Every word Ange Postecoglou said on any further Tottenham transfers and why no new centre
What's the latest team news?
Main ones, I guess, Dom Solanke is close but we'll err on the side of caution, he won't play on the weekend with the international week, we've made a decision to wait until after that. Bentancur's all good, he's trained well, gone through all the protocols and most important he feels good training-wise. Richy pulled up sore, I think there's a muscle injury there, we're just getting more information but he'll be out as well.
Is that it in terms of incomings?
Yeah, I think so. Unless something surprising jumps out at us in the last 11 hours or whatever it is, that's it for us.
What did you make of the Europa League draw?
Exciting. Good to be a part of it and some good games. I'm sure I'll get a warm reception at Ibrox, they'll be looking forward to seeing me.
If nothing else happens, are you happy with the squad?
If nothing else happens, there's a couple probably will be moving out, I think it's been another positive window for. You want to go into every window and come out the other side of it in a stronger sense and I certainly feel that. The players we've brought in are already making a short-term impact and even in the longer-term, I think they're going to be really good contributors for us. I certainly think we've got a more well-rounded squad to deal with Europe, the extra games and whatever injuries we have. So yeah, I think it's been a real positive window.
It's your third transfer window, are you happy overall?
I'm very happy. We've done a hell of a lot of work in 12 months, three windows. No doubts the squad's change. The demographic of the squad has changed, the suitability to the football I want to play, we're much better equipped for that. There's growth in the team, absolutely. We need to do some fairly major work 12 months ago, and since we've gone a long way to getting the team to where we want to. There's still more work to be done. It was never going to happen quickly. I don't think it should happen quickly. When it does happen quickly, you're more fraught to getting it wrong. So I think we're in a good place.
It's Yves Bissouma's birthday, what do you want to see from him?
I don't want to be too flippant about it because we've said all along this is about trying to guide Biss so he becomes the best version of himself, both on and off the field. There's no doubting his qualities as a player. From the moment I arrive, every time he's been fit, he's played. That's how highly I rate him. But at the same time, we feel there's areas of his game he can improve, just around his discipline, his positioning, the way he plays the game.
There's a correlation to off-field as well. He's been really focused since the incident. I think him not playing that first game really hurt him as it should. You can fine players but when they don't play, they feel it more. He doesn't want to be in that position again. He knows that not just for himself but for the whole group, we need him to be at his best so he can contribute to the team and he'll only do that if he continues to show the same focus and discipline that he has.
How pleased have you been with James Maddison's start?
Yeah he has been good Madders, really good. I think I said last week when Madders is physically in a good place and he really is, his training is excellent, it's consistent. We know he is such a creative force in this league, he's done it for many years and it's great to have him back up and running. He has been excellent in the first two games and I can see in him he wants to take his game up another level. Hopefully he can.
With the Newcastle results last year, what can you take from them?
A bit of a contrast. Here at home we did really well against them, but fair to say up there we didn't. It was a good learning curve for us that game because we started OK, but we conceded and lost probably for the first time all year our composure in a game. We allowed them to score quickly and we know what it is like up there. The crowd create a brilliant atmosphere for their team and we just didn't handle it at all well. It is a good learning curve for all our players. Obviously we want to learn from that, but it's still a tough game. Any time you go up and play Newcastle, it's a tough game. They have some outstanding players in their team, they're well coached and it will be a great challenge for us.
You bemoaned last year the lack of games, how happy are you to have the extra eight European games?
Yeah, absolutely. I said on a number of occasions where people were trying to steer me towards the fact less games means we're fresher for the league and in some respects that works, but it doesn't work when like us we have a lot of injuries and we're putting in players who didn't have a lot of football. Whereas now, it allows with the fixtures to get into a rhythm of knowing we have two games a week pretty much until the end of January for the most part.
Players within the whole squad will get utilised so if we do have injuries we're not throwing in someone who hasn't played for six or seven weeks. It allows you to get into a rhythm and yeah it means less training time, but they've gone through a good training block leading into this international window that sets us up for the rest of the year. I much prefer having a programme like we have now than what we faced last year.
Are you a fan of new Europa League format?
Yeah, it's interesting. I think it will be an interesting concept. A couple of extra games, the league format. It is a different dynamic in the group stages where maybe after three games the whole thing was done and dusted where as I think it will be alive a lot more now right until probably the eighth game because teams are fighting for a position. I think there will be less dead-rubbers in European football, which I don't think is a bad thing, so happy to see how it works.
Son and Davies have been here a long time, what do those players give to you as a manager?
It is a bit of a rare occurrence, particularly at big clubs where players stay for that length of time, but credit to both of those guys. They've stayed at this club and played under numerous top managers who have all rated them very highly to keep them at the club. They are both great guys, they understand what the football club is about and it's great when you have 18-years-olds walking into a dressing room and probably two of the first people who will go and greet them are Sonny and Ben. I am quite comfortable in them being their first points of contact because they are outstanding people apart from being fantastic footballers. I think it is great and only right they get heralded for not just their longevity, but the service they have provided.
There's an important deadline day tomorrow – are you ready to get Oasis tickets?
Yeah, I'll be queuing up, mate. No, great band, great music. Not on my radar at the moment thanks.
What's your favourite song?
Erm, Wonderwall.
With Giovani Lo Celso and Sergio Reguilon, what's the latest on them? Could they go in the other league's windows next week?
Yeah true. I'm not really sure, it's fair to say both players are exploring options. I don't get too involved in that part of it, that's between players, players' representatives and the club. But as you said, there's other windows open as well, so we'll see what activity there is, but they're both exploring options.
When you joined Spurs did you know how much work was needed, why so important to get them out as well as in?
You never really know until you're right into it I guess. You can never assess players until you've worked with them. It's fair to say, it was a fair departure from the way the club was playing its football to the way I wanted to play, good, bad or otherwise, it's just different. It was a team that was naturally coming to the end of a cycle anyway. A team that almost had great success in terms of that era of players. It was kind of coming. So the combination of me coming in with a different approach and also the end of a cycle. I knew there'd be some... to put it in gardening terms mate, it wasn't about pruning. It was a bit more than that. Not that I'm a gardener, I've got no idea what I just said. So we had to do some major work.
I've said before, part of that process is you need to get players out just to create the space for others to come in. Sometimes it's not even a judgement on the player as such. You could keep that player around, but that means I can't bring somebody else in. So you're always looking to... Contracts is an obvious one. Who's coming to the end of a contract, or the last two years of a contract, because they're more likely to be able to move rather than others. So all those kind of things. There's a lot of things that you put out as a framework of how much you can change a squad, in one, two ,three , four windows.
I think we've just about gone to the maximum in terms of turnover, without it affecting competitiveness. Because obviously we finished fifth last year, which was a decent outcome for us in terms of where we were. But you don't want to be doing this and finishing eighth or tenth or falling off the top half of the table. It's always a balancing act. But like I said, I feel we've done the maximum we could without it disrupting our competitiveness. It's not finished by any stretch. But I'm happy that we've stuck to the plan, in terms of discipline, of just bringing players who we think can contribute short-term, long-term but also synergy with the football we want to play. And not get too caught up in being in any rush to fast-track a process.
Is that risky?
Yeah there is. But there's risk in everything. There's no sure path in any which way you go. All I've got to rely on is my knowledge and my history in the game, that wherever I've been - and wherever I've been I've had to overhaul squads - there's a process I go through which for the most part works.
That's what I've got to rely on. In terms of that I'm not just saying 'well let's just get rid of 10 players and bring in 10 players'. It's a bit more hopefully methodical than that. So that we try and get as many right as we can. You're never going to get them all right. I think that's the other fallacy about transfers, that you've got to have a 100% hit rate. That's impossible. Because if you're bringing in every player in, and they're great, there's only 11 positions in the time.
So there's always going to be guys who are going to miss out. If you've got a really good transfer policy, it probably means that's at about 70 or 80%, there's always going to be a 20 or 30% attrition rate just because you've got everyone right. That's the measurements I want to work with. While there is risk, I think you can mitigate risk with that process.
Do you feel like you've been backed in this window?
Yeah. Yeah.
In terms of the age profile, was that always the explicit plan from the start and how important is that to the club?
Well, it was definitely part of my plan because I think when you're trying to build or rebuild a team, you've got to...look, all managers hope they're there for the long-term, but the reality is that you don't know how long you'll be there, but I've always tried to build teams that will last over a cycle which is, you know, three, four, five years.
It's just a natural consequence of that. You're looking at a younger demographic, a team that will grow, that will improve, that will adapt to the challenges ahead. So, like I said, when I got here it was a team that, even from a demographic point point of view, looked like it was at the end of a cycle.
A lot of players who had had great careers but were either ready to move on or getting to the end of it. So that combination with a different approach for me, it was definitely part of it to go younger.
There's a lot of guys at the club now, who are aged between 18 and 23, how does that change the feel around the place, and how does it change your job?
It doesn't really change my job, but, you know, I guess young people bring an energy to it, and they're they're excited to be here. They're excited to be at this football club, excited to be playing in the Premier League, I guess, and excited by the challenge ahead. And I think it's a good environment they've come into because the senior players we do have are all guys who are still very, very motivated and ambitious as well.
And I think it allows them to grow together. You know that they're all kind of in that similar part of their careers, which invariably you're going to have challenges individually and collectively. And I think if they experience them together, it allows them, I think, to overcome those in a better way.
Is it easier to teach your style of football to a younger player?
No, it depends. It just depends on the player. It depends on the mindset of the player. I think Sonny is as much a willing learner as Archie Gray. I think it just comes down to the individual. I think it is sometimes easier with younger players because obviously they're a little bit more open to maybe doing things a different way.
But I think in the current climate of you know where the world's at with young people, you still you know, it's not like me I just tell them what to do and they do it. I think those days are long gone. There still needs to be a narrative of why we're doing what we're doing, and young players now want to be coached. They definitely want the information.
They want to know why I'm asking them to do certain things, but again, I enjoy that aspect of it.
Looking at the centre-backs from the outside, last season after Davinson Sanchez left you had three natural centre-backs remaining and other players filling in and now it feels like, in terms of numbers, you've swapped Radu Dragusin for Eric Dier and you're in the same position, was there ever a temptation to sign another natural centre-back?
No, and I don't think we're in the same position. I think Radu is a different proposition for us, and certainly with Archie coming into the group and Djed probably not being in the plans initially, but now in I think we're in a much different position than we were last year.
We've got Ben Davies as well, obviously, who can play at centre back or at left back. But again, I mean, that's the discipline of it. Yeah, we can go out and sign another centre back, but if the right player's not there, I'm not going to do it. It's as simple as that. I'm not, I never have, I never will.
For me, it's about getting the right people in and there wasn't an opportunity for us to bring in someone who I thought was going to add to our group, so we don't do it. We've got Ashley Phillips, we've got young Luka Vuskovic available next year. Two young centre-backs.
I don't want to block their pathway by doing something now. It might look from the outside, like we've got another player, but if that player is not going to be suitable to what we're doing and not going fit in, why would I bring them in and potentially block the path for somebody else.
How frustrating is it with Richarlison, for him and you, that he just hasn't seem to find any rhythm since coming to Spurs?
Yeah, that's it and that's a challenge, I guess. It's something we've got to look at again. He's been in that cycle for quite a while and predating me, I guess. We've put a lot of thought [into it], we took a really sort of conservative approach with him. He didn't play in any of the preseason games, and he's really only played 20 minutes of first team football.
But again, obviously he's had a setback. So it's something we just got to go back with Richy and work through the steps now of getting him back up and running, because you know, when he's fit, , he's such a handful. Even last week that 20 minutes he played, you can see the options he gives us in that position. But like you said, it's frustrating probably for him as much as anyone else but frustrating for us, too.
But that's the reason we brought Dom in, but obviously he picked up an injury in the first couple of games, but again it's something we'll work with Richy on.
If Lo Celso and Reguilon don't move on, do you have to integrate them back into your squad or does it become a little bit of a problem for you?
No, they don't have to get integrated back to the squad. It's their decisions. It's pretty clear where they sit in terms of where we are as a squad and where we are as a team, but, you know, I've never been one to force people out. They've got decisions about their own careers and what they want to do, and if they're still here, they're still here. We'll work around that scenario, but it certainly won't affect the way we work in the first team.
