Ange Postecoglou has revealed that Destiny Udogie is likely to only play one game for Tottenham this week. The Italian international has once again featured regularly for the team this season, playing 21 of the Spurs' 24 games so far in 2024/25.
Tottenham's current injury crisis, as well as Djed Spence's ineligibility in the Europa League, has resulted in Postecoglou playing Udogie more than he would have liked. Spurs' No.13 came off injured midway through the first half of last Sunday's 5-0 win over Southampton and there are question marks over whether he will be involved in Thursday's Carabao Cup quarter-final tie against Manchester United.
Postecoglou has revealed that fatigue is currently the issue for Udogie, who wanted to play on in the game against Southampton before Spurs decided not to risk him given their rotten luck on the injury front. Speaking ahead of the Manchester United cup showdown, the Spurs boss has indicated that Udogie will only play in one of this week's home games against United and Liverpool.
"He's probably the only one we haven’t given a rest to," said the 59-year-old. "He wanted to continue on the night but the game had started well so we took him off. It’s just fatigue and the reality is if he plays tomorrow he won’t play Sunday and vice versa because he’s one of the few.
"We’ve managed to give Pedro a rest on the other side. The full back positions are pretty demanding for us. But Destiny has had to play in Europe because Djed’s not available and since Ben’s been out he’s played every game. So just fatigue."
Sergio Reguilon has been back on the bench for Tottenham recently but he was not amongst the substitutes for Sunday's 5-0 win at Southampton. Postecoglou has explained the Spaniard's absence was due to a tooth extraction but the left-back is available for selection once again.
"He had a tooth extraction that kept him out. He was bedridden but he’s available for selection," outlined the head coach. "He's available so he's available for selection and again tomorrow we’ll get Biss back but everyone else is out and he will be back in the squad and it will be an opportunity to use him because we’ll have probably only four first team players on the subs’ bench of which he’ll be one."
A number of Tottenham supporters made their feelings towards Spurs chairman Daniel Levy clear in Sunday's game on the south coast. Postecoglou was asked about the chants coming from the away end and how he deals with it.
“You deal with it as I’ve always done," said Postecoglou. "It’s not my first experience. The first two or three games at Celtic they were throwing tennis balls on the pitch in protest, actually disrupting games. So it’s not the first time I’ve had to face this kind of thing.
“I always feel my role in that is, it’s not telling people what to do, but hopefully trying to guide the football club into a place where all these things can be resolved in a secondary way where the focus, particularly on match day, is just on us winning games of football. I’ve always felt that’s been my role and that’s what I’ve tried to do my whole career.
“It’s not the first time I’ve been at a club where there’s disenchantment, whether that be with a board or an owner or some aspect of a football club. The reason I don’t take positions on this is because I think my more important function is to make sure that the football side of the football club I’m involved in is guiding us forward rather than the other way around.
“There’s no real kind of benefit in any other focus for me as manager of this football club, of me putting all my energies into convincing people one way or another about anything, whether that’s fans or the board or media. I think what we do on the field, particularly on matchdays is of primary importance."
It was then put to Postecoglou if chanting can affect player performance on a matchday.
"I think it does in terms of. When you play at home, it can be a major advantage if the support is all aligned with everything else at the football club for sure," said Postecoglou. "It does help but at the same time you can’t mandate that, you can’t tell people how to feel as I keep saying. If there are sort of fractures in that, then of course you are not getting the maximum out, like anything else, your organisation.
"It can have an effect. But at the same time, we as the people out there, myself and especially the players on game day, we have got to be able to still maintain the level of performance to get the job done irrespective. Hopefully that means we bring everyone along on the journey."
Tottenham supporters are desperate for the club to win some much-needed silverware after last lifting a trophy back in 2008. So could winning a trophy potentially mend that rift between owner and fans?
“It’s the unknown. If I go on the general sentiment since I’ve been in this job, it feels like a trophy will just make this place transform into something so… let’s see," explained the former Celtic boss. “Me personally? Like I keep saying, I want more than that.
"I don’t think it’s just about getting a trophy. I think when you want to build a successful, sustainable club in terms of competing for trophies every year, it’s more than that. But it wouldn’t be the first time I was wrong about something while I’ve been in this job. Maybe a trophy is what it needs, I don’t know."
Tottenham's 5-0 win at Southampton resulted in Russell Martin losing his job at St Mary's. Martin's exit came on the same day Gary O'Neil also waved goodbye to Wolves after only two wins from 16 league games this term.
Postecoglou has acknowledged that those in the hotseat are not given time to build anything anymore but, regardless of the short tenure of Premier League managers now, he's planning for the long-term future in north London.
“It could be confidence, it could be naivety, it could be I don’t care whether I’m allowed to see it out. I’m just not going to change," he said when pushed on what gives him the confidence that he can build something at Tottenham.
“I may be a dinosaur in that, but I still believe in legacy coaching. I still believe in doing things that last and make a difference. It goes in the face of everything else that is happening in the world of football.
“I don’t know what the average tenure of a Premier League manager is but I would hazard a guess that it would be less than 18 months, probably. I see very rarely managers going beyond their second year, unless they’ve won something or the club has stuck by them for some particular reason.
“I keep saying, I feel blessed that I’m at the stage of my career that I am where I’m just not interested in any other kind of methodology of coaching, in terms of just coming in, winning something and then moving on and then winning something else.
“I still believe in the things I enjoy. The stuff that lasts. No one has found a way yet to do that in a quick manner. No one. No one has in one year or two years built something that is sustainable. They’ve had success but then it usually falls apart pretty quickly after. I’m not going to change who I am at this stage of my career.
“If I was starting out, I have no doubt I would have a different mindset. I would go in as a firefighter, you’d get some results, get the club up and running and think it’s not going to last more than two years and see what my next move is going to be.”
Martin's dismissal at Southampton came only a short time after he had completed his media duties following the game.
Postecoglou asked: "Is there a good way of doing it? We have lost all sort of modes of respect in our society where guys are in jobs and they are putting up names of who is going to replace them while they are still working. It is just.
"We have crossed that line now and it is pretty much open season - you can do what you like and no-one is going to say anything about the fact that a man who, whether it is Russell or Gary, I am pretty sure 24/7 have done everything in their power to, it is not for the want of trying. And the effect on their families, yet we are just so, as a society, we are so quick to just throw people in the trash and move on really quickly with no thought or any care around it.
"I don’t know if there is a good way or a best way of handling it. It is why I have left before it has ever happened to me, mate, jump out before that comes my way. We have crossed that line now and it is open slammer?
"I get people who say managers have always been sacked. I just think it has gone beyond that now where we forget there is a human being involved. This job is the hardest job now in any walk of life. You can say politics but this is harder than any job. The tenure and longevity of this role now means that you go in to it and very few are going to come out of it without any scars. "
Postecoglou then joked that it is a harder job than that of the Prime Minister, with the Spurs boss and his fellow colleagues facing an election every single weekend.
"Oh yeah, how many times does he have an election? I have one every weekend mate," he quipped. "We have an election every weekend and either get voted in or out."
Listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham by clicking here for in-depth Spurs chat on your preferred podcast platform.