S Poddar
Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou reacted to the backlash he received after saying he usually gets trophy wins in his second season with a different team. Postecoglou made the comments after the Spurs 1-0 loss to Arsenal, which left him “a bit bemused” by the furious response from people offended by his boasts.
The 59-year-old Australian added, during the interview with Sky Sports: “I’ll correct myself – I don’t usually win things. I always win things in my second year. Nothing’s changed,” he repeated before Spurs are set to face Coventry in the Carabao Cup, saying: “It’s amazing, isn’t it? I just stated a fact. Am I supposed to just lie or just say it never happened?
Various quarters have criticized the comments by Postecoglou, but still, he is still racking his brain over it. “But do you really think it’s me sort of boasting?” he asked. “It’s just confusing to me that people are making a big deal out of something. I’m not sure how I’m supposed to answer something that is true. I’ve just said something that’s true and it seems like it’s upset a lot of people for some reason.”
Form has been somewhat of a mixed bag for Tottenham and the current performance of the side under Pochettino, who managed to place them fifth in the Premier League last season after being in a mid-season slump, leaves them currently at 13th so far with only one victory in their opening four games of this season. The club’s last title was before the current campaign in the League Cup of the 2008 season and also marks their only victory since the beginning of the 21st century.
Interestingly, Postecoglou has a successful history of winning things in his second season at previous clubs. He won the Australian title with South Melbourne and Brisbane Roar, the Japanese league with Yokohama F Marinos, the Asian Cup with Australia, and successive Scottish championships with Celtic-all during his second or second full campaign in charge.
He also talked about an issue concerning the squad. Last week, vice-captain Cristian Romero published a post on social media after returning from international duty on a commercial flight saying that he was tired, while some teammates returned on private jets. International federations arrange travel, and sometimes clubs interfere in such cases.
Questions were there regarding Romero’s performance against Arsenal. Postecoglou said that Romero had reported no problems before the match and confirmed he was not rushed back into the game. “No, it was mentioned to me [after] but it wasn’t mentioned to me before the game,” he said. “No-one reported anything other than the usual checks of people coming back from international duty, so prior to the game no-one said anything.”
He also laid blame on the bigger demands made on players because of the international calendar. “The international calendar is really putting some strenuous demands on footballers performing at the highest level,” he pointed out. “It is something we need to have a look at from a holistic view, but it is not really relevant to the current situation.”
We’re pushing the envelope of what we are asking of players today, if we want elite performance at every position and always having guys available, he said. “I think we are bursting at the seams with what we are requiring of our players, absolutely.”.
It has all the deep information on what Postecoglou has to say on not only his comments on winning trophies but also the players he says face serious challenges in this demanding football environment.
