Ange Postecoglou defends Tottenham after Hugo Lloris book revelations
(john Ange Postecoglou On The Touchline Tottenham Manager Walton/pa)
Ange Postecoglou has leapt to the defence of Tottenham after criticism in a new autobiography by former captain Hugo Lloris.
Lloris’ book ‘Earning My Spurs’ was published on Thursday and an excerpt revealed how chairman Daniel Levy arranged via a sponsor for the whole squad to receive a watch after they reached the Champions League final in 2019.
Ex-Tottenham captain Lloris revealed engraved on the watch was ‘Champions League finalist’ and claimed in his autobiography: “With an engraving like that, Levy couldn’t have been surprised if we had been 1–0 down after a couple of minutes: so it was written.”
But Postecoglou, speaking ahead of Sunday’s visit of Ipswich, said: “Look I haven’t read what Hugo’s said, it’s been mentioned to me.
“I think with these things you’ve got to put context around them and understand the broader view and that could have been a very successful period for the club.
“They came very, very close. You’re talking about finishing runners-up in the Premier League and runners-up in the Champions League. It could have been a very different era and maybe in retrospect you be looking at those things.
“It’s easy to focus on the negatives when the outcome is not what you want, but there’s obviously a lot right at the time.
“From my perspective I’ve never allowed anyone else to dictate my ambitions, my aims, or what I try and do with everyone around me is you don’t put a limit on what you can achieve because if you do you potentially might miss something that comes along your way.
“From the moment I started there has been a pretty clear brief about what we want to achieve. That’s kind of what we’re working towards.”
Spurs turn their focus back to Premier League matters after Thursday’s 3-2 loss at Galatasaray.
Postecoglou revealed they did not pick up any fresh injuries in Istanbul, but could have Cristian Romero (toe) available for the clash with Ipswich.
It means Micky van de Ven (hamstring), Mikey Moore (virus), Odobert (hamstring), Timo Werner (groin) and Richarlison (hamstring) will be absent.
“Yeah, look last night the brief I got after the game was everyone came through unscathed so there’s no issues from last night,” Postecoglou explained.
“Cristian, we’ll see how he goes the next couple of days. The idea is to try and get him out there and train and he’s pretty keen to so he has a chance for the weekend.
“Mikey probably still not right for the weekend and probably Timo as well. Really out of the ones who are out, only Cristian could be back.”
On Richarlison, Postecoglou admitted: “He’ll be out for a significant amount of time. It’s a significant hamstring injury.”