Ange Postecoglou wins trophies in his second season wherever he goes — it’s a simple matter of fact, cemented by Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-0 victory over Manchester United in the Europa League final on Wednesday.
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Below is the latest Ange Postecoglou reaction, as the Spurs boss spoke after lifting the trophy in Bilbao.
Ange Postecoglou reaction
“I can’t put it into words to be honest. I know I’m at an amazing football club with amazing supporters. It’s no secret it’s been a tough year, but I’ve just had this things inside me the back half of the year — one focus, one target. I just felt this was it. To achieve it today… I know what it means to the club, it’s had the tag of a nearly team for a long time. The only way you break that is by winning things, and we did that today.”
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“I’m really hoping it changes the way the club sees itself more than anything else. Externally, you can’t really adjust whatever people think about you, but how you feel about yourself is really important. As a football club, you’ve been close so many times and I could feel the nervousness in Europe, every time we got close to something — there was always this ‘what if it’s another year we miss out.’ We’ve done it now, so that’s the monkey off the back, so the club can stand tall and hopefully look at itself a bit differently. We’ve won one now, so there’s nothing stopping you winning again.”
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“I made the decision after the transfer window that this was the trophy to go for. Everything I have done, from training to decisions, was to be for the best possible chance in Europe. That has come at a cost. I just felt the end game was more important.”
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“I’m pretty… relaxed is not the word, because I’d be pretty disappointed if we weren’t able to continue this. I understand it’s difficult to trust in one man’s vision. I know Daniel said once ‘we’ve had a lot of winners and now we’ve got Ange’. Mate I’m a winner.
Whatever happens, my own sort of belief in what I do doesn’t waver, and I’ll keep pushing on to do what I do.”
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“It’s been the toughest couple of years I’ve had in my career and I knew it going into it, because I knew what I was going into. This football club has had world-class managers a lot better credentialed than I am, and haven’t been able to get this. I knew I had a massive challenge in front of me, added stress of the injury situation. I’ve just had this laser focus on, ‘I believe we can win something this year.’”
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“People misinterpreted [the quote about winning trophies in the second season.] It was not me boasting, just me making a declaration and I believed it. I had this thing inside me more than anything else.”
Captain Heung-min Son, on delivering a trophy after 17 years
“Let’s say I’m a legend, why not? Only today. 17 years, nobody has done it, so today let’s say with amazing players probably a legend of the club.
“This is what I’ve always dreamed for. Today is the day it happened. I am the happiest man in the world. When you look at the whole season there will always be some situation you have a tough time, but we as players always stuck together.
“I felt the pressure. I wanted it so badly. The last seven days I was dreaming about this game every night. It finally happened and I can sleep easy now.”
Brennan Johnson, on ending the trophy drought and scoring the winning goal
“I’m so happy right now. This season has not been good at all, not one of us players care about that now. This team has not won a trophy for 17 years, it means so much.
“All the fans get battered, we get battered for not winning a trophy. We had to get the first one. I’m so happy. Ever since I came here it has been, ‘Tottenham — good team but can’t get it done,’ but we got it done.
“I knew I touched it a bit [for the goal], but not clean, then I looked up and the ball was trickling in the goal.
"[In the last five minutes] I couldn’t watch. I was just asking, ‘How long left?’ When we defended that corner, I was getting told it was done and the relief is something I can’t describe.”
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"[Ange] has done his job. He said he wins in the second year and he has. If there’s ever a time for a mic drop, it’s now.”
Micky van de Ven, on Spurs’ belief to win the Europa League
“We always believed in this squad. Everyone kept believing even if we had a tough season.”
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“I saw the ball come in. I had to go to the goal and I wondered how I would do this, but I just cleared it. My back… the ground over there is not soft.
“Unbelievable feeling. It was a tough season for myself also with injury.”