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Every word Ange Postecoglou said on which Tottenham stars stayed at home and why Reguilon didn't

Ange Postecoglou has been speaking in Budapest ahead of Tottenham's Europa League match against Ferencvaros
-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)


Tottenham Hotspur take on Ferencvaros in the Europa League on Thursday and Ange Postecoglou held a press conference in Budapest ahead of the game.

The 59-year-old is looking for his north London side to continue their fine form of four straight wins, the most recent of which was the 3-0 triumph at Manchester United. The Spurs boss was speaking to the media in Hungary ahead of the league stage clash against Ferencvaros, who are coached by London-born Pascal Jansen, who earlier had admitted that Tottenham were one of the teams he followed as a youngster.

football.london's Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to Postecoglou at the press conference within the Groupama Stadium in Budapest. Here's every single word the Australian said ahead of the match.

What have you made of James Maddison this season?

I think Madders has been outstanding so far this year. His form from the first game has been really strong physically. I've said a few times that he's back at the levels where he can play in the manner he wants to and do everything he wants in a game. In the last two or three weeks he's had an effect on goals and assists as well, which always gets highlighted with players in his position, but his general play has been outstanding. I'm sure if he continues in that vein he will be in the conversation for England squads moving forward.

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You've got a special connection with Ferenc Puskas, how do you remember those years and what are you expecting from tomorrow?

I do have a special connection, for me anyway, with Mr Puskas. I was blessed to be able to spend three years in the company of one of the greatest footballers of all time but more importantly for me an outstanding person. He was one of the greatest people I've ever come across and I feel really fortunate to have had those three years with him, where I was able to sit there and talk to a person who in the football world had done everything but more importantly a person who I had so much respect and admiration for.

I still think about it and it still feels unreal to me that I got that opportunity being based in Australia. As you get older you keep those experiences even more. I would love for him to still be around today to see where I am because he played a role in me becoming certainly the football manager I am. He played a role in that but also the person I’ve become.

I'm looking forward to the game tomorrow. It's going to be a great challenge. Every European game, especially away from home, is going to be difficult. I know in this stadium, the atmosphere is going to be good. They get behind their team, they love European football here and I think it's one that me and the players are looking forward to.

Why has Dominic Solanke settled in so well at Tottenham?

Obviously, we didn’t sign Dom until late in the window and he was really keen to get his Tottenham career up and running as quickly as possible and then he had a false start. He got injured really early in the game at Leicester and then proceeded to miss a couple so for him it's probably been a little bit frustrating but I knew what we were bringing to the football club. I was really confident that the way we play and his attributes, that he was going to be a great fit.

I could see that from the first day of training, but we had to be patient. He's getting up there now in terms of physical fitness, I think every game he looks like he's getting stronger. It's a demanding role up front for us, it's not just about goals, it’s about his link-up play and pressing.

We've put a fair amount of workload on him, even though he's missed a couple of games. I can see he's getting strong. Obviously the goals help. He's a striker. He wants to score goals and that helps him to feel better about the beginning of his career here.

I think he’s in great condition, he's already made a big impact at our football club, but I'm even more excited about what’s ahead and the potential we have as a team and he as an individual and that he can make a significant impact.

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Just as a follow-up, I know you wouldn't advise an international manager but from Dom's perspective and fitness wise, is he ready to play and be selected for England?

Yeah there are no issues around him from a physical perspective. I get enough stick for my own selections, mate so I am not going to get involved in anyone else's selections, but yeah Dom is fine.

Can I ask you about the squad, is there anyone you've left behind and we've seen Sergio Reguilon is here too although he can't play, why is that?

He's a Spurs player, mate. I mean, we've got a training session so it's a balance that we need 20 players for training, that's what we do for match day minus one. It didn't make sense to bring someone like Radu or a couple of guys who have got injuries because we won't get back until late on Thursday. We've brought a couple of young guys in. The academy played last night and we didn't want to disrupt that, but we brought a couple of young guys and Reguilon to make sure our training is really good today. Squad-wise, from the weekend Destiny hasn't travelled. It's nothing significant, his injury but again it didn't make sense to bring him over if he wasn't going to play. Radu is suspended and Sonny is back in London doing rehab, but the rest of the squad plus the young players have travelled.

With no Destiny Udogie, presumably Ben Davies plays at left-back and with no Radu here, is Archie Gray capable of playing in Europe at a centre-back or was that just a pre-season thing to get him minutes?

No, I think Archie can play centre-back. He's obviously played full-back, played midfield, played probably left-back. He's a pretty versatile player and that's one of the reasons we were really excited to bring him to the club. He takes in information well and with Radu being suspended and Destiny out, we'll definitely need him at the back. We've got a couple of different options about where we use him, but I'd be comfortable using him in any of those areas.

We spoke to Pascal Jansen earlier, he mentioned your game against his Alkmaar before, what are your memories of that and what advice would you give him as a manager making his way overseas?

Well, neither of us played against each other. Let me tell you that mate but I remember the game well. It was one of my early doors at Celtic and it was a very, very good AZ Alkmaar team that Pascal had. It was two tough games but important games for me because European football that year was the beginnings and I knew it would be important for Celtic's season. Yeah, real challenging games both of them. I remember them well. They had a very good team, he had them set up well and really intense games, high-tempo games. It's great to see he is continuing on with his managerial career and looking forward to seeing him again tomorrow night, but I expect an equally challenging encounter as we did when we played them.

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