Ange Postecoglou has said some of the criticism he receives is offensive, personal and disrespectful. The Tottenham manager, whose attack-minded tactics have been questioned – most recently after Thursday’s 4-3 Carabao Cup quarter-final win over Manchester United – wonders whether this is influenced by his Australian accent or the disdain he shows for established practices.
Postecoglou said he saw the same thing happen to Unai Emery at Arsenal and Nuno Espírito Santo when the Portuguese was in charge of Spurs. Emery, now at Aston Villa, was ridiculed at times for his difficulties with English pronunciation. Nuno is doing well at Nottingham Forest after an unhappy 17-game spell at Spurs in 2021.
The current Tottenham manager took aim at the Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher, who said after the United tie that Spurs needed to change their approach; they almost blew a 3-0 lead with shaky defending. Carragher was not mentioned by name but Postecoglou knew who the questioner was talking about.
“Jamie Carragher, mate … you can name him, he’ll enjoy that,” he said. “People tell me he likes me so that’s a good thing. They say: ‘Did you hear what he said? But he likes you as a person.’ So that’s important to me.”
Postecoglou accepts that pundits such as Carragher are there to offer opinions and “it is healthy if it’s coming from the right sort of place”. The trouble is – and Postecoglou was not referring to Carragher here – that it is not always the case.
“Some of the other stuff, I kind of don’t understand because it’s just about getting headlines,” he said. “There is some stuff out there which I find … and at the appropriate time I’ll call it out … just offensive towards me. I don’t know … I’m up here with a silly accent and maybe I don’t take things as seriously as people want me to and I’m fairly dismissive of them. But that’s all right. I love my life and I’ll keep doing what I’m doing.
“It’s not the first time in my career. You feel that 26 years of hard graft [as a manager] should get you a little more respect and I’m not the only one – I have seen it happen to other managers. I saw it happen to Unai. I saw it happen to Nuno when he was here.
“I said last week that we have crossed the Rubicon in terms of how we treat people sometimes. I get that not everyone will be a fan of the way I do things and even the way I play. People will have different opinions – that’s normal, that’s healthy. But some of it has been pretty dismissive.”
The style debate continues to rage, sparked in part by Postecoglou’s comment immediately after the United game. “Are you not entertained?” he said, echoing the famous line from Russell Crowe’s Maximus in Gladiator.
“Top film, top actor and a fellow Aussie,” Postecoglou said. “I genuinely believe that a big part of our game is … maybe entertainment is the wrong word, but you go to the game to feel emotions that in your day-to-day existence you don’t get the opportunity to – both exhilarating and anxious. That’s what we love about it. There’s a lot of suffering in there but if you come out on the right side it’s an exhilarating feeling.”
Postecoglou had another film reference at the ready when asked whether he saw himself as some sort of messiah for the game. “I don’t think I’m an evangelist; to quote Monty Python, I’m just a naughty little boy,” he said, with a nod to Life of Brian. “It’s what I love about football. There has got to be differences, people who are prepared to do things a little bit differently. That allows opinion and emotion.
“We all want to leave a little bit of a footprint on our journeys. I want that to be my footprint – that I was successful in a different way because that stays in people’s consciousness longer than doing things normally.
“It’s a bit of human nature but I don’t think we know what we want. We get something and we want something more. Whatever makes you happy, hold on to it, cherish it and embrace it. We’ve all got that uncle who, even on the best day, says it’s raining outside. Even though we’ve just won the lottery, we have to share it with someone because two people won it.”
Postecoglou was without 10 players against United but he hopes to welcome back Destiny Udogie from injury and Timo Werner from illness at home to Liverpool on Sunday.
“For the Carabao Cup semi-final [also against Liverpool], we’ve got Pape Sarr and James Maddison suspended [for the first leg after getting yellow cards against United],” Postecoglou said. “If I lose anyone else between now and then, I’ll go nuts.”