City game my worst ever experience as a manager - Postecoglu
Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglu said their defeat to Manchester City midweek was his worst ever experience as a manager ahead of their Premier League game with Sheffield United
Tottenham training centre, London, UK
Tottenham training centre, London, UK
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00:00 I'd like to think I didn't change my stance or view of that.
00:06 I think I was asked after the game about the atmosphere and I said I didn't think it was
00:09 normal, I didn't like it.
00:10 But I also didn't say that I expected fans to behave differently.
00:15 That's their right and I've always said that and I still stand by that.
00:19 I also stand by the fact that I have an opinion on it.
00:21 I don't think it's right.
00:22 It's just the way I feel and I think you support your team to win all the time.
00:29 That's my view.
00:30 I guess I got it wrong plainly that I'm in the minority when it comes to that so that's
00:37 a lesson for me I guess.
00:38 But I don't think I expressed any real disappointment in terms of asking or pleading for people
00:52 to do something against their will.
00:54 I accept that.
00:55 Like I said, for me, hopefully we're never in that situation again but if we are I certainly
01:05 would approach it differently than I did this time.
01:07 Like I said, I didn't take it seriously.
01:10 I really genuinely believe that when we got to the stadium it would just be a normal game
01:15 and it wasn't so people feel strongly about it.
01:18 I've just got to accept that.
01:21 Just kind of on a similar-ish note, we normally see you so calm and collected, nothing phases
01:24 you really on the touchline but there was one moment that's doing the rounds of a fan
01:27 behind the dugout, maybe doing something that you reacted to.
01:31 Just wondering what happened in that one?
01:34 Two separate issues.
01:35 Firstly the fan.
01:36 Well the fan's just, I think if you sit behind the bench, especially in a home game, you've
01:40 got to be respectful of the fact you're within earshot of the most important people.
01:44 So he wasn't happy when you just conceded a goal.
01:47 So I just turned around to sort of find out what his problem was and then he used language
01:52 that he shouldn't and he was abusive and if I hear that, I don't care who it is, I'll
01:56 deal with it.
01:57 But he's more than welcome to come back next time and take his seat up and express his
02:01 opinions if he swears, if he's abusive, he'll cop the same treatment from me again.
02:06 But at the same time you also feel, well mate, I cop it on our opposition grounds every week,
02:11 can I give me a break at my home ground?
02:15 But I was, look I'll try and explain it this way, that's probably the worst experience
02:23 I've had as a football manager in a game.
02:27 Because once I realised that I got it wrong in terms of what the atmosphere was going
02:32 to be like and what people felt, I got a real anxiety within me of what happens if Man City,
02:42 who are the best team in the world and who were disposing of teams quite easily in the
02:48 lead up, 4 at Brighton, 4 wherever they played, they scored 15, 16 goals in the last four
02:56 games.
02:57 What if we play as well as we can but they beat us 5-0?
03:03 I got in cold sweat thinking about people questioning my integrity and the people I
03:06 work with.
03:08 Even watching the game back there was a comment somebody mentioned to me in the commentary
03:12 saying, 'Oh, Tottenham are having a real go here'.
03:15 Now you're laughing about it but that's 26 years of my life.
03:19 I'm a very, if nothing else people should know about me, I love this game and I'm very
03:23 principled.
03:24 And I would hate to think, because Man City could have done it to us, we were on the end
03:30 of a heavy defeat and then people would be questioning whether I prepared the team.
03:36 And before people say, 'Oh, that's not going to happen', we know on social media it would
03:42 have happened 100%.
03:44 And I'd be up here trying to defend myself.
03:46 And once you start defending yourself, you know what happens, you're defending something.
03:52 That's why I was animated on the night, I didn't enjoy the night.
03:54 And because of the atmosphere I felt like I just needed the boys to, and credit to them,
03:58 I thought, aside from everything else, our football was outstanding on the night.
04:03 And that was important, not just for me, for the players, for our football club, because
04:08 again it would have cast a spursion on us as a football club when people were measuring
04:14 us and saying, 'Well, I don't think anyone will say that we didn't make Man City earn
04:20 that win the other night'.
04:22 And it could have gone a very different way without anything changing from us, just by
04:29 Man City being Man City.