Tottenham Hotspur haven’t played a football match in over two weeks, and the absence of football has allowed certain sentiments to grow, and in some cases even fester. Players have been with their national teams, and whenever you aren’t able to see the team play for an extended period of time the vibes in the fanbase get a little weird.
So I was happy to see an extended interview with Ange Postecoglou and Optus Sport pop up on my feed this morning. Ange is a gifted communicator — it’s one of the best things about him — and while his answers here aren’t anything unexpected, it’s still nice to hear him speak about the season as a whole, replete with its enormous challenges.
Ange hasn’t really changed his tune much, but there are some interesting takeaways and even some admissions about things he’s gotten wrong this season in the context of everything else that’s been going on.
The full video is embedded in the header of this article and I’d encourage you to watch it in full, but I’ve transcribed a few key and interesting passages below, starting with Ange’s birds’ eye view of the season as a whole so far.
“It’s been a tough season. There’s no hiding away from it. It hasn’t gone anywhere near to the levels we wanted. We certainly started the season off with some pretty clear goals and ambitions around what we wanted to achieve, and I guess there’s an equal frustration there and had some glimpses of us getting to the level we want, and there’s been enormous setbacks, and our inconsistency in the league.”
Postecoglou was also asked what his biggest challenge has been this season in trying to get Tottenham to achieve their team goals for the season. It’s not a difficult question to answer, and Ange was able to navigate it by both acknowledging the factors outside his and the club’s control while also taking responsibility for the team’s obvious failures and shortcomings.
“I think the domino effect of certain things happening [has been the biggest challenge]. You kind of try and assess things as you go along, and at the end of the year sit down, and my inkling is we probably got the start of the year wrong in terms of... you know, it’s just becoming increasingly challenging for footballers these days. They don’t get the traditional break and I just think we went into the season really hard. We probably underestimated the challenges of Europe this year with two extra games and us having a deep cup run.
“And then add to the mix we lost some key players early on and it feels like we’ve been from my perspective chasing our tails since then. We haven’t been able to get ahead of the challenges we’ve had. Every time we try and get some steady ground something else happens that shifts, and a lot of that I think has just gone back to the start of the year. We maybe would have taken a different approach knowing the kind of season we had ahead.”
Tottenham’s incredibly full fixture calendar this season, combined with this past summer’s European Championships and Copa America, were a major contributing factor to Spurs’ inability to overcome key injuries and exhaustion in the middle of the season. Postecoglou acknowledged that challenge, and said that eventually something will have to change.
“I think there are benefits to [a winter break]. It’s not just that, you know, on the continent they have a winter break, but also most of them only have one domestic cup competition. Most of them give the teams in Europe a break before the European games. Most of them have less than 20 teams in their top league. When you add the international schedule, I think there will come a breaking point. I have no doubt about that.
“I think that’s what’s happened to us this year. I think you saw in some clubs last year that were in Europe, whether it was Newcastle, Brighton, teams that looked like they were in the ascendancy get into Europe and all of a sudden they fall off, mainly because of injuries more than anything else. It’s happened to us this year. I think it’s affected Villa and probably [Manchester] City to a certain extent. I think you’ll see it affect teams in Europe next year.
“I think at some point the league will sit down and go okay well this is unsustainable we need to make some changes.”
Spurs fans are obviously frustrated with the way the season has gone, with a sizable percentage looking at Tottenham’s current table position and wondering whether the club is going in the right direction.
“I’ve always said I hate it when people get told how to feel. I think there’s no doubt there’s a large portion of Tottenham fans who have lost a bit of faith and belief in what we’re doing. I think they’re encouraged by what they saw last year for sure but that certainly manifested itself.
“I’m really optimistic and bullish about the squad we’ve got. I just think there’s enormous growth in them once we can navigate through this and being through a tough time you’ll know yourself. Surviving tough times can be such a strong uniter of people because you figure, well, there’s nothing we’re going to face coming down the track that’s going to be anywhere near this bad as what we’ve gone through, and we’ve survived, and we’re together.
“The results have been very disappointing but I hope people see a squad that’s exciting, and then the biggest way we can influence that is by giving them hope. We’ve still got things to play for, obviously in Europe this year, and we’ve got to try and finish the season off in a positive way.”
It’s been readily apparent that Postecoglou is focused on trying to win the Europa League after Spurs qualified for the quarterfinals by beating AZ Alkmaar last month. Ange talked about that competition and how winning it would be a tangible way of providing hope after a challenging season.
“We’re in the quarterfinals! It’s an opportunity, absolutely, and with where we are at the moment, obviously our League season hasn’t been great, but in Europe and the Carabao Cup, and even the FA Cup we performed really well when we needed to in the big occasions.
“With everyone coming back now we’re in a much healthier position. It’s not like this football club is always in semis or quarters of European competition. We’re in the quarters. We’re one of eight clubs. We certainly know that at our best that we can compete with anyone. Knock on wood we’ve got a squad that’s probably as strong as it has been all year. Why not have a massive crack at it? It would be big for the club to win a trophy, but I think for this group if you can go through what we’ve been through this year and come out the other side of it and have success, it’s a great builder for the future.”
