Behind the scenes of Ange Postecoglou's rage and what Mikey Moore did that was so exciting
Storm Postecoglou gusted its way through the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It blew along the touchline, bellowing on to the pitch, raged at one fan behind the dugout and then flew into the press conference room.
Those journalists inside that room knew something was coming. Word - or a forecast - had filtered through that the Australian had been very brief and surly in his TV and radio interviews. The BBC had only managed to get a grand total of 44 seconds out of him.
So in he swept into the large room within the bowels of the huge stadium and plonked himself down at the desk.
His first two answers were short but nothing out of the ordinary after a defeat and certainly there was no real fury as of yet, just an acknowledgement that Tottenham had played well in a tight game against the best team in the country, one looking set to make it four consecutive Premier League titles in a row, but had not taken any of the many chances they had created.
Enter football.london for question three, asking whether Postecoglou could see the foundations at least of how he wants his team to compete next season.
The Spurs boss seized on the question as the one to open the door to his aggravation.
"No, I think the last 48 hours has revealed to me that the foundations are fairly fragile mate. So..." he said, leaving that last unfinished sentence lingering in the air.
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Everyone in the room did a bit of a double take as they processed his answer.
Tottenham's performance had surprised a lot of people. For all of the pre-match talk about Arsenal and handing them the title, there was a general acceptance among the media that City, on a 40-plus match unbeaten streak, were going to make light work anyway of a Spurs team that had only just stopped a four-game losing streak.
That was far from the case though. Inside a slightly subdued atmosphere, the hosts had really taken the game to Manchester City for long periods, having the better of the possession with far more passes, and 10 shots to City's eight, with the two visiting goalkeepers having to make six saves between them to Guglielmo Vicario's three.
Yet here was Postecoglou, with the menacing features of a bull that was about to charge.
"How do you mean?" he was asked in response. "That's just what I think," came the terse reply.
When pushed whether it was the atmosphere inside the stadium that had bothered him, he added: "I just think the last 48 hours have revealed a fair bit to me. That's alright. It just means I've got to go back to the drawing board with some things."
So was it the Spurs fans who had irked him, some singing 'Are you watching Arsenal?' after Erling Haaland had touched home a breakaway goal in the second half? A few could even be spotted doing the Poznan dance with their backs to the play, the City fans' celebration, after the goal.
"I'm not interested mate. I just don't care," said the 58-year-old of that.
football.london had to keep pushing. It's our job after all along with the other reporters to get the answers for the fans. So we asked whether that fragility Postecoglou had spotted was inside the club or outside it?
"Outside, inside, everywhere. It's been an interesting exercise," he replied.
So was it instead to do with the players who had fared better than most expected? Had they not been as devastated afterwards as Postecoglou had wanted, having lost the chance of Champions League football next season with the defeat?
Cristian Romero and James Maddison, both having played well on the whole during the game, could be seen hugging and laughing with Pep Guardiola at the final whistle, the City boss playfully pushing around the Argentinean World Cup winner. Postecoglou would likely not have seen that though as he stormed down the tunnel not long after the referee had put the whistle to his lips.
Postecoglou would not be drawn on the exact reasons behind his fury.
"It's just my observations mate. I'm not going to tell you, because it's for me. I'm the one who's got to do it," he said. "You can make your own assessments of what's happened. I understand. I probably misread the situation as to what I think is important in your endeavour to become a winning team, but that's ok. That's why I'm here."
He added that it would not affect his summer plans for plenty of change, which were already set.
So was it tied up with the Arsenal-baiting around the game from the supporters when Postecoglou had maintained that he did not expect that from those who actually attended the match at the stadium, feeling that was more a social media construct?
Perhaps that sinking feeling of misreading that the fanbase was exemplified by his first clash with a Spurs supporter since his arrival as someone sat behind the dugout really riled him up with whatever they shouted at him.
Caught on camera by another supporter in that west stand, whatever was said by the fan, the Australian bellowed back what sounded like: "What did you say? What did you say before that? Just so I know who you are. Don’t worry mate I gotcha, I know who you are alright."
So the Arsenal-baiting must surely be the reason for his ire? Well, maybe not.
"I'm just not interested mate. Maybe I'm out of step, but I just don't care, I just want to win," he said. "I want to be successful at this football club, it's why I was brought in. So what other people, how they want to feel, and what their priorities are, are of zero interest to me. I know what's important to build a winning team, that's what I need to concentrate on."
He did at least admit that the subdued nature of the stadium, the fans only really cheering when Spurs pressed forward, rather than roaring them on to do so, had an effect on the players in his mind.
"Of course it does. It is what it is. I can't dictate what people do," he remarked. "They're allowed to express themselves any way they want. But yeah, when we've got late winners in games it's because the crowd's helped us."
football.london pushed again to try to get some clarity. Had whatever Postecoglou had seen in the past 48 hours steeled his resolve in doing what he needed to do at Spurs?
"I already know what I want to do, it's just I've got to make some adjustments to how I do it," he said.
That last line on the subject indicated that the gloves are now well and truly off. Tottenham Hotspur will need to change to what Postecoglou wants it to be - the machine he needs it to be - or yet another silverware-laden manager will walk out of those doors having failed to transform a club where success is but a distant memory.
The attempts of football.london and a couple of other journalists to get answers from Postecoglou were replayed over and over on Sky Sports on a loop as the football world tried to make sense of them.
The whole thing bore certain strands of Antonio Conte's exasperated and explosive final press conference at St Mary's Stadium, but it was delivered with more brooding menace and mystery than the Italian's all-out attack on his players and the club's mentality.
The players were not the ones in the crosshairs this time and that was backed up by a tetchy exchange with one journalist when they were raised as a potential subject of Postecoglou's ire.
"Well I think, unless I was watching a different game, we matched it with the best team in the land for the last four years, unless someone saw it differently," he snapped back.
"Well, doesn't it pan out that... why wouldn't I be happy if we've matched the team that is kind of the benchmark. I don't understand. So, yeah I was happy with the application. Of course I was. That was evident."
That only really leaves, to justify the 'outside, inside, everywhere' response to football.london, the fans' mentality around the game and perhaps a similar mood among some within the club that it was as important not to allow Spurs' north London rivals to break their title drought.
Football tribalism is a unique thing. Different fans see things in different ways. There is no real right or wrong when it comes to supporting your club as long as you don't step over any line.
Before this game, the Spurs fans were split into three camps. Some just wanted Tottenham to lose, wanting Postecoglou to put out a team of kids, some even joked that various staff members like chairman Daniel Levy should play.
'Put Bryan Gil in goal' one suggested, anything to stop that lot down the road parading the Premier League trophy through the streets of the capital and then bragging about it for the next year at least.
Postecoglou is not the one who would hear the bragging and jokes non-stop from Arsenal-supporting mates in the office or WhatsApp chats endlessly for months on end.
Then there were the section of fans who wanted Spurs to win but were not going to be devastated if City did get the upper hand, whether because of the Arsenal factor or some believing that Tottenham would benefit from being in the Europa League next season, a competition more winnable without teams dropping down from the Champions League in its new format.
Then there were the section of supporters that Postecoglou expected there to be the largest one. Those who simply wanted their own team to win regardless of what was going on around them. Despite his hopes, that was probably the smallest group in reality.
The Australian said in the build-up to the game that he could not understand anyone wanting the team they support to lose and he refused to believe that anything more than a minority of Spurs fans could feel that way.
Those comments and his post-match ones infuriated those who did feel that way. Nobody likes to be chastised, particularly a long-suffering bunch of supporters who have been starved of success for so long at a club often mired in mediocrity.
They lashed out in return, pointing to anything from the team's recent struggles, the cup exits this season and rightly asking where this performance against City had been in the derbies against Arsenal and Chelsea, as well as the woeful trips to Chelsea and Fulham and the double despair of the fixtures against Wolves.
The suggestion was that had Postecoglou's team fared better in those encounters then this scenario would never have arisen as Spurs would have been fighting at the top themselves.
Some claimed that Postecoglou could never understand such a deep-running hatred between two clubs. That holds no real water though for the man had spent the previous two years slap bang in the middle of the Old Firm rivalry, one of the world's most vicious and complicated divides.
Postecoglou will have alienated some fans with his comments and there could now be less patience among some for the changes he is looking to implement, but perhaps that is the reason for picking such a fight, even if he never actually directly picked it.
The Australian wants a club that thinks of nothing but itself. Watch him on the touchline during a game and you see him berate his players whenever they waste time arguing against decisions the officials have made. Postecoglou hates anything that distracts from the singular goal of winning. Everything else is just a waste of breath and time.
If he has started a fight with certain sections of the fanbase then for him perhaps so be it, if in his mind it forces even some to reassess in his words "what their priorities are". He wants to rid Spurs of having a 'small club mentality' of constantly looking over their fence at their neighbours and ignoring their own backyard, an analogy he has used in recent weeks.
His comments to football.london that he could also see the fragility inside the club would appear to suggest he has come across some similar attitudes within Hotspur Way this week. That he said he needs to go back to the drawing board suggests the culture he has tried to create within Spurs has not seeped into every corner of the building.
The vagueness of Postecoglou's comments naturally leaves questions over whether he means those above him at the club, staff around the first team set-up or perhaps even some of his coaches. Without being specific, the Australian ended up throwing the net over everyone, again a dangerous move when allies are required.
The drama around it all overshadowed plenty of positives from the match. Postecoglou showed plenty of tactical flexibility within his system, setting up with a false nine in Pape Matar Sarr - occasionally James Maddison - which worked perfectly against City for much of the game. It was a tactical masterstroke that was lost in the noise of the aftermath.
"All the game they (Tottenham) were incredibly aggressive, so I suffered from minute one," said Guardiola.
"The people suspect, ‘no, I’m not going to win, we don’t want to give the title to Arsenal,’ it was completely the opposite."
He added: "Spurs are so fast with Kulusevski, Maddison, Son, Johnson, and the runs of Porro and Sarr, they have a lot of weapons. We knew we had to suffer."
Much has been made of Tottenham needing a Plan B by pundits and the fans and here it was, an overloaded mobile midfield which helped them get more of the ball with Son Heung-min and Brennan Johnson remaining wide.
Dejan Kulusevski came into the role in the second half and was equally effective in troubling the visitors. The Swede fashioned a couple of good chances including one shot that bounced agonisingly around between the keeper's legs.
At the base of the midfield were Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Rodrigo Bentancur, who enjoyed differing fortunes. The Dane worked hard in a rare start but his occasional technical struggles in the Australian's system were on show for a couple of misplaced passes and one horrible sliced effort that flew straight to Phil Foden, only to bring forth a wonderful reaction save from Vicario from the youngster's volley.
Bentancur was excellent in what was shaping up to be one of his best displays since returning from that cruciate ligament injury. The Uruguayan was everywhere, showing the composure on the ball that made everything tick. He was getting up and down the pitch, supporting the attack in one moment and helping the defence in the next. He had one early shot that forced Ederson into a flying save to tip it over the crossbar.
Then the midfielder picked up a yellow card in the 36th minute for wiping out Foden and it proved to be his downfall. When the same player seized on to a closed down Romero pass in the 51st minute and swept towards the Spurs box, Bentancur tried to keep pace with him but couldn't dare challenge him with that booking hanging over his head.
Foden ran on unopposed and eventually his cross found De Bruyne, who teed up Haaland to score.
Bentancur was taken off three minutes later, knowing his performance had been compromised. He walked over and shook Postecoglou's hand before unleashing his fury on his poor, unsuspecting dugout seat. That leather upholstery had no idea what was coming as the midfielder launched his studs into it, kicking out over and over again before hurling a water bottle to the floor.
Little Bryan Gil looked up at his friend with wide eyes, knowing he had no chance of stepping in, instead simply patting his team-mate's leg once he had finally sat down. On the other side, 18-year-old Tyrese Hall, who had completed a wonderful week which included a new five-year contract by being named in a Premier League squad for the first time, could only watch on and wonder if this is what first team life is normally like.
Postecoglou was asked about Bentancur's explosive moment. Can you guess the answer? Yep, you probably did.
"I didn't notice. Don't care," he growled.
The truth is he probably wouldn't have had too much issue with the incident because it showed someone furious that they could not positively influence the result. Bentancur would have been unhappy with coming off so early but more so with his compromised display. An experienced three-time Serie A winner, the Uruguayan would have known that against the trickery and skill of City, he had become a walking target.
One big positive was the display of Radu Dragusin. The young Romanian slotted into the backline and looked utterly at ease with the skilful City players running at him.
The big, composed centre-back made four tackles, two interceptions and won one aerial duel and as one of Serie A's best defenders in the air this season, Spurs looked far more comfortable at defending set pieces with him in the line-up.
Dragusin's inclusion meant Micky van de Ven was utilised as a left-back. Postecoglou made it clear last weekend that he had resisted the urge to do so before for fear of causing more damage to the Dutchman's hamstrings.
That is because the inverted left-back role requires constant running up and down the flanks, rather than occasional sprints a centre-back must undertake. The difference was clear for Van de Ven and within half an hour he was blowing hard, waving away one potential pass from a team-mate at one point.
Van de Ven was solid in the role after some shaky early moments, if not as spectacular as he is in the middle of the backline, and he was less able to carry out the midfield element of the role, although the false nine system meant he didn't have to as much as he normally would.
The attacking wide men, Son and Johnson, both threated in moments. The latter played three key passes - only bettered on both teams by Maddison's four - while the Spurs captain got into dangerous areas, with two shots on target from four attempts.
The biggest of all came from a Johnson pass which sent him clear on goal, but City keeper Stefan Ortega, having replaced Ederson after a collision with Romero, got a leg out to block the South Korean's shot as fans across London and Manchester held their breath.
"You'd back on Sonny but the big moments we didn't come up with today. It wasn't just him. Kulusevski a couple times, we had some decent chances and I was real disappointed with their first goal," said Postecoglou.
"We just lacked some discipline again and it's kind of been the story of our season where we haven't capitalised on big moments and we've lacked some discipline in our football. Again, that's stuff we just need to keep trying to improve."
Some Spurs fans celebrated Son's miss on social media as Arsenal fans held their heads in their hands. It was a huge moment in the title race and Postecoglou's feelings on celebrating your own team missing a big chance would not need to be asked for.
He would no doubt say that such a moment is exactly what he is trying to remove from Tottenham, the celebration of others' misery over your own success. The Spurs fans would likely counter that they need to see that success on the horizon first.
The game was ultimately sealed in added time when Spurs were caught out while trying to find a leveller and Pedro Porro brought down Jeremy Doku and Haaland stroked home the resulting penalty.
Another positive for Tottenham and a proud moment for those within the club's academy was the sight of 16-year-old Mikey Moore making history as the youngest Spurs player to appear in the Premier League.
The teenage attacker is a huge talent within the club's youth set-up and this was just reward for a season that has brought both wonderful moments and low points with injury before he really took his chance to shine in first team training in the past month, not fazed one bit by those around him.
"He's been training well with us, we wanted to get him some game time, it just hasn't panned out in the last few games, it was an opportunity to just get him out there," said Postecoglou.
"He's still got a long way to go, he's only 16, he's a great kid. It's a reward, because we've had him training with us and he hasn't been playing with the U21s either, we thought it wouldn't be fair to not reward his hard work with an appearance."
Spurs were keen to take Moore on the post-season trip to Melbourne but have now decided to allow him to link up with the England squad for the European U17s Championship instead. He will arrive with his international team-mates after first being involved in the game at Sheffield United this weekend. The youngster is then expected to be included in the pre-season tour to Japan and Korea, which will help him take further steps in his development.
The talented teen did not look out of place in the game, making one clearance inside his own box and what was perhaps most exciting about his 10 minutes or so of added time was something often said about the best young players. He had no fear of telling the more senior professionals where to pass the ball, pointing to team-mates in space and running into it himself.
Most youngsters are nervous and simply concentrate on what they can do. Some just find the step up a natural one with huge confidence in their ability and hopefully that continues to be the case for the youngster, who as Postecoglou said, still has a long way to go. He has only played two games of U21s football for the club.
As it is for Moore, now it is all about the future for Tottenham, for those who will be involved and those who won't. This summer is set to provide a crossroads for many in the squad and also perhaps for the club itself.
Some fans will not like the way Postecoglou spoke after the defeat and it's a dangerous game taking on portions of the fanbase, especially during a rebuild which requires patience.
For Postecoglou it could have all been prepared, a chance he was willing to take to make the club and its supporters look at things from a different perspective because for decade after decade after decade the same old ways have brought nothing to truly celebrate.
Whether it works will be down to Postecoglou and the work he puts in, as well as the backing he gets from those above this summer to find the round pegs for the round holes in his system.
This season has brought progress even if the second half of the campaign has not matched the first. A point or more at Sheffield United will secure fifth place and European football in a season in which few expected it after those events in August last year
Many have been calling for someone to take a firm grip on the north London club, shake it up and drag it in the right direction when other bigger names have failed. It has happened at the other team down the Seven Sisters Road and worked, and Postecoglou is trying to do similar.
The Australian has always divided opinion in his first seasons at clubs, with players, staff members and fans unsure with the mixed results and performance they see until they all get on board in the second term as everything clicks.
One thing is for sure and it is that Guardiola can sense a potential threat in a fully-formed version of a Postecoglou Tottenham Hotspur.
"They play with a lot of pride and intensity and it's so difficult to play against them,” he said on Tuesday night. "Spurs will in the future be unbelievable if they stick with the manager."
Tottenham have chopped and changed managers at will over recent years. Remarkably, on Sunday, the Australian will be the first Spurs boss to complete a full season at the club in half a decade.
"Change is difficult, it's relentless, it's uncompromising, it's challenging, it doesn't leave you a lot of leeway to feel comfortable. It's part of that process and my job is to navigate through that," Postecoglou said last month.
It's time to get behind something at Tottenham Hotspur, even if it means upsetting some people along the way. The club needs to change and it needs to walk along a new path. Then sooner rather than later other teams will be the ones trying to stop them from claiming the biggest prizes.
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