Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Tottenham midfielder James Maddison insists the team are "100 per cent behind" boss Ange Postecoglou despite their "unacceptable" Premier League season.
Spurs sit a lowly 16th in the Premier League table after suffering a 19th league defeat of the season on Sunday, following a heavy 5-1 loss at newly-crowned champions Liverpool.
But despite their domestic form, Tottenham still have a chance to win the Europa League, which would end their 17-year trophy drought and give them a place in next season's Champions League.
Norwegian enigmas Bodo/Glimt aim to crack another code vs Spurs
Tottenham news & transfers⚪ | Spurs fixtures & scores
Got Sky? Watch Tottenham games LIVE on your phone📱
Not got Sky? Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW📺
Choose the sports notifications you want! 🔔
There has been intense speculation surrounding the future of Postecoglou, who is presiding over potentially Spurs' worst-ever Premier League season, with some reports claiming the 59-year-old will lose his job even if he lifts the Europa League trophy.
But Maddison has given his full support for the under-pressure Australian ahead of Thursday's Europa League semi-final first leg against Norwegian champions Bodo/Glimt.
He said: "We're behind the manager, 100 per cent. I think he's a great man.
"He's the first person to tell you, I've heard it myself, that we've had a poor season, especially in the league. We've been very good in Europe, but the league season's probably been unacceptable, and we can all take a collective responsibility for that.
"But he's my manager, he's my gaffer, I respect him an awful amount.
"The narrative is something that we players try and keep away from because it's not healthy to read into what you lot are talking about - the manager's position. I just know that I come into work every day and see the lads listening, taking on the messages, how he wants to play and trying to do what's best for this club.
"We're in a very good position in Europe, where we can still have a special season under his management. So, I'll continue to do that until the day he isn't here. He's my manager and I respect him an awful amount, so that will continue."
'Season can still be so special'
Tottenham host Bodo/Glimt on Thursday before the second leg in Norway above the Arctic Circle on May 8, with the chance to reach the Europa League final in Bilbao on May 21.
It gives Postecoglou the chance to earn Spurs' first silverware since 2008 and their first European trophy in 41 years.
Asked whether the team owes the fans Europa League glory amid a dismal domestic campaign, Maddison replied: "We definitely want to reward them for the support that they give us by creating something special because the league hasn't been good enough, definitely. But it hurts us as well. Let's not create the narrative that it's just us players out there. Definitely, we take responsibility for that. But it hurts me a lot that we're having a poor season.
"But this is why we're so motivated for this competition because this season can still be so special. You lot talk about it all the time about Tottenham being without silverware for however many years it is. We're in the last four, and we've got a great opportunity to do that in a competition that we've been pretty solid in this year.
"We want to reward them because we feel the support. At the end of games when we've lost again, you go over because you want to thank them for the support. I know they don't want to hear it. Even at this press conference and the interview on Sunday [after the Liverpool defeat], they're not really that bothered because words are just words.
"But it hurts and we're trying to put it right. I think that's the main thing. The hunger is there. It doesn't always work, that's just life. It doesn't always work how you want it to.
"This is a unique situation that we're in in the last four in Europe where we can go and reward them for their support because they do travel everywhere. We are very grateful for that. Even in the league position we're in and we've got nothing to play for, they're still selling out Liverpool away. We do appreciate that and they're supporting us, but it hurts as well.
"I guess the message I was trying to get across is that we're not satisfied as well. We're in this together."
He added: "I don't feel personally responsible because it's a collective. It's everyone. No one at the whole club, from the top to the bottom, internally should be satisfied with where we are, so it definitely hurts.
"The hurt you're talking about, I guess it's a tough one because, like I just said, we have to do interviews. You spoke about Liverpool on Sunday. I'm going to do the interview where we've lost 5-1. It's a little bit embarrassing. I'm a bit embarrassed myself. I have to go and talk. I know no one really wants to hear what I've got to say because they want to see the reaction. That's the chance we've got to do on Thursday night, which is the beauty of the quick turnaround, because we can go and put it right on Thursday if we get a good result.
"Then in seven days' time, we've got another massive game. If we get through that, we're in a European final. There's positives there, but I guess we've got to go and do it, and we've got to show them that we're just as hungry as they are to win something."
Ange: I'm not underestimating Bodo/Glimt
Tottenham are heavy favourites to overcome Bodo/Glimt, who are the first Norwegian side to reach a European semi-final.
Kjetil Knutsen's side have knocked out Lazio and Olympiakos en route to the last four, but Postecoglou is adamant his team will not underestimate them.
He said: "You'd love us to think that, that you're a small club and we don't rate. No, no.
"I think Bodo's there on merit. They've beaten Lazio and Olympiakos, tough teams. They're there because they're a good football team.
"It doesn't matter where you come from. I come from the other side of the world where football is the fourth sport. So I don't underestimate anything.
"You say we're a big club, they're a small club, it doesn't matter. We're two clubs in a semi-final of a European competition, and they've earned the right to be there. They've done very well to get there, and we're going to treat them with the respect they deserve."
Meanwhile, Postecoglou confirmed captain Heung-Min Son will be absent for the first leg at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The South Korean has not featured for Spurs since the 1-1 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt on April 10 due to a foot injury.
Postecoglou said: "He won't feature. He's out training, but he's still separate from the group.
"He's improving and hopefully we can get him back in sooner rather than later."
Norwegian enigmas Bodo/Glimt aim to crack another code vs Spurs
Sky Sports' Declan Olley:
Underestimate Bodo/Glimt at your peril, Tottenham.
Just ask Porto, Besiktas, Olympiakos and Lazio this season. Roma and Celtic, who were managed then by Spurs boss Postecoglou, were also victims four years ago.
The most recent giant-killing of Lazio, though, was particularly historic as Bodo/Glimt became the first Norwegian side to reach a European semi-final.
Now the Eliteserien champions, located above the Arctic Circle, are aiming to freeze out Spurs, whose stadium is astonishingly bigger than Bodo's population of 55,000.
"We walk into this game with confidence that whoever we meet, we believe we're able to compete," says Bodo/Glimt's sporting director Havard Sakariassen.
"I hope that we don't focus on the occasion and that we play the game and dare to be ourselves.
"I truly strongly believe we have all the tools to be brave enough to go out in London and just be Bodo/Glimt. Just play the game, and then we will see.
"Of course, the experience that we have gained over the last years makes us more confident in situations like this."
Underestimate Bodo/Glimt at your peril, Tottenham.
Just ask Porto, Besiktas, Olympiakos and Lazio this season. Roma and Celtic, who were managed then by Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou, were also victims four years ago.
The most recent giant-killing of Lazio, though, was particularly historic as Bodo/Glimt became the first Norwegian side to reach a European semi-final.
Tottenham news & transfers⚪ | Spurs fixtures & scores
Got Sky? Watch Tottenham games LIVE on your phone📱
Not got Sky? Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW📺
Choose the Sky Sports push notifications you want! 🔔
Now the Eliteserien champions, located above the Arctic Circle, are aiming to freeze out Spurs, whose stadium is astonishingly bigger than Bodo's population of 55,000.
"We walk into this game with confidence that whoever we meet, we believe we're able to compete," says Bodo/Glimt's sporting director Havard Sakariassen.
"I hope that we don't focus on the occasion and that we play the game and dare to be ourselves.
"I truly strongly believe we have all the tools to be brave enough to go out in London and just be Bodo/Glimt. Just play the game, and then we will see.
"Of course, the experience that we have gained over the last years makes us more confident in situations like this."
'We have cracked the European code'
One of those pivotal experiences came in north London in October 2022, as Bodo/Glimt suffered a 3-0 Europa League group-stage defeat at Tottenham's rivals Arsenal.
But the loss at the Emirates Stadium proved key in solving the European puzzle.
"I think we have cracked some codes regarding performance, especially away," Sakariassen says.
"To be more cynical, not to be naive playing away against good teams in Europe.
"At home, we want to go out, dominate teams and have possession. Away in Europe we try to do that, but of course sometimes you meet teams that are truly, truly good.
"It's hard to find the weakness in the team, and you can't be naive playing against these teams. You may have to adjust the mindset. It's hard.
"When we went to Arsenal, they were leading, it was hard to go and dominate. You have to attack it in a different way and try to be smarter. It's something that comes with experience.
"We've learnt a lot because we've played decent away games this year in pressured situations. It's smartness in the play and to reckon sometimes a good performance is to be truly good in your defence."
Spurs will have their own conundrum to figure out - Bodo/Glimt's 8,270-seater Aspymyra Stadion. An artificial pitch and freezing temperatures have made it an icy enigma for visiting sides.
Postecoglou's team will need togetherness and teamwork to pass the test, something their opponents have in abundance, with the majority of the squad from Norway.
"I think it has a value in itself, in your life, to be able to play at this level in your hometown, also with your friends," Sakariassen says.
"So I think the culture in the club here is something they really enjoy...but I think it has to be rare to be able to play football with your mates at this level anywhere in Europe, and that has a value."
But Bodo/Glimt's band of brothers go to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the first leg facing an absentee crisis.
Influential captain Patrick Berg, his midfield partner Hakon Evjen and striker Andreas Helmersen are all suspended, while key centre-back Odin Bjortuft is an injury doubt.
All four were part of the starting XI as Bodo/Glimt lost 3-2 at Manchester United in November despite going 2-1 up. Sakariassen wants another go at Ruben Amorim's side in Bilbao on May 21.
"I'm actually a (Manchester) United supporter from back in the day, so Bodo vs United sounds great for me," he jokes.
From brink of bankruptcy to potential Europa League final
Talk of Bodo/Glimt being in a Europa League final would have been unthinkable a decade ago.
He reveals that during his playing days for the club they were "nearly bankrupt", and he has previously spoken of a time when the squad had to wash their own kit.
Their budget in 2017 was a paltry £3.6m (€4.2m). Seven years on, their revenue was £51m (€60m). The fairytale is even more magical considering it was financially organic.
"Nobody has given us money outside the prize money in these 10 years," Sakariassen says. "It shows that you can achieve stuff if you work well over time, and that is the main part of it, but it's much easier if you have money.
"I know that people have said to me that we are an inspiration that you can achieve with a small club.
"I would find inspiration in a story like this if you go back 10 years ago. Smaller clubs can get inspired, and it takes a whole lot of hard work and a lot of luck throughout the way to actually make it happen."
Sakariassen also believes patience has been vital in their meteoric rise, which has seen them win four of the last five Norwegian top-flight titles, with their first Eliteserien coming in 2020.
'I'm not afraid of interest in boss Knutsen'
The frontman for their success is manager Kjetil Knutsen, whose brand of football has been described as "kamikaze" by midfielder Ulrik Saltnes.
Asked by Sky Sports about the Norwegian tactician, Sakariassen replies: "It's his eighth year here, so we have been on a long journey together trying to build Bodo/Glimt to what it is today.
"He's a man of true passion about football and about this project. It's impressive for him, but also for many people who have worked over the last eight years with the kind of success that we have achieved.
"We come in every day with him as a leader to seek improvement every day, even after winning a trophy or achieving something.
"So number one, he's famed for the project, to actually live it through and through.
"Also, his loyalty to the club, the fans, the city and the loyalty that we have for each other is quite unique in professional football anywhere.
"With the kind of success Bodo/Glimt has had in the last years, it's quite unique and says a lot about him that he's still here."
But that loyalty could be tested seriously soon with the 56-year-old linked with Rangers and Leeds.
Asked by Sky Sports whether he was worried about interest in Knutsen, Sakariassen responds: "No, I'm not afraid of anything.
"Of course, Kjetil is an attractive manager, that's just the nature of what we do.
"Whatever happens, happens. He's been here for eight years and has probably had some really good offers along the way.
"I know that he enjoys being in Bodo, enjoys working at this club. Should he, for some reason, decide to do something else I think we should applaud him to the airport and say thank you.
"But I'm not afraid of that at all, and I think that we will work here for more years to come - but who knows?"
What is for certain is that Knutsen and his players are ready to crack another code on Thursday.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Listening to Ange Postecoglou describe the noise around Tottenham Hotspur’s season can feel like living in a world of extremes.
The highs of Frankfurt and the lows of any number of recent Premier League games are just the part on the football pitch. The Spurs head coach used the word "hysteria" at one point, when describing the external voices passing comment on his side.
"Within the football department we've tried to maintain a discipline about how we behave and keep the noise on the outside away from us," he reveals.
Transfer Centre LIVE! | Tottenham news & transfers⚪
Spurs fixtures & scores | FREE highlights▶️
Got Sky? Watch Tottenham games LIVE on your phone📱
Not got Sky? Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW📺
Choose the Sky Sports push notifications you want! 🔔
"We came back from Frankfurt on a high and everyone was buzzing, then it was another disappointing game in the week [a 2-1 home defeat to Nottingham Forest] and that flips 180 degrees. From our perspective it's really important we cocoon ourselves from it."
Easier said than done, surely? "It's not easy because as much as I can say to the players 'block out the noise', we all live in the outside world. If I could keep them locked up in here for the next month I'd be OK. What you look at is the behaviour of the players; the way they are training, the way they are talking. For the most part they are handling it pretty well."
What does irk Postecoglou is the idea that Spurs have reached this point where they could achieve European success, without meticulously building and preparing over the course of many weeks and months. He talks to the players about 'The Stonecutter's Credo'. It is an allegory from the Danish writer and photographer Jacob Riis:
When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.
"Sometimes people look at success and look at the tail end of it and don't realise what's gone into it," Postecoglou explains.
"A lot of it is work that is unseen or seems like you are not really progressing. For us, as difficult as the season has been, a lot of it has been good for us in terms of building resilience and staying united.
"I know that for us to break through and bring a trophy we are going to need bundles of that. We just need to keep banging away at the rock and hopefully on the 101st blow we will crack it."
That final blow represents a possible Europa League Final triumph. It could either be a hugely exciting or frustrating outcome depending on whether or not the stone cracks.
"It just depends on how it pans out," Postecoglou continues. "That's the reality of football. Sometimes you don't get what you deserve. I always found that's short-term. Over the long course you will succeed. It's about getting back at the rock and doing the right things all the time, I really believe in that.
"All the success I've had in my career, none of it has been instant, none of it has been because of one thing or one answer to everything. It's about consistently - over and over again - trying to do the right things. Eventually success comes and sometimes it comes at unexpected times, it doesn't come when you think it should."
Postecoglou is in his 60th year and retains a sense of perspective that comes with the wisdom he has gained over time. He was just half that age when starting out in management at South Melbourne and admits that his younger self would not have coped with the pressures he is under today.
"No probably not, that's the reality of it. Invariably when you are younger you take things a lot more personally, you think things are very definite in terms of the outcomes. Over the course of time you realise none of that is true, everything is just a moment in time and the moments all pass.
"It's not that I never had pressure when I was younger, you always do. For all young managers the first job is really important because if you don't succeed you might not get another opportunity. The pressure is always there, it's just the noise now and the way the world has changed as well. There are so many more platforms.
"When I first started, the media used to be journalists and that was it. Now every platform you can think of has an opinion and they all have the ability to voice that opinion and it can feel really overwhelming, and the younger me would have struggled to cope with that."
If Spurs can prevail in Europe then Postecoglou's mission will arguably have been completed. He was tasked with reducing the age profile of the squad, changing the direction on the pitch and bringing success. It has been a hugely challenging campaign but one that can end with each of those boxes being ticked.
"Yes, that was the brief, that was why I came," he adds. "To change the way the club played its football, to regenerate a squad because it was coming to the end of a cycle, and to win trophies.
"I still feel like that's the motivation and they were the objectives for me coming here and that's what I'm determined to see out. I haven't tried to change the initial mission which was to play football that excites the fans, to bring some exciting young talent to the club, and hopefully succeed."
And as the noise builds ahead of Sunday's trip to Liverpool and that Europa League semi-final first leg against Bodo/Glimt on Thursday, Postecoglou will not let any of it affect his preparations for the biggest test of his Spurs career.
"Provided you stay true to yourself, your head hits the pillow at night and you're fine. In those moments if you change what you believe in, or your values, or who you are as a person, that's where you do have those sleepless nights.
"That's happened at times in my career but as you get older you realise that it's like every other storm, they all pass."
Sorry, this blog is currently unavailable. Please try again later.
Back to Home
This content is provided by , which may be using cookies and other technologies. To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies. You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable cookies or to allow those cookies just once. You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to cookies. To view this content you can use the button below to allow cookies for this session only.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Chris Eubank Jr is "doing well" in hospital after his hard-fought points victory over Conor Benn at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday night.
Eubank Jr was taken to The Royal London as a precautionary measure and initial tests have come back clear, but he is likely to remain in hospital until Monday. His father, Chris Eubank Snr, has been at his bedside, along with other members of his family.
Promoter Ben Shalom confirmed Eubank Jr is "doing well" as he continues to be monitored by medical staff and ruled out reports that the fighter suffered a broken jaw.
Chris Eubank Jr defeats Conor Benn in thrilling battle
Father's presence inspires Eubank Jr in win over Benn
Benn wants rematch with Eubank Jr
"I'm pleased to confirm that Chris is doing well and currently resting," said Shalom. "There is no truth to the rumours regarding a broken jaw.
"As part of his standard post-fight protocol, Chris is at the hospital for precautionary checks to monitor his vitals and ensure everything is in order.
"They take these measures very seriously, given everything they have experienced in the past. This process is something they now prioritise after every fight.
"Chris and Conor gave absolutely everything in what was the biggest legacy fight of all time. With their fathers standing proudly behind them, it was a moment that will forever be stamped in sporting history."
Speaking after his unanimous decision victory, Eubank Jr admitted he was surprised by Benn's spirited performance following a gruelling 12-round battle.
"I knew I was capable of that. I just needed someone to bring it out of me," said Eubank Jr, who suffered a cut over his right eye following a clash of heads in the ninth round.
"I didn't expect Conor to be the guy to do that. I didn't know he had that in him, I thought I would break him early.
"I underestimated him, I didn't prepare for a fight like that.
"The fact our fathers fought years ago brought out a different spirit and I am happy to have my father with me."
Eubank Snr made a dramatic arrival earlier in the evening and also reflected on a physically demanding fight for his son.
"He couldn't move around the ring, he had to stand toe to toe and that is legendary behaviour in the ring. I am so proud of him.
"Conor is an extraordinary fighter and you saw that.
"I am so proud of my son."