‘You think our fans want us to not win?’: Ange Postecoglou puts reporter in his place
Ange Postecoglou has lashed out after a reporter asked about fans calling for Tottenham to lose in order to stop their biggest rivals.
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Ange Postecoglou has promised Tottenham will go all out to beat heavyweights Manchester City — even though a win would put bitter rivals Arsenal’s Premier League title hopes in their own hands.
The Premier League title is going right down to the wire with Arsenal and Man City locked in a fierce battle for the trophy.
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Ahead of Wednesday morning’s (Australian time) clash, City sit one-point behind the Gunners with an extra game in hand — although Arsenal hold a three-goal lead on goal-difference.
And the season’s not over for Tottenham as a win would leave them two points behind Aston Villa in fourth on the EPL ladder — the final spot in Champions League qualification.
Having broken a four-game losing streak against Burnley last weekend, Postecoglou’s side still has hope of snatching the spot with a final day match against Sheffield United, who are only one spot out of relegation.
However, Villa will have their fate in their own hands on the final day against Crystal Palace and likely only require a draw to lock up Champions League qualification. If Tottenham win both their games and Villa draw, Spurs still have an eight-goal deficit in goal differential.
But while plenty hangs on the result of this midweek match, some Tottenham fans are hoping Spurs lose and give Manchester City a boost to the title — anything to stop fierce rivals Arsenal from winning the Premier League for the first time since 2003/04.
It led to Postecoglou being asked about some members of the Spurs’ fan base calling for the side to lose.
“A proportion of our fans? What does that mean?” Postecoglou said.
“What proportion? 50 per cent? 20 per cent? One per cent? Just give me a rough estimate in your mind.”
The reporter replied: “I don’t know”.
“So let’s answer a question we don’t know the answer to,” Postecoglou smirked.
“People are allowed to feel the way they do but I think I’ve been really consistent and really strong in my beliefs that it’s important for this football club to get to where we want to, not look for some silver bullet.
“It’s hard work, perseverance, it’s resilience, it’s quality that will get us what we want, not to fall for any sort of false dawns or any short-term result reactions, stick to the course and thirdly, know what real success looks like.
“Real success looks like trophies. Anything else in between, bragging rights, whatever, it is absolutely meaningless to me, to anyone involved with me. We’ve got a game tomorrow we want to win.”
The reporter continued: “How might the players handle that atmosphere though? Do you think it’ll have an impact?”
Postecoglou: “What atmosphere? You haven’t told me.
“So you think a majority of our fans are going to want us to not win tomorrow? I don’t see it that way. I think a majority of our fans will create that atmosphere they’ve always created at our home games. Irrespective, we’ve got a game of football to win and that’s what we’re going to try and do.”
Postecoglou added that any fans who did want Spurs to lose to cost their rivals the title had their priorities mixed up.
“If you go by social media there’s probably 99 per cent of Spurs supporters who don’t (want to win against City), if that’s your world but please don’t tell me that’s your world … we’ll need to have a counselling session if that’s your world,” he said.
“I understand rivalry — I was part of one of the biggest ones in the last couple of years in the world with Celtic and Rangers but I will never understand if somebody wants their own team to lose. That’s not what sport’s about.”
But while Postecoglou doesn’t believe fans would want Tottenham to lose, the North London derby hatred runs hot in the veins.
Twice since the Spurs’ last title in 1960/61, Arsenal have won the trophy at Tottenham’s White Hart Lane — in 1971 and 2004.
TalkSPORT’s Rory Jennings said Postecoglou was “completely wrong” in his take.
Jennings said he respected what Postecoglou had been able to do, but said: “It shows he has no understanding of football fan culture in this country.
“Because there is no Tottenham fan, by the true definition of the term, that wants to see their team win.
“They want to lose 10-0.”
When asked by co-host Adrian Clarke about the chance of playing Champions League that is still alive for Spurs, Jennings said: “It’s completely irrelevant.”
“Finishing fourth and handing Arsenal the league is a disaster for Tottenham Hotspur,” Jennings said.
“It would be the worst possible thing they could do. Finishing fourth is completely insignificant. It’s incidental, it’s irrelevant, it’s forgotten, it means nothing.”
Jennings, who is a Chelsea fan, added that if it was his team, he’d want them to “lose in the most extreme way possible”.
Incredibly, it’s not that far away from what some supporters were saying.
The UK’s Telegraph spoke to some Spurs’ supporters in the lead up to the Arsenal match.
Spurs fan James Martin told the paper if Tottenham help Arsenal win the league: “I will hear about it for the rest of my life”.
“This is not just a short-term thing. It is the long-term thing it would create if we won Arsenal the league,” he added. “I don’t think I can live with that.
“The ideal situation would be that it is a great game, like a 4-3, and we lose it in the end.”
Another fan named Sean Weston told the paper: “No Spurs fan wants to see Arsenal lift the trophy. To help them do it would be a disaster.
“Let’s stick Oliver Skipp in goal, do the Poznan and help City make up the goal difference.”
Others were concerned it may be a draw, meaning not only would Tottenham have to settle for fifth, it would put Arsenal in the box seat to win the title on the weekend.
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