Ange Postecoglou clashed with a journalist over questions about one of his Tottenham players’ behaviour away from football ahead of the first leg of Spurs’ crunch Round of 16 Europa League tie against Dutch outfit AZ Alkmaar.
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Having been knocked out of the FA Cup last month, Tottenham had the weekend off and on Monday, midfielder Yves Bissouma posted photos on Instagram from a ski resort.
The Australian was then asked during his match eve press conference whether he had given the players extra time off ahead of an important match in the last competition in which Tottenham can win silverware this season.
Postecoglou was less than impressed by the insinuation that his team were not treating the trip to the Netherlands with respect.
“Seriously, what sort of question is that?” Postecoglou fired back before chuckling to himself.
“No I didn’t, we were training but he decided to go skiing… “Come on mate, you’re better than that!”
The reporter refused to back however, following up by asking Postecoglou whether the Mali international did actually go skiing to which the former Socceroos boss replied “well, obviously he did”.
Postecoglou was then probed further about whether he had any concerns about one of his players undertaking a potentially dangerous activity when Tottenham’s season has been embroiled by an injury crisis.
“I don’t worry about those things, mate,” Postecoglou said.
“They’re adults, they’re human beings, they had a couple of days off.
“They can choose to use that time as wisely as they can to help them be ready for what’s in store for us.
“You kind of hope that they’re sensible about these things and go about whatever they do in a manner that befits the position they hold, but I have no concerns… and he’s fine.”
Bissouma started on the bench in Tottenham’s last outing, a 1-0 home loss to Manchester City in the league, and Postecoglou’s starting XI remains unclear with several stars a chance to return from injury, including centre back pairing Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero, as well as striker Dominic Solanke.
Son Heung-min is likely to return to the starting XI after coming off the bench against City due to Postecoglou’s desire to rest and rotate, clearly with this European opportunity in mind.
But unfortunately for Spurs, Postecoglou said that Dejan Kulusevski’s foot injury is likely to keep him sidelined until after the next international break later this month.
Tottenham finished fourth in the standings after the league stage with five wins, two draws and a loss, including a 1-0 victory at home against AZ Alkmaar, who are sixth in the Eredivisie, courtesy of a Richarlison penalty.
It has been highly publicised that Postecoglou has a habit of winning trophies in his second season in charge, as he did at Celtic, Yokohama F. Marinos, the Socceroos, Brisbane Roar and South Melbourne.
Plus, Spurs have a much-discussed trophy drought, dating back to 2008 and they last triumphed in Europe in the 1984 UEFA Cup – the predecessor to the Europa League.
So, Postecoglou shared that there is no need to remind him or the players of the importance of the upcoming tie.
“Yeah, I think it is fair to say the boys really understand there is a great opportunity for us,” he said.
“It’s a competition we obviously want to do well in. We’ve got ourselves in a good position. We’re in the round of 16, we’ve got two tough games against AZ and that’s the first thing to overcome.
“The club hasn’t in recent years done well in this competition, but it’s a major European competition, we’re in the last 16 and for us there’s an opportunity there and we’ll see how far we can go in it.
“With us tomorrow night, we’ve got to make sure whatever happens at the end of the game, we’ve still got an opportunity to go back to Tottenham and win the tie.
“We understand with the home support — I’ve been here with Celtic in a Europa game, so I know the experience of it and they’re a good side — but we’ve got to make sure we play our football and dictate the tempo of the game to make sure we take a result back to Tottenham.”
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