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Ange Postecoglou has explained the reason for not signing Ivan Toney, saying that he wanted Dominic Solanke more.

Toney was heavily linked with a move to north London as uncertainty over his Brentford future grew over the course of the previous Premier League campaign.

In the end Spurs opted to sign Solanke from Bournemouth in a deal worth £65million.

This came after he racked up 21 goals in all competitions for the Cherries last term.

That paved the way for Toney to complete a lucrative move of his own, joining Saudi Arabian side Al Ahli for a fee of £40m.

Explaining Tottenham's decision not to sign Toney, Postecoglou said: "We looked at him, but the reality was that Dom [Solanke] is the one that I wanted.

“It took the whole summer to get him in, but he was the one that fitted the profile that we wanted.”

While Toney will be hoping to make a success of himself in Saudi Arabia, Solanke is still bedding into life in north London.

Solanke has endured a tricky start to life with Tottenham, with his new team winning just one of three fixtures he's played in.

Without a goal to his name, the 27-year-old will be desperate to open his account for the Lilywhites when they face Brentford on Saturday evening - LIVE and EXCLUSIVE on talkSPORT 2.

But discussing Solanke, Postecoglou only had positive things to say.

“He’s settled in really well,” Postecoglou said in his pre-match press conference on Friday.

“There’s plenty more to come from him, because he got injured. He’s only played two-and-a-bit games for us.

“He just needs to get some games under his belt.

"But what I’ve seen in the games he has played, he’s going to be a real asset for us.

"I’ve got no doubt he’ll be a great contributor.”

Jamie O’Hara has jokingly called for Ange Postecoglou to bring him back to Tottenham after pulling off a flip flap in a game of 5-a-side.

When he’s not hosting talkSPORT shows, the former Spurs midfielder and boyhood fan still gets his boots on.

And in his latest Instagram post, the 37-year-old showed he’s not afraid of showboating still, posting a clip of him doing his opponent with a move Ronaldinho would have been proud of.

Passing the ball round the defender and fooling him by darting the other way round him to reach it, O’Hara won the ball and crossed it across the box for his teammate to fire into the net.

“I’ve still got it,” O’Hara wrote as the caption along with three crying laughing faces.

“Sent him for a hotdog, they still can’t deal with the flip flap.

“Ange give me 4 weeks to get fit I’ll do job.”

O’Hara, if you couldn’t tell, was pretty chuffed with himself.

And he had a huge grin on his face as the camera panned in on him after the goal.

Fans in the comments of his video loved it, too.

“Straight in to the Tottenham 11 in place of madders,” one fan wrote, joking Spurs should bring O’Hara in to replace James Maddison.

A second added: “Sign him up.”

“Sent him for a Hotdog in a f******* taxi,” a third added.

O’Hara came through Tottenham’s youth ranks after switching from Arsenal.

He made his senior Spurs debut in 2005, going on to make 56 appearances.

The midfielder bagged seven goals for his club, as well as four assists.

After a series of loans, left permanently for Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2011 for a reported fee of £5million.

Wearing the Tottenham shirt is currently too big of a prospect for Dominic Solanke amid his recent struggles.

That's the view of talkSPORT's Gabby Agbonlahor, who has called for the striker to rediscover his Bournemouth form in north London.

Spurs signed Solanke from Bournemouth this summer in a club record deal worth £55million plus £10million worth of add-ons.

Despite being the Premier League's joint-fourth highest scorer last season on 19 goals, he is yet to net for his new club.

Solanke was unable to make an impact in his third Spurs outing on Wednesday night in their late 2-1 Carabao Cup win over Coventry City.

As a result, talkSPORT's Agbonlahor believes he needs to regain his composure and replicate his scoring success from Bournemouth.

"You know with Solanke, Solanke has just got to like, have a chat with the manager and just calm down," he said to Alan Brazil on Breakfast.

"He looks like he's... the shirt's too big for him at the moment.

"Just remember what you did last season for Bournemouth, you were outstanding, think about the things you were doing last season.

"Holding the ball up, making runs, being strong, being aggressive, getting in the box because, he doesn't want to be that player that you go two or three games without scoring.

"When you're at a new club, the pressure comes on. He got brought off last night again, perfect game at the weekend for him against Brentford at home [live on talkSPORT 2 on Saturday] to hopefully get off the mark."

He added: “The big advice I’d give him is that you’re a top player and there’s a reason why you were bought for big money.

“At Bournemouth he was a menace, he was bullying defenders and putting his body in the way. Just don’t think to yourself that you are at a bigger club now at Spurs that the pressure is on.

“He just needs that first goal now. Ange needs to keep playing him."

Former Spurs boss Tim Sherwood has also offered words of encouragement for Solanke and believes that once he finds his first goal, he'll be 'off and running'.

"Just keeping playing, you know? You're going to play. I would say to him, 'Who else is there at the moment to play ahead of him?'

"Paid big money for him, just give him a conversation and say look, 'No matter what happens today, you're in the team next week. I'm going to persevere with you, I want you to get strikes at goal, be yourself, be like you were when you played for Bournemouth.

"'You've been at big clubs,' he's been at Chelsea, he's been at Liverpool, he never got the opportunity. It's easy to play for Bournemouth, with respect, you know, the teams that are around the mid-table in the Premier League.

"It's a lot harder playing for big clubs but I believe he's got the capability, certainly got the tools to be able to do it, he just needs a goal, get some confidence and he's off and running."

Solanke, who scored 77 goals in 216 appearances for Bournemouth, had an encouraging performance on his Spurs debut in their 1-1 draw against Leicester City.

However, he missed their 3-0 victory over Everton and 2-1 defeat at Newcastle due to an ankle injury.

The 27-year-old returned to the starting XI for the 1-0 north London derby loss to Arsenal as well as their midweek trip to Coventry.

Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou opted to substitute him for Heung-min Son in the 62nd minute before his side turned the tie around.

Their Championship hosts took the lead through Brandon Thomas-Asante and came close to sealing a shock victory.

Spurs levelled the scoring in the 88th minute though thanks to Djed Spence before Brennan Johnson netted their stoppage-time winner.

Tottenham start their pursuit of silverware this season with a trip to the Midlands to face Coventry City in the Carabao Cup, and it's live on talkSPORT 2.

Spurs haven't won anything since lifting the EFL trophy in 2008, but their manager Ange Postecoglou has boldly claimed he will win something this season.

The Australian always wins silverware in his second season at a club, winning league titles with South Melbourne (1997/98) and Brisbane Roar (2010/11), the Japanese league with Yokohama F Marinos (2019), as well as his domestic dominance at Celtic.

Even as Australia's national coach, he claimed the 2015 Asian Cup two years after he took over, with the only exceptions to his streak coming at teams he failed to see out the full two seasons in charge of.

In truth, Spurs could do with a win to boost confidence, never mind think about winning a trophy, after back-to-back league defeats ensured they've made their worst start to a campaign in nine years.

Meanwhile, Coventry reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup last year and were only beaten by Manchester United on penalties, so they will fancy a shock.

However, the Sky Blues haven't started their Championship season very well, sitting in 15th with just one win.

Coventry vs Tottenham: Toothless Tottenham

Tottenham have played four Premier League games so far this year, and the statistics are pretty damning.

They have averaged 68 per cent possession and, bar battering Everton 4-0, have little else to show for it.

In games against Leicester, Newcastle and Arsenal, Postecoglou's side fired in a combined total of 49 shots and walked away with just two goals to show for it, one of which was an own goal.

As a result of this failure to turn possession into goals and results, Tottenham's high line and weakness from set-pieces has been exposed, leaving them with four points.

There is still a long way to go in the season for things to turn around, but Tottenham need to be more clinical.

Coventry City and Spurs have met five times previously in the League Cup, with the Londoners progressing three times to the Sky Blues’ two. Their last meeting was in 2003-04, a 3-0 Spurs win at Highfield Road in the second round.

Tottenham have won their last four games against Coventry in all competitions without conceding a goal, although this is their first clash since the third round of the FA Cup in 2012-13, a 3-0 Spurs victory.

Coventry vs Tottenham: Date and how to follow

This Carabao Cup third-round clash is set to take place on Wednesday, September 18.

Kick-off at the Ricoh Arena is scheduled for 8pm.

talkSPORT 2 will have live coverage of the match, with commentary coming from Ian Danter and former West Ham striker Dean Ashton.

talkSPORT.com will also have all the reaction.

To tune in to talkSPORT through the website, click HERE for the live stream.

You can also listen via the talkSPORT app, on DAB digital radio, through your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.

Coventry are looking to reach the League Cup fourth round for the first time since 2007-08, when they beat Man Utd 2-0 in the third round. Their only appearance in the third round since then was in 2012-13, losing 6-1 to Arsenal in Mark Robins’ first spell as manager.

Spurs have progressed from 16 of their last 17 League Cup ties against sides from outside the Premier League, the exception in the 2019-20 third round when they went out on penalties to Colchester after a goalless draw. The last non-Premier League team to eliminate them without penalties were Grimsby Town in September 2005, a 1-0 win.

Coventry vs Tottenham: Team news

The hosts expect to have Ben Sheaf and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto back in training this week, but they won't make the game.

Joel Latibeaudiere came off at the weekend against Watford with cramp but is expected to be fine to take part.

But Josh Eccles is doubtful after an awkward landing potentially damaged his shoulder.

Richarlison is still absent with an unspecified injury picked up in training, and Spurs will still be without Yves Bissouma.

The Mali international missed the north London derby defeat to Arsenal after sustaining a groin problem while away with his country, but he's expected back at the weekend.

Elsewhere, there could be rotation, with Radu Dragusin and Timo Werner among those hoping for a start.

Coventry vs Tottenham: What has been said?

Spurs boss Postecoglou has defended his comments about winning trophies - which stretch back to pre-season when he said he said he 'usually' wins trophies in his second season.

Speaking to Sky Sports on Sunday, he said: "I'll correct myself - I don't usually win things, I always win things in my second year. Nothing's changed."

He was then asked about those quotes in his pre-match press conference and said: "It's amazing, isn't it? I just stated a fact. Am I supposed to just lie or just say it never happened?

"But do you really think it's me sort of boasting?

"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."

Another Bayern Munich match, another record broken by Harry Kane.

Days after beating Erling Haaland's record for the quickest time to reach 50 goal involvements in the Bundesliga - he's at it in the Champions League.

The German giants were handed a clash with Dinamo Zagreb on matchday one and Kane was in no mood to mess about.

He equalled Wayne Rooney's record of 30 goals - the most by an English player in the competition - and in 40 games less.

Having already scored 21 times in the competition for Tottenham, and on eight occasions last season, Kane was on 29 prior to the home match with the Croatian champions.

In his 45th Champions League match, he rounded out that number from the penalty spot.

Aleksandar Pavlovic was bundled over in the box and although Serge Gnabry put the ball in the net, he was offside.

That allowed the initial challenge to be analysed and given as a penalty for Kane to fire high into the net.

Kane is proving to be a fine asset after his £86.4million transfer from Spurs in 2023.

Although Bayern Munich failed to win a trophy last season, Kane managed to score 36 league goals in 32 matches, winning him the European Golden Shoe.

That was a record in itself, meaning Kane has the most strikes in a debut season, adding to a hefty collection.

He was already Tottenham and England's record goalscorer prior to his big transfer to the Bundesliga behemoths.

Kane's creativity shouldn't be forgotten either, he's assisted nine Champions League goals.

What makes Kane's record even more impressive is that Rooney scored his 30 over 85 matches.

Although, Manchester United's record goalscorer did assist 21 in that time too.

Jamie O'Hara threatened to leave the talkSPORT studio after Jason Cundy hilariously teased him over Tottenham's defeat to Arsenal.

The Sports Bar co-hosts were reacting to the Gunners' 1-0 win over Spurs in the north London derby on Sunday afternoon.

As with any big result, Cundy opened Monday night's show with his classic 'Has anyone seen?!' jibe, this time aimed at the derby's losers.

"Your boys took one hell of a beating!" he said alongside former Spurs man O'Hara whilst jokingly taking aim people and places related to the club.

The presenting duo eventually got down to discussing the match, with O'Hara stating his only positives from a disappointing day.

"I like [Pedro] Porro, I really like him. I think him, [Mickey] Van de Ven... that's it really from the weekend. The rest of them mate, not good enough, really poor, really poor, Solanke...

"Say well done Arsenal," Cundy teasingly replied, but O'Hara was not happy and responded: "I'm not going to say, 'Well done Arsenal' J, shut up mate, honestly."

Cundy kept insisting on his co-host praising his rivals, but O'Hara was still having none of it.

"I don't come here and do this to you with Chelsea. You say... listen, I'm not having it, no, no, no, I'm not having it, no, no. Don't give it all when we're on-air, right?

"You do this all the time, right? When Chelsea play, you hate it, I can't even celebrate when Chelsea get beat in there [points to green room] because you kick-off.

"And then I come on-air and I give you a little bit of stick but come on, don't start sitting there saying, 'Well done Arsenal.' Like, come on mate, don't be an idiot."

Cundy poke further fun at him by reading out Spurs' motto: "'To dare is to do'. Just say, 'Well done Arsenal', then you are daring."

"Cundy, do you want to do this show on your own? I'm quite happy to go," O'Hara said with a very slight grin.

But Cundy added: "Listen, you said you're going to give them a whooping, you didn't. Just say, 'Sorry,' and say, 'Well done Gooners, you deserved it.'"

The hilarious interaction between the pair concluded by O'Hara telling his co-host to: "Shut up."

Cundy continued to giggle having realised he successfully wound up O'Hara, who was despondent after Spurs' defeat.

He'll hope to be a much happier presenter on Wednesday night's Sports Bar after his beloved club's Carabao Cup third round tie against Coventry City, which is live on talkSPORT 2.

The duo will also be dissecting all the latest Champions League news as the competition returns in its new format.

Across the week, Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City and Aston Villa are all in action.

Meanwhile, England superstars Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane should be in action for Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, respectively.

Gary Cahill proved himself against quality strikers at Chelsea, but one particular test against Harry Kane sparked concern for Jose Mourinho.

The Blues faced Tottenham in the 2015 League Cup final two months after they were beaten 5-3 by their London rivals at White Hart Lane.

Kane scored two goals against a Chelsea defence that had Cahill and John Terry as the centre-backs in what was just one of their three league defeats of the season.

Mourinho knew his trusted defensive duo would be desperate to put in improved performances in the Capital One Cup final at Wembley.

After all, Cahill was able to keep other top strikers quiet prior to the match, such as Wayne Rooney, Sergio Aguero and Romelu Lukaku.

However, Mourinho appeared keen to ask the defender if would be up to scratch for another tough test against Spurs star Kane.

Speaking on John Obi Mikel's The Obi One Podcast, Cahill said: "One time, I don't think you would have known this John, when we were playing Tottenham in the League Cup [final] and I think a few weeks before that we played them away from home.

"I think Harry Kane scored two or three goals, like we got beat, which is rare against Tottenham, I think it was five, whatever. He pulled me in and he was saying, 'Are you alright? Are you alright for the final?'

"And I was thinking, 'What?' He was like, 'But Harry Kane scored', two or three goals or whatever it was, I can't remember now, but like, 'Has that affected you?'

"Almost questioned like I was staying up every night worrying, thinking about that, thinking, 'Oh, I've got the final coming, he's going to teat me apart.'"

Those fears proved to not be an issue as they went on to win the final 2-0.

Earlier in the podcast, Cahill spoke on Mourinho's mind games when commenting on an incident that saw the legendary boss threaten to sign Raphael Varane and another defender to replace him and Terry.

Following on from that, he added: "But that was just one moment of what I was touching on then, the kind of mind games that he played, and also I'd imagine he wouldn't do that to some other players.

"So when he was asking me that question, again, I could just feel like a spider coming up my back thinking, 'Are you questioning... you think I'm worried about...?' I was like, 'Please play me, play me in the game.'

"I came out thinking, 'I can't believe he's questioning my character there', like he was thinking I'm going to s*** myself against Kane, I was fuming.

"Look back now, [genius] yeah yeah, I could just imagine him as I went out going [whilst rubbing his hands], 'Lovely, got him right where I want him there.'

"He [Kane] started, we won 2-0, [he] didn't score, but I still came off, even after the game thinking, 'I knew I'd do it!' He's probably just thinking, '[I got] exactly what I wanted from you.'"

Mourinho showcased his trust in Cahill by starting him in the League Cup final against Spurs, a decision that proved successful as Chelsea won 2-0 thanks to goals from Terry and Diego Costa.

Kane, who scored an incredible 31 goals in all competitions during the 2014/15 season, was unable to add to his tally against the Blues.

Chelsea also went on to win the Premier League title two months later, with Cahill playing in all but two of their 38 matches across their triumphant campaign.

Ange Postecoglou has come in for criticism from Tottenham fans with one branding him: "Ange Poste-noclue".

Spurs suffered derby day misery as they fell to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of rivals Arsenal who made it three wins on the trot at Tottenham's ground.

Postecoglou attracted headlines after the match for his spiky interview in which he said that Tottenham would win a trophy this season.

But according to a Tottenham fan called GJ, the Australian boss should worry about getting results rather than bragging about his achievements.

Speaking on talkSPORT’s Final Word, GJ said: “I’ve been saying it for months about Ange Poste-noclue. He’s a fraud and he’s been figured out.

“I call him the Australian Ossie Ardiles, the Aussie Ossie, because he’s got crazy all-out tactics which are so easy to soak up and counter.

“I’m sick of him deflecting – like when we lost to Man City last season and he tried to pin that on the fans and saying ‘I’m a winner, everywhere I go I win and these fans want us to lose to Arsenal – don’t worry about the fans mate, you worry about what happens on the pitch!

“Yesterday he was saying he doesn’t put importance on derbies and that he treats every game the same and saying he’s a winner – you’re a winner? What have you won? Mickey Mouse trophies!”

Those views were echoed on The Sports Breakfast by a Spurs fan named John, who said: “The overall problem is Daniel Levy but Postecoglou is out of his depth.

“He’s got one way of play and he won’t adapt or change style – the more worrying thing is that if we get more injuries he’ll continue to play this style which will leave us more exposed.

“We had [Lucas] Bergvall and Archie Gray on the bench and Levy went all Hogwarts to bring in all of the kids – why didn’t he play them?

"He brought on Werner who is a busted flush, put the kids in!

“Bergvall is exactly the player who we needed to provide a spark but he went with Werner who can’t provide anything.

“He’ll be gone by Christmas, I’m telling you.

“This is what happens with Tottenham – we might win Wednesday against Coventry and we’ll probably win next weekend and the easily fooled will say we’re back and scoring goals, but the fact is that we remain vulnerable because of the way he plays.”

Lucas Bergvall agreed to join the club last January in an £8.5million deal, with Spurs snatching him from under the noses of Barcelona.

The Swede remained with Djurgarden, impressing despite being already picking up three senior international caps too.

Gray, meanwhile, was a £40million acquisition from Leeds United this summer.

The pair are yet to start in a game yet but have made three and two substitute appearances, respectively.

Ange Postecoglou has been advised to drop one of his key tactics by a Tottenham predecessor.

The Australian made it seven defeats in his past 11 matches as Spurs boss, falling to rivals Arsenal in the north London derby.

Gabriel Magalhaes was the difference both in defence and attack, scoring from a corner in a 1-0 victory.

The result means Spurs have just four points from four games this season, and it appears Postecoglou may be feeling the pressure in his second season with a tetchy post-match interview.

The former Celtic manager has regularly been told he needs a ‘Plan B’ by pundits as an alternative to his attacking style, but Glenn Hoddle has been far more specific.

A Spurs legend as a player and manager, Hoddle joined talkSPORT to dissect the derby defeat, and singled-out one tactic that really needs changing.

Explaining what went wrong against the Gunners, he said: “The inverted fullbacks worked last season to a certain degree, but I look at Tottenham now and they’ve got some very good players, but if [Heung-min] Son’s not on fire they haven’t got an X-factor player at the moment.

“I feel like the inverted fullbacks have been sussed out. They can out-possession most teams, probably only Manchester City [have more possession].

“I think Arsenal knew Spurs could out-possession them and they banked in and made it very difficult to break them down.”

Hoddle went into more detail on why the tactic is causing problems, as he continued: “What frustrates me is that unless you’ve got a [Kevin] De Bruyne or David Silva at his very best, people who can unlock a door, it’s very difficult.

“They’re trying to go through the eye of a needle, they’ve got so many men in the centre of the pitch so it’s impossible to get through the centre.

“They need that width, they need to try a different style to open teams up because as soon as teams bank against them [it doesn’t work].

“If they go 1-0 up in games like against Everton [4-0 win] they can counter then and I think they look better when they’re shifting the ball quickly on the counter, but that’s where I feel the next step needs to go, they haven’t got enough quality in the final third even though they get in some wonderful positions, the crossing was abysmal yesterday.”

Rangers legend and talkSPORT host Ally McCoist then gave his thoughts, and pondered that James Maddison could be the man to unpick teams who defend deeply against Tottenham.

Hoddle agreed, but not if the inverted fullback tactic is persisted with.

“He’s got the ability,” the former England manager began. “But if I’m playing no.10 I’m looking around me and I’ve got so many bodies in there there’s no space with the two inverted fullbacks.

“It’s like Piccadilly Circus in the middle of midfield sometimes. These wide men, if they’re going past their fullbacks and getting great crosses or shots in that would be fine, but they’re struggling, they need movement off them, once Spurs go wide there’s not enough movement.

“You see it with City, they make these lovely little blindside runs into the penalty area and they use them and use the space, there’s none of that with Tottenham.”

Jamie O'Hara was not a happy bunny after the north London derby, saying: "We are the same old Spurs".

The ex-Tottenham midfielder made a bold prediction ahead of Sunday's game and unsurprisingly it backfired.

“I’m confident we are going to rock up on Sunday and give them a whopping," he said.

Tottenham then made it three home defeats in a row against Arsenal after falling to a 1-0 defeat to the Gunners thanks to a goal from Gabriel Magalhaes.

While Mikel Arteta's side were without several core first-teamers in Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard and Riccardo Calafiori, Tottenham failed to take control of the game, something that left O'Hara very frustrated.

Speaking on The Sports Breakfast, O'Hara said: "It’s the same old Spurs and it’s a dagger to the heart when people say that, but we are the same old Spurs.

"We played well but we don’t score – take your chances. We’ve brought in good players and you expect them to do the business.

"But I look at it and think have we brought in top players? Solanke, one good season at Bournemouth and we signed him for £60million.

"Brennan Johnson, a good player and a young player at Nottingham Forest. We signed him for £50million and he looks miles off it.

"Then I look at Archie Gray who we signed from Leeds, he’s a Championship player and then we signed Odobert from Burnley.

"Daniel Levy has built this big shiny stadium and it’s only enjoyable to go to when Beyonce’s on!

"We’re not signing a top player from Barcelona or Atletico Madrid or someone who is actually at the level of where we want to be.

"We don’t sign anybody from any big clubs but then expect the boys that we sign to perform like they’re in a Champions League team.

"We aren’t good enough, it’s as simple as that. You can play good football but we can’t put the ball in the back of the net because we’re not good enough.”

O'Hara added: "I was disappointed, again.

“I really went into this game feeling confident – no Rice, no Odegaard and I thought we could go into it and really go at them in midfield but we were poor.

“Brennan Johnson was miles off it. Honestly, miles off it. He hides behind players.

“Solanke, I know he’s been injured, but I need more from him – it may as well have been Richarlison out there.

“If you’re going to sign Solanke he’s got to score goals but he’s offering us nothing.

“Son, poor again. An average performance and then you’ve got Romero at the back. I love Romero but he’s cost us four goals already this season. It’s not good enough.

“Arsenal, full credit to them because watching them live, they are brilliant defensively. They’re happy to sit in, don’t want to concede and don’t want to be Manchester City and play fantastic football for 90 minutes – they’re happy to be resilient and they were resilient.

“We couldn’t break them down. We could have been there all day trying to score goals and we wouldn’t have scored. It wasn’t good enough.

“Ange needs to be better, the players need to be better, it wasn’t good enough. That was a terrible result.”