too?
08:21Do you think that was wrong?
08:23Is there a good way of doing it?
08:26I really don't know.
08:28It's such...
08:32I don't know, we've lost all sort of...
08:39...modes of respect in our society
08:42where guys are in jobs and they're putting up names
08:47of who's going to replace them while they're still working.
08:50I mean, it's just...
08:53We've crossed that line now and it's pretty much open slated.
08:58You can do it whatever you like.
09:00You can do it in any way you like
09:01and no-one's going to say anything about the fact
09:03that a man who, whether it's Russell or Gary,
09:10I'm pretty sure 24-7 have just done everything in their power
09:16to, you know...
09:19It's not for the want of trying and they're families
09:22and yet, you know, we're just so...
09:27As a society, we're just so quick to just throw people
09:31in the trash and just, like, move on really quickly
09:34with no thought or any care around it.
09:37I said, I mean, I don't know if there's a good way
09:40or best way of handling...
09:43It's why I've left before it's ever happened to me, mate.
09:46I kind of jump out before that comes my way.
09:51So, but it's...
09:53I guess it's just, like I said, we've crossed that line now.
09:56I think it's open slather and I get people say,
09:58well, managers have always been sacked,
10:00but I just think now it's gone beyond that
10:03where we forget there's a human being involved.
10:06This job is the hardest job now.
10:09In any walk of life, we say politically,
10:12it's harder than any job because, like I said,
10:14the tenure and the longevity of this role now
10:18means that you go into it,
10:21very few are going to come out of it without any scars.
10:27I don't mind as a...
10:29Oh, yeah. Oh, mate, come on.
10:32I mean, how many times...
10:34He has an election, whatever, for whatever he is.
10:37I have one every weekend, mate.
10:40That's what I'm saying, mate.
10:41We have an election every weekend
10:43and I either get voted in or out.
10:45Well, good. Thanks, guys.