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Ange Postecoglou has insisted it is not impossible to rid the club of its ‘Spursy’ tag and will accept it as his own failure if he cannot deliver trophy success for Tottenham.
A collapse at Brighton two weeks ago sparked more scrutiny on if there is a mental fragility at Spurs, which has been a historic criticism of the Premier League outfit due to a lack of silverware since 2008.
Parallels could be drawn between the public dressing down Postecoglou gave his squad after the loss and the memorable rant of predecessor Antonio Conte in his final fixture following a 3-3 draw at Southampton in 2023.
Conte stated the Tottenham players “don’t want to play under stress” and pointed the finger at chairman Daniel Levy before he suggested “the situation cannot change” unless there was a collective shift in mindset.
But when it was put to Postecoglou ahead of Saturday’s visit of West Ham, he hit back: “Mate, if I accepted that what am I doing here? Seriously. If I accept that this is somehow impossible to change I am really stealing a living.
“I don’t believe that and I never have. And if I fail, the failure is on me. It’s nothing to do with the club. It’s on me because I know that coming into it that the club hasn’t won anything for X amount of time.
“It’s not a secret. It was not like getting in here and going, ‘Jesus Christ, this club hasn’t won anything for 14 years – can you believe it?’ I accepted that challenge so I can’t sit here complaining that it’s harder.
“It’s why I’m here and it’s up to me to change that. And if I don’t then the failure’s on me.
“The reason I think the past is irrelevant is because I can’t change that. I wasn’t here, I wasn’t part of it – and maybe it was impossible, I don’t know.
“But from where I sit here right now, I don’t see it as impossible. I think it is achievable and that’s why I’m going to do everything in my power to change it.”
Postecoglou admitted he had been “miserable for nine days” after the 3-2 loss at Brighton halted Spurs’ five-match winning run.
A review of the data showed Tottenham’s running stats were down during the 18-minute period where they conceded three times in the second half, which the Aussie coach hinted may have been complacency.
“I didn’t ask for feedback, mate,” Postecoglou replied when asked how the squad reacted to his debrief.
A discussion did take place over a perceived lack of leadership against Brighton and Postecoglou acknowledged it was an area of growth for his squad.
He added: “Part of the feedback to the players is, ‘if you feel it happening out there, the best way to arrest that is individuals to take action, to know what to do’.
“When people talk about leaders, they think it’s the captain but that’s where you fall into the trap because it might be the captain who is having a bad day.
“Every individual has the capacity to show leadership. Whether that’s on the football field, in your workplace, wherever.
“We didn’t have anyone who did that through that time. That is part of the discussion with the players. Maybe they are waiting for a (Cristian) Romero or somebody like that to do it.
“But if they’re not doing it, then well you can’t just stand by and let it happen. If you’re Micky van de Ven, then you can do it. If you’re Brennan Johnson, then you can do it.
“That’s got to be part of our growth as a team. As a group there are still areas of that sort of behaviour where we still need to grow.
“It’s not great but sometimes going through situations like that is where it’s laid bare and you can deal with it from then on.”
