Ange Postecoglou reveals when his biggest fight at Tottenham will come and whether he's happy

Ange Postecoglou has detailed exactly when he believes his biggest fight will come at Tottenham Hotspur and made it clear that he will be up for it.

The Australian has had a tough week at the club, taken aback by the desire of many fans for Spurs to lose their match against Manchester City in order to prevent Arsenal having an advantage in the Premier League title race and then watching his team lose that game anyway when they had been the better side for much of it.

The Tottenham boss also had an altercation with a fan behind the dugout, spoke about the club having fragile foundations inside and out and on Friday told football.london that the whole affair was "probably the worst experience I’ve had as a football manager in a game" because he was worried people would question his integrity if Spurs lost to the three-time champions.

So after a week that seemed to knock the stuffing out of him, there was a simple question for Postecoglou - is he still happy at the north London club?

"I’ve lost five out of six games, I’m not going to come in here and be happy. Look, I’m hoping you guys after a year with me have understood I am who I am. I can’t hide who I am and what I believe," he said. "If I’m not happy about something, I’m going to say I’m not happy. We’ve lost five out of six games. I’m gutted.

"I’m not going to walk into a press conference and try to paint a rosy picture. Especially on the back of the preceding 24 hours where like I said, it was the most unenjoyable experience I’ve had on the touchline in my whole career. That’s 26 years of football. Where I’m sitting on the sideline and not really enjoying the battle against one of the best. I could have sent in [my assistant] Chris Davies, mate, and probably everyone's fears would be allayed and everything will be great. But at least everyone knows how I feel.

"But am up for the fight? Absolutely, mate. I love it. This is why I’ve come here and this ain’t the last fight I’m going to have, for sure. I’ll be honest with you, the biggest fight I’ll have at this football club is when we get close to success. That will be the biggest one."

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On that recent form, he added: "I just felt it would have been disingenuous for me to say that we were in a good place when we've lost five of our last six games. It wasn't just about the other night. We knew we had some big tests coming and we fell well short in these last five out of six games, and I don't think we have the right to, to finish above where we are right now. So it wasn't just about the other night.

“I can spin it a different way for sure and say look, we finished eighth last year, we've been out of Europe this year, we'll be in Europe next year. We brought some pretty good footballers to the club, some young, exciting talent. We're definitely playing different football, close to what the expectations were when they appointed me, but that's not a good starting point for us to improve.

"A good starting point is to say, yeah, we've made some progress, we've still got some way to go, and we need to address these things, and it wasn't just the other night. This last period has shown me that if we want to compete against the best, the margins are small, but they're probably the hardest to come into."

On Sunday, Spurs travel to Sheffield United knowing that a point will secure them a fifth-place finish and guaranteed Europa League football next season. Postecoglou was asked whether getting into that competition was more important or any different than potentially getting Europa Conference League football.

"Do you want me to park the bus?!" he joked before saying: "Yeah, it does matter. I think it's been misconstrued that somehow people didn’t think I cared about the Champions League. All I kept saying was, of course I want to finish as high as possible, but it wasn’t going to disguise the work we needed to do.

"It’s the same at the weekend. I want us to win. We haven’t had some great results, our performances have fluctuated, so we need a strong performance, we need to win. That will get us fifth spot, we’ll know where we finish and what competition we’re in next year. I think that’s important.

"But again, that doesn’t change anything in terms of how I feel about the work we need to do, but it is important we win, absolutely, coming off the back of our recent form. We played awfully well the other night. If we play that well again at the weekend, we’ve got a good chance of getting a result."

Postecoglou admitted that there were too many distractions around the game against Pep Guardiola's side in midweek with the narrative surrounding it and Arsenal.

"I just think when you're trying to achieve at this level, whatever it is you're trying to achieve you have to be totally focused on your objective. You can't get distracted by anything," explained the 58-year-old. "Next time they'll be another issue, they'll always be something that will try to drag you away.

"The discipline is to say what the most important thing is to prepare ourselves for victory and everyone's aligned in that, and when everyone's aligned in that, we've got a better chance of success. But if you're not, you've got to deal with this and that and 'what about this?' and I just don't think you can be truly successful at this level with the margins you need if you get distracted."

On whether people within the club were distracted, he added: "I sat in here [on Monday] and all the questions I got were about that topic. I'm distracted! We're human beings, mate. Of course. Do you want me to say there's a culprit who caused everything? It doesn't happen mate, that's not how it works.

"All I'm saying mate is there was always going to be issues and how you deal with them and how we deal with them as a football club is going to be important and how you go through these experiences. OK, if you want a culprit, it's me, because I didn't take it seriously.

"That's what I think happened. I just didn't really understand what was going on. I just didn't think that that was the case [that Spurs fans would want their own team to lose]. If I had my time again, yes I would do things differently, I would address the media differently the day before. I would probably address people in the club because they're looking to me for direction. So if you want a head on a stick, it's my ugly mug mate. There you are."

One accusation that did come Postecoglou's way from some Tottenham fans was that he did not understand the level of the rivalry between the two north London clubs, despite having spent the previous two years slap bang in the middle of one of the game's fiercest rivalries - The Old Firm one in Glasgow.

"I do get it and, do you know? When I started at Celtic, it was the same sort of discussion. Don’t forget, when I took over Rangers had won it the year before, and Celtic hadn't won anything, which is quite extraordinary for that football club," he explained. "Like, they've gone from trebles to not one trophy, and when I first got there, there was a lot of talk - some internal as well - about what Rangers were doing.

"And I was pretty consistent and it would be on public record, saying 'we've got to worry about ourselves. Don't worry about anyone else. Just be the best you can be'. And I've said a number of times that if you run your own race then when you get to the finish line, have a look around and see where you finish. Don't worry about what the person next to you is doing.

"And I've always been consistent with that. And I was up there. I thought it was really important up there because I felt like there was too much of an obsession with what was happening at Rangers at the time because they were ahead.

“We were never going to catch them if that's what we were always obsessed about because you can't control that. You can't control what another club does. You want to stop another club winning a trophy? Win it yourselves! That's the answer. That doesn't mean you don't want them to lose. I get that absolutely."

He added: "I felt that living up there that as much as people were happy we were winning they were just as happy with the other mob losing. So I get that, but the notion of not wanting to win for any reason? I can't understand it. So I don't think it's the right mentality to have.

"If you want to be successful you just worry about yourself. The best just worry about themselves. Be the best I can be. If that's short, then I'll get up next time and go the next time that extra bit. Hate my rivals, I want them to lose, but all I'm concerned about is myself. But I didn't hear anyone say that last week. All I heard was that it's okay to feel that way and say that it's understandable.

"So part of me thinks I am kind of on the outside on the subject, and I did get it wrong, but I won't change. Like I said, I, I'm fully respectful about you, but I'm firmly on the other side of, you know, I just think you worry about yourself."

While Postecoglou said it's not something he would speak to club staff about not happening again, he did explain what he did at Celtic.

"What I'm hoping I can do is like I did at Celtic and provide a platform where the fans get what they want, and if I can give the fans what they really want - because as much as they may say 'well, you know, they're ecstatic if their greatest rival doesn't win something' - what they really want is success," he said. "That's what it boils down to. So I can give them success, then maybe I can sort of drive that message a little bit better."

Immediately after Sunday's game at Bramall Lane, Spurs will fly off across the world for a friendly in Postecoglou's home city of Melbourne against Newcastle United. Former Tottenham man and now Newcastle defender Kieran Tripper said this week that the post-season trip is "not ideal" and that "it’s not like it’s Benidorm, round the corner, it’s 25 hours away".

While Postecoglou had never heard of Benidorm, which prompted a brief conversation about that Spanish location, he admitted that the circumstances were different for Spurs compared to Newcastle.

"Our situation is a bit different from Newcastle’s. They’ve had a European season, Champions League, it’s been a big season. We haven’t. It’s no secret that part of this is exposure but also revenue for us," he said. "I certainly wouldn’t have allowed it to happen if we were in Europe this year and had a bigger game schedule. I probably would have said no to it, and I don’t think the club would have expected us to go.

"If we’re in Europe next year, I don’t think you’ll be seeing this happen. I don’t think it’s ideal, but I think each situation is unique. For us, on the back of our season, to play one more game two days after the end of the season, there is substance to it for us. We had a discussion with the playing group really early on about it. They understood why we’re doing it and we all made a commitment to go and that’s going to happen."

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