Ange Postecoglou has revealed he has been using 'the stone cutters' creed' to keep his players believing they can win the Europa League.
Postecoglou's Tottenham are preparing for a European semi-final against Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt next month, with the winners set to face Manchester United or Athletic Bilbao in the final on May 21.
Spurs, who are aiming to ruin Liverpool's title party at Anfield on Sunday, are in danger of a record-breakingly poor season in the Premier League but Postecoglou continues to believe they can crack success.
"I talk to the players a lot about 'the Stone Cutters’ Creed'," he said on Friday. "Only the [stone cutter's] 101st blow cracks the rock. But no-one sees the other 100 blows. And they think it’s the last one that does it.
"It’s not. So time will tell whether what I’ve tried to do over the last two years gets us to crack that stone.
"If not, maybe I haven’t [succeeded].
"But you won’t know that and you won’t know how much I’ve had an impact until we get to that place.
"Because that’s where we’re at. We need to try and take the opportunity that’s before us right now and that won’t happen because we’re good for the next two-three weeks. That will only happen if what’s got us to this place gets us what we want.
So time will tell whether what I’ve tried to do over the last two years gets us to crack that stone
"If you keep doing the right thing, the impact it has is unseen," added Postecoglou, who confirmed that winning the Europa League would be cracking the rock.
"Because you won't break it with the 101st blow unless you've done a lot of things which, to the naked eye, seems like you're doing nothing or maybe the wrong thing. But the stonecutter knows you need to keep doing it because it'll come."
The creed is believed to originate from a quote by Danish-American social reformer Jacob Riis, who said he would imagine the stone cutter in times of despair.
The Australian acknowledged that elements of Spurs' season had gone "disastrously" and says the club is now in the midst of the 'painful rebuild' called for by his most successful recent predecessor, Mauricio Pochettino.
"I think that's pretty obvious," Postecoglou said. "You just have to look at our recruitment strategy over the last two years.
"I think the game against Frankfurt away, we had [Cristian] Romero, [Pedro] Porro and [Rodrigo] Bentancur as the only starters who were there when I came.
"That's a fair whack of a rebuild. There's always pain in rebuilds because invariably you dip in the bottom end of the pool in terms of age demographic and you want that team to grow.
"If we'd done this last year we'd probably be paying the same price but last year we still had some experience in the group to get us through.
"But this year we went young, which is the right strategy I believe - because you've seen the growth in our young players that I just think is so exciting for the years to come.
"But then we hit with a ridiculous, unprecedented injury crisis which brought it all together in this scenario where it's been a really difficult year."
He added: "There's no other way to describe our season in the league other than one that's fallen well below expectations. But there's still an opportunity for us to do something special."
