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Ange Postecoglou talked a lot in his press conference ahead of tomorrow’s match vs. West Ham, but buried in between a bunch of weird questions about Thomas Tuchel, the England job, and the importance of English managers at top level football jobs was one important one about Djed Spence that should be highlighted.

We know Spence’s story — he was signed under Antonio Conte and dismissed by the same as a “club signing,” had some (understandable) issues with attitude in the wake of that dismissal, was sent out on loan including overseas, and was expected to be sold or loaned again this summer. But Djed made an improbable comeback during Tottenham’s preseason, earning minutes with some impressive performances and working his way back into the first team and Postecoglou’s plans

Just this week, Djed signed a new contract that extends his stay at the club by one year to the summer of 2028, and likely also includes a healthy bump in weekly salary. Postecoglou was asked about Spence’s journey back into Tottenham’s first team plans, and Big Ange gave an encouraging response.

“I said a couple of days ago and consistently say, most of a players future is in their own hands. They’re as much in control as anyone else. I think sometimes footballers forget that. With Djed, it could have been easy for to go out on loan again. But when he came into preseason, he was determined to make a career for himself here at Tottenham rather than wait to be loaned out.

“He did everything right in training, his attitude was great. He’s a good footballer, I think the way we play suits him and he’s knuckled down to that. And he’s earned himself a spot on the roster in our squad.

“The rest is up to him again. Because it’s an easy decision for me to make when I see that. Like I said, sometimes footballers think their fate is in other peoples’ hands. For the most part, it’s in their own. If they’re doing well and doing everything right, the future tends to take care of itself, whether that’s where you currently are or you move on. And Djed’s certainly done that.”

Now, that doesn’t answer every question about Djed Spence. Specifically, Postecoglou didn’t address Djed’s bizarre omission from the Europa League squad in favor of a third keeper in Fraser Forster. That remains a somewhat baffling decision, as the Europa League feels like the competition in which Spence would be the most likely to get significant minutes.

But even taking into account Tottenham’s difficulties in assembling a full Europa squad due to the lack of homegrown/club trained players, it’s still a positive outcome for Djed. That club-trained deficiency will resolve itself within a year or so thanks to the young players Spurs have signed in recent transfer windows, and there’s still a chance that Spence could be added to the Europa roster in January if Tottenham qualify past the group round of the competition.

This is the most we’ve heard from Postecoglou on Djed, and it’s encouraging to hear. It should also give some positive encouragement to other players, younger or older, on the fringes of Spurs’ squad — under Ange Postecoglou, Tottenham Hotspur is a meritocracy and with the right amount of work and attitude, anything is possible.

Tottenham Hotspur are set to host West Ham in a London Derby tomorrow at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and head coach Ange Postecoglou took to the microphone in his first pre-match press conference in two weeks. Big Ange gave a positive update on his team’s injury status, reiterating that Lucas Bergvall’s injury was minor and he’s available for selection, Richarlison is back and looking fitter than ever, and Son Heung-Min has fully recovered and is in line to start against the Hammers in the early Saturday kickoff.

Some of the players had farther to travel during this international break than others — Cuti Romero only recently returned from South America after playing for Argentina on Wednesday, but while Postecoglou admitted that travel can be a drain, all of his internationals are ready to go tomorrow.

“[Romero’s] okay. We’ve got everyone back and the last one was Cristian, Pape and Biss. They are all good and reported well. We’ve got the early kick-off, so that’s a quick turnaround but we trained this morning and they were all fine. Lucas Bergvall picked up a small knock but he trained as well so he has no problem. In terms of the internationals, everyone is available.

“I think Cuti has been and again probably reflective of our season, he’s had some good moments for us and some disappointing moments for him, which I know he hasn’t been happy about himself, but it is tough. We’ve spoken about the schedules and it is funny how the guys who didn’t have international commitments, not that there were many of them, they look really refreshed and ready to go. Not just for us but in football in general.

“The amount of travel and amount of games, because he always play Cuti does, we have to bare that in mind and it’s something the players need to learn to cope with the best they can, but he’s still really important for us. He’s an outstanding defender, a great leader in our group and still contributing.

Postecoglou also gave an update on two of Spurs’ injured forwards — Son Heung-Min and Richarlison. Sonny had missed a couple of matches due to injury and did not report for international duty with South Korea, while Richarlison has been nursing a calf injury since the first week of the season. Big Ange noted that Richy’s been mostly recovered for a bit now and the international break was about getting him “lean” and match fit for tomorrow’s match.

“Sonny is good. He’s worked hard these two weeks. He was obviously very disappointed to miss playing for his national team, but I think it’s been good for him these two weeks. He’s worked really hard, had a good solid training week and yeah he can’t wait to get back out there. He’s good to go.

“We’ve taken our time with [Richarlison] but it hasn’t been just about him recuperating and recovering from the injury. We’ve tried to use it to build his fitness base up so when he comes back and to be fair to him, he’s worked awfully hard. He has trimmed down, he looks really lean now and has worked really hard.

“We’ve tried to use it almost as a pre-season for him on an individual basis to not just get him to recover from his injury because he probably recovered from his injury a couple of weeks ago, but we’ve used the last couple of weeks to get his fitness base up and him into good physical condition so we don’t have to keep going through this cycle of him coming back and breaking down.

“Like I said, to be fair to him he’s worked really hard and he’s looked really good. He’s had a good week of training and he has missed playing. He is a real infectious guy as well so good to have him back with the group.”

One of the bigger news stories over the international break was assistant coach Ryan Mason investigating, and ultimately mutually refusing, the head coaching position at Anderlecht in Belgium. Postecoglou reiterated his stance about how he loves developing young coaches and preparing them for head coaching roles, and assured those in attendance that Mason remains fully engaged and committed to Tottenham.

“It wasn’t too much in it. I have always worked on the premise that part of my role is also developing coaches and it is something I take great pride in. Ryan is obviously someone who sees himself as one day taking that opportunity.

“It is a really important decision for the guys. It’s not like we want them to leave and certainly with Ryan he is doing a great job for us here. At the same time, if it’s something they want to explore then I think it is important they do that because it confirms one thing or another for them in their head about where they are currently at. Whether it is the right job for them.

“To be fair to Ryan, he was pretty straightforward with it. I said to him I didn’t want it drawn out, taking any time and he didn’t. He is really happy where he is now and committed to us.”

Tottenham vs. West Ham is rarely straightforward — it’s a London derby, and despite any perceived gap in performance or ability, it’s very often an important one on the calendar with a positive end result rarely assured. Postecoglou acknowledged the difficulty of the fixture, noting that West Ham defeated Spurs in this same fixture last season.

“I was made very aware of [the importance of this rivalry] last year. I know what it means. An important game. Last year we played really well but didn’t win at home. Tale of that part of our season a little bit. Challenging game. They have some fantastic players in the team and a new manager. They are doing things a little bit differently.

“We saw last game what a threat they can be going forward. A good challenge for us. But the emphasis has to be on us reproducing the form we’ve shown in recent times and more importantly sticking to principles of our game.

“[Under Julen Lopetegui] it is a different approach but most of the personnel is still there from when you look at last year and the line ups they’ve had the last two or three weeks. That emphasis from last year. They are a big side, a physical side with real speed on the wings.

“There isn’t a style that suits us or doesn’t suit us. When we play well we can play well against most systems and styles as we’ve shown. And if we don’t stick to our principles we can struggle against anybody. More important for us is how we approach things.”

Tottenham vs. West Ham is in the early Saturday match slot, with kick-off at 7:30 a.m. ET and 12:30 p.m. BST. The match is televised on USA Network in the States and TNT Sports 1 in the UK.

It had the makings of a sixth straight victory for Tottenham Hotspur, leading 2-0 at halftime with everything finally clicking under Ange Postecoglou. Then…the wheels fell off at the Amex as Brighton surged into the lead, and suddenly everyone is questioning if this style of play is actually viable for Postecoglou and Spurs as defensive lapses continue to plague this team.

In general, I think it is much too reactionary to let this one match — one half, really — overwhelm the narrative, but I recognize that tempers will not be calmed if things go poorly against everyone’s favorite West Ham United this weekend. A Tottenham win would still make it three in the past four in the league, and that would feel like much more of a trend than the collapse at Brighton.

Tottenham Hotspur (t-9th, 10pts) vs. West Ham United (t-12th, 8pts)

Date: Saturday, October 19

Time: 10:00 am ET, 3:00 pm UK

Location: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London

TV: USA Network (USA), TNT Sports 1 (UK)

New manager, same results for West Ham so far. Julen Lopetegui’s side sits 12th in the table on the young season, losing to Villa, City, and Chelsea (and Liverpool in the League Cup) while getting results against non-top clubs. Near-zero goal difference and xGD figures tell most of the story, with Jarrod Bowen, Tomas Soucek, and the potentially departing Lucas Paqueta each finding the net twice apiece.

Tottenham continues to struggle in West Ham’s cup final, having won just twice in the past eight league contests. Spurs fell 1-2 in North London last December despite an early Cristian Romero goal, and the sides drew in the reverse fixture after another early goal, this time from Brennan Johnson. They did win the two home fixtures before last season, though, and getting this one feels like a necessity.

Playing with fire

Much has been written about Postecoglou’s style (stubbornness?) in the past week, but the numbers still show that Tottenham has only conceded eight through seven league matches on 8.0 xGA, so while there continue to be some questionable moments, it is not as if this defense is ready to completely implode. Yes, there are a few too many dangerous chances allowed, but again it feels like outings such as at the Amex have been the anomaly this season.

I do think it is fair to question if Romero and Destiny Udogie are going to be a liability at some point, however. Just on the eye test, neither looks completely stable, and many of the goals allowed this season can be traced back to these two. The high line and aggressive approach requires all four defenders to be in sync and engaged, and when there is an issue it often comes from one of these two. West Ham is not the most intimidating attacking outfit but does have the ability to punish mistakes, so a clean showing from the back line is essential on Saturday.

Defrosting

Even without the desire (need?) to quickly move past the Brighton loss, the international window came at a tough time for some on-fire Spurs attackers. Brennan Johnson scored in each of the six matches heading into the break, though did continue his form by scoring with Wales. Meanwhile, Dominic Solanke scored three times in September and earned himself an England call-up, assisting Jude Bellingham against Greece.

The bright spot is Heung-min Son could be back for the weekend after missing the past couple weeks. While the captain has looked a little off, he does have four goal involvements and is an obvious upgrade over Timo Werner. With how well Johnson and Solanke have been playing lately, this front three could be lethal; even if Son is not quite 100 percent, his return to this particular lineup is extremely enticing and should yield some goals against a nothing-special West Ham defense. Johnson’s opener last spring was a simple tap-in; it is not too hard to imagine an encore on Saturday.

good morning!

Not gonna lie, guys. I’m pretty darn tired tonight. So tired, in fact, that I couldn’t even be bothered to spend five minutes looking for a better image than this basic looking pizza.

There was a bit of scheduling hoopla for me this week, which meant I had nothing in my refrigerator to cook tonight. And, since I had an appointment at 6:30pm and unable to think of starting cooking supper til after, I ordered a pizza for pickup.

There were three choices:

The place nearest me. The most expensive and I always feel awful afterwards.

The place second-nearest me. The pizza isn’t great, slightly less expensive.

The place furthest from me. My favourite pizza here in DC, but it’ll take the longest to get to me, I’ll have to drive and it’ll be the most expensive.

I chose Option 2.

It turned out exactly how I thought it’d be. It was alright. Not great. But hey, it’s pizza right? $24 for a single pie though is still kinda ridiculous.

This pizza had mozzarella, parmesean, spicy salami, sausage and basil. It just wasn’t great. Like a solid 2.5/5.

But hey, it’s pizza.

And that’s the good news. I had pizza tonight. The bad news is this does little to help me for dinner Friday night. What’ll I have? Idk. Probably not pizza.

So here’s your pizza post. Share your favourite pizza toppings if you want. Or don’t. Maybe celebrate the return of Tottenham football. Because, finally, we have Spurs footy back. These international breaks are stupid.

You know what isn’t stupid? Pizza.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Champagne Supernova, by Middle Kids

And now for your links:

Dan KP: Big Ange ready to ‘explode’ but Spurs not his toughest job

Gregg Berhalter on life after being sacked by the USMNT

After two weeks of Brighton-induced navel gazing, Tottenham Hotspur are back and ready to play football again, this time in a London derby against West Ham on Saturday. The good news is that almost everyone came back from the international break either healthy or with minor concerns that shouldn’t be too much of an issue, and virtually the entire team is available for selection.

The bad news... well, actually there really isn’t any! Here’s Ange with the team update.

The biggest takeaway is that both Son Heung-Min and Richarlison are available for selection, though Ange did seem to hedge a bit on Richy. My guess is he’ll be on the bench on Saturday and will be gently eased back into action, which makes sense. Sounds like Sonny’s raring to go, which is great — Spurs actually got him to skip an international break with Korea, which is a rare feat considering Sonny is Korea’s captain and the most famous sports personality in his home country.

And there’s even good news on Wilson Odobert — Ange states that he’s ready to return to training starting next week, which puts him on track to return to the team by the end of October, right in line with what the medical staff said after his initial injury.

So it’s a Good News Thursday! Let’s celebrate.

good morning —

Premier League footballers have many interests: automobiles, parks, things like that. They also enjoy a bit of chess.

Mo Salah, Philippe Coutinho, Sergio Busquets and others all claim to play their fair share of chess. Joining their ranks is Tottenham’s very own Radu Dragusin.

The man-bunned dynamo recently played against Swedish chess master Anna Cramling, the daughter of two grandmasters. Needless to say, chess is in her blood.

The game starts simply enough, with Cramling moving her pawn to the centre of the table. One of the core principles of chess for beginners, I learned, is how important it is to dominate the middle of the table. More on my chess acuity later.

Things take a pretty dire turn for Dragusin in the middle game, when Cramling lures out his Queen. They exchange pieces, but her bishop remains in a deadly position. After Cramling brings out her light-squared bishop on the table, Dragusin tries to protect his lone pawn but instead offers her a mate-in-two.

Check mate in 2:33.

That’s pretty stressful, and probably a whole lot better than fitzie would fare. I only have a 621 rating in the five-minute games, trying to rebuild it after losing almost 10 in a row earlier this week.

My overall win percentage is pretty darn bad. It took me some time to get used to chess and its dynamics. At one point my rating flirted with 150. I also frequently lose against one hoddler her. There’s always at least one mistake in me when I play, I’ve noticed.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Gun Metal Grey, by The Budos Band

And now for your links:

BBC with an analysis on how England could line up under Thomas Tuchel and other questions

World Cup could be glory-or-bust for Tuchel

As recently as this summer, Djed Spence’s Tottenham Hotspur career was as good as over. After being dubbed a “club signing” by Antonio Conte and foisted off on loan to whomever would take him, and dogged by allegations of a poor attitude, it looked like Djed was as good as gone in the summer transfer window.

But then something interesting happened — he started playing football in Tottenham’s preseason tour, and his performances started turning heads. Spence reportedly had a clear-the-air meeting with Ange Postecoglou this summer and turned his career around — he not only managed to keep his place in the team, but has shown he can be a useful utility player at both left and right back under Big Ange’s tactics.

Today, Djed’s redemption cycle is complete. The club announced that Spence has signed a contract extension at the club that will keep him in a Spurs shirt through summer 2028!

I still don’t understand the club leaving Spence out of this year’s Europa League squad for Fraser Forster and likely never will, but this is still excellent news and seems to reflect Tottenham’s trust and support for Djed and his football. I’m not convinced Spence is anything more than solid depth for Tottenham at this point, but solid depth is important, and Djed has already proven that he can do a job when called upon. That’s not anything to take lightly.

Honestly, I’m very pleased by this. Hopefully this is something that Spence can grab on to and use as further encouragement. Injuries to Pedro Porro, Ben Davies, and Destiny Udogie will come this season, and it’s nice to know that we have a solid reserve in place for the next several years to step in when needed. Redemption stories like this one don’t come along that often, and it’s quite nice to see this one happen.

Ange Postecoglou is not every manager, and he’ll be the first to tell you that. The international break has given the Tottenham Hotspur boss a solid two weeks in which to stew over the disastrous 3-2 loss at Brighton, a match in which Spurs led 2-0 at halftime and looked like they were set to cruise, before giving away three second half goals in one of Spurs’ worst halves of football this season.

In a wide-ranging interview released today by Optus Sport that touched on both domestic and Australian international football, Ange was once again asked about his approach to the game and to address the constant criticism from both fans and pundits that he needs to be more “pragmatic” in his approach. Postecoglou noted that he’s not immune or unaware of criticism directed towards him and his way, but said he’s not had success because he’s been like other football managers, but because he’s done things differently from day 1.

“I mean it’s impossible to to kind of block out [the criticism] because even if I don’t hear it or read it somebody will, and it kind of does infiltrate.

“But I also don’t need to because I already know what they’d be saying so it’s like kind of new to me but I I just I guess from my perspective it’s about... well, what everyone is wanting me to do is what everyone else does now. I’m just not going to do that because there’s a reason that I’m here where I am today and it’s not because I’ve done what everyone else does.

“So I think everyone has their own sort of unique journey to get to somewhere. I didn’t get here by doing what everyone else is doing so I get the people who say we’ll be more pragmatic like everyone else... [But] I don’t want to be like everyone else.

“Now that doesn’t mean that I’m going to be successful necessarily and my approach is going to work, but what I’m not going to do is just become one of the masses because if I do that then what’s the point? I mean I’m going to get lost in that and eventually I’ll sort of fade away and not make the impact I want to.

“So you know what others see is kind of stubbornness or me being dogmatic about something I see it’s just real belief in what I’m doing.”

I appreciate these comments from Ange regarding his methods because I think he has a point — the criticism coming towards him are from people who want him to do the things that a lot of other managers are doing... and which are often (but not always) successful. But Ange has had to fight his entire career to progress to higher levels of football management, and he’s been successful precisely because he’s marched to the beat of his own drum. Sure, that means sometimes his teams stumble, but the proof has always been in the pudding, and there’s at least $240 worth of pudding on which to evaluate him by now.

One of the main criticisms levied at Ange is that, after many years of exceeding expectations in leagues such as the A-League, J-League, and Scottish Premier League, he’s finally hit a ceiling in what his tactics and approach can accomplish in the English Premier League. But Ange doesn’t think so, and sees that opinion to be one borne out of what he calls “arrogance” at the top level of football.

“There’s a little bit of pretentiousness and arrogance about people in the Premier League thinking that they’re in a special space, right. But it’s still football and whether it’s a thousand South Melbourne supporters who weren’t happy with me after a game and gave me direct feedback or hundreds of thousands around the world, it’s still the same to me.

“You know what, I care about what I do and if I’m upset one person that’s enough for me so the scrutiny and that... it’s not the challenge for me. The challenge is, yes the competition is more challenging for sure because you’re competing against the best and the demands of that are pretty. dramatic in terms of where I’ve come from in terms of starting my journey.

“But at the same time I’ve kind of moved up the levels. The club has its own unique challenges for sure. Are they more difficult than others? I don’t know, I mean when I was at Celtic people said ‘Well yeah but Celtic expected to win’ and I go yeah that’s right they’re expected to win so you lose one game at Celtic that’s a major problem for you and not many could cope in that.

“So it’s just a different challenge for sure um but I get why people would say well no it’s because of the level you’re at now and the scrutiny that you’re you’re not having success. I don’t believe that I think I still believe we are going to have success but there’s nothing that I’m kind of facing here that I think is insurmountable.”

Ange recently managed his 50th match as manager of Tottenham Hotspur, and he was asked about where the club is relative to his expectations and if he’d do anything differently in hindsight. Postecoglou has always been consistent in his messaging on this issue — he refuses to set benchmarks or markers on the road to success because he views it as limiting to where he wants his teams to go.

“Look, where we are right now is kind of where we are. Again if you if you start, and I’ve never put landmarks along the way to where to measure our progress because then sometimes that limits your progress because you go ‘well we might achieve what I wanted to achieve 10 games in, why wait for 50 games.’

“But where we are is where we are and I think we’ve definitely made progress in terms of the squad in terms of the way we play our football. I definitely think there’s progress there and I guess from my perspective it’s every decision you make, you make in the isolation of where you’re at at that time. So when people say well would you do anything differently — no I wouldn’t because I I’ve always tried to make decisions that I believe are going to stay true to what we’re trying to create.

“Now in the cold light of day and in retrospect where a lot of people end up making assessment after everything’s... after watching you go, okay, maybe I would have done something differently there, but I didn’t have that information then, I had the information I had.

“So there’s nothing I would have done differently I think. What I do know is that people forget the starting point. It becomes really blurred. When I said had doing these interviews last year, you know Harry Kane had left and quite a bit of experience had left and we finished eighth. I didn’t take over a club that finished in the Champions League. At that time the measures and the kind of assessments were totally different. But you know I don’t forget the starting point because that’s how I measured progress.”

Ange also had interesting things to say about his time with the Socceroos and about opening doors of opportunities to other Australians entering into the managerial market at the top level. The full video is embedded at the top of this article and I’d encourage you to watch the whole thing.

I hate international football.

I especially hate when one of Tottenham Hotspur’s footballers picks up an injury while on international duty, and it’s not even while playing in a match! Seriously, that’s what happened with Lucas Bergvall. And people say the Spurs medical staff are bad. “Well, that could have happened in training at Hotspur Way,” I hear you say, to which I say, “Shut your mouth and leave me in my misery.” Harumph. Let me yell at clouds.

Bergvall’s Swedish teammate though has continued to collect headlines, with Dejan Kulusevski turning in a pearler of a performance against Estonia and collecting a quite superb assist for himself as the Swedes dispatched Estonia 3-0. Pedro Porro also continued his good form for Spain, with an assist of his own off a corner routine while keeping a clean sheet in an identical scoreline over Serbia.

Guglielmo Vicario finally got to make his competitive debut for Italy, starting for the Azzurri in his hometown of Italy. The Italians were too strong for Israel, defeating them 4-1, though the solitary Israeli goal was one perhaps all too familiar for Spurs fans with Vicario unable to claim an inswinging corner due to potential impediment from the opposition. Destiny Udogie also saw the pitch for the Italians, collecting another Spurs assist for the break.

It was more success elsewhere for most of the other international defenders from Tottenham, as Cristian Romero returned from suspension, keeping a clean sheet in Argentina’s win over Bolivia, while Radu Dragusin saw out a 2-1 win over Lithuania with Romania. Ben Davies also played the full 90 minutes, keeping a clean sheet for Wales in a one goal win over Montenegro, but the takeaway from that match for Spurs fans was the absence of Brennan Johnson from the Welsh squad. Johnson came off at half-time in Wales’ win over Iceland late last week after being seen hobbling in the first half, with manager Craig Bellamy saying the winger took a knock early in the match. It remains to be seen whether he’ll be fit enough for the match against West Ham on the weekend.

Micky van de Ven was the unlucky individual of Spurs’ defensive internationals, as Netherlands went down to Germany, with a new look Dutch defense sans Virgil van Dijk coming in for criticism from pundits. It wasn’t great news either for Pape Matar Sarr with Senegal, albeit for a different reason. He was instrumental in their win over Malawi, but was nearly murdered by a couple of players on the Malawi squad and oh my God please don’t tell me we have another player injured. Finally, Yves Bissouma concluded a busy international break with a goalless draw against Guinea-Bissau.

So some great performances, a few injuries, and a lot of minutes played and miles travelled. Well, at least we’re done with international breaks for checks notes wait, one month? What???

I still hate international football.

Spurs International Appearances: