Ange previews Brighton in his last press conference of the season

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Tottenham Hotspurs boss Ange Postecoglou previews Brighton in his last press conference of the season  24/05/2025  Tottenham Hotspurs Training Ground, London, UK

Transcript

00:00Family time and finding some quiet spot that's got some water and some sun lounge and not

00:12too much movement will do me, just mainly family time and just, like I said, time to

00:20reflect, not just for myself but for my wife and my kids, just pretty chilled and laid

00:27back and, you know, it's one of those things where you probably don't realise

00:32till you stop how tired you are, you know, physically and emotionally and I'm sure

00:39that'll hit me on a Monday morning.

00:40You said that the support you had from the players in particular made what was a tough situation,

00:46it stopped being even worse than we could imagine, but were there any times in the season

00:50where you thought, I think I might have had enough of this and if so, who or what sort

00:55of brought you back from that way of thinking?

00:57No, I'm not by that way, I mean, you know, it's fair to say, and I've said it, I love

01:02a challenge, so the harder it gets, it just, but there were times this year when I thought

01:07how many more challenges, particularly with our injury situation, I mean, it just seemed

01:11to be never ending, you know, and, you know, the start of the year was a lot of sort of

01:15muscle injuries and we were kind of trying to get on top of that and improve our processes,

01:20I thought we did that and then all of a sudden we get guys, you know, doing knees and ankles

01:24and all kinds of things and I just felt, you know, will this ever stop, will this challenge

01:31get any greater than what it always has, already has been, you know, because I've always felt

01:35that, you know, at some point if you get through the tough stuff, you hit some calmer waters

01:41and it's all for a purpose and a reason, but there were, there were just times, even

01:46right up to the final, when we lost, you know, Decky after losing matters and Lucas, I just

01:52thought, when will this end, you know, so, but within that, I never felt like, ah, this

02:00is just too much, like I said, I've just, it's not how I'm built and, you know, there was

02:05never any moment, you know, I said, I've said to a few people, even in the most lowest

02:11of times, I still had this thing inside me, we were going to do something special this

02:15year, I just really believed it and, ah, and you can ask, you know, the guys in there that

02:20every time we got hit with a sort of roadblock, the one thing I kept saying to them, it's just

02:26going to make the story better, so, and it has.

02:29Just a little bit, perhaps in terms of, if you go off the holiday on Monday, it doesn't

02:33be a lot of time to have any talks with, with the club, but if things aren't resolved, will

02:39you be able to relax on that Sunday or just by the water?

02:42Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh, don't worry about that, I'm, I'm, I'm good at relaxing, mate, don't,

02:47come Monday I won't have a care in the world, I won't have a care in the world, um, but, ah,

02:51I assume I'll have an indication at some point, ah, only because, you know, there's some

02:57serious planning to do, more than anything else, um, so, um, but, um, I won't have any

03:03problems switching off.

03:05George?

03:06I had, um, yesterday was enjoyed by so many fans, you obviously knew you were a manager

03:11of a big club, but when you see occasions like that, does it kind of reaffirm it, kind

03:16of like, awoke and asleep, enjoy it?

03:18Um, yeah, look, I, yeah, I was, I was overwhelmed by, kind of, just the, the sea of people, you

03:26know, and, and I said before, just every demographic you could think of, and, um, yeah, there was

03:30grown men crying, you know, um, you know, you know, women just, sort of, girls and boys

03:40and everyone just so ecstatic, you just feel like, irrespective of what is happening in their

03:47lives at the moment, they all just were so joyous.

03:52Like I said, when you see the sheer magnitude of the numbers, you just realise that, you

03:56know, it's, it's a massive club and, you know, I, I, I had a sense of that before I joined,

04:02but, um, I guess, even for the club itself, it just reaffirms that, you know, that missing

04:10piece of success, what it can do in terms of, um, you know, galvanising at the supporter

04:16base and, and really showing, you know, the size of, the size of the club and, uh, it's

04:21fair to say it's a massive club and the opportunity now is to make it bigger than ever.

04:26Yeah, look, you learn from every season, um, you know, like I said, I think looking back

04:46at our pre-season last year, I don't think it was ideal and there's certain things that

04:50we need to do differently and certainly design differently for, for the coming year, um, you

04:55know, how we kind of get our guys ready for, for, for what's going to be, you know, the

05:01biggest challenge of, of, you know, Premier League and Champions League football, we know

05:05it's a massive challenge, so, you know, how we prepare our players, I think our players

05:10will be better equipped, um, you know, we started the season, I mean, we, people forget

05:14we signed Dom who's been unbelievable for us, but then we signed three teenagers, you

05:18know, they weren't ready for, for what was ahead, they've been unbelievable, um, you know,

05:23obviously Wilson's missed a lot of the season, but Lucas and Archie, unbelievable, we signed

05:27three teenagers now, next year, the start of next year, they're not going to be teenagers,

05:30they're more than ready, so we'll be in a better space straight away, um, and I think,

05:35you know, that's the other lesson learned is that we can't, I don't think anyway, that

05:39would be my sort of, um, direction is you, you, you need to now bring in some, some

05:45experience for this group, right, in terms of our recruiting, so that changes as well,

05:49you learn some lessons from that as well, but, um, you know, I think, I think, I said

05:54it all along, I've still felt there's been growth this year, and we'll be much better

05:57placed, uh, at the beginning of next year, to tackle what's ahead than we were at the

06:00start of this one, and, um, as you pointed out to me today, my son is very happy, I suppose,

06:05so I'm excited to go to the Champions League final for the next season, in Budapest, and

06:10Puskas Arena, so, um, are they allowed to dream about that, and that's what you said?

06:15Yeah, dream on, yeah, why not, why not, um, that's the beauty of football, um, you've got

06:21a dream, Alice?

06:23Um, I suppose, perhaps, not the years you've kind of done throughout your career, but,

06:28I suppose this club for, you know, 10 or 15 years has been caught in this kind of debate

06:32on whether, is it top four, top five, is it winning trophies, kind of, where does this

06:38club sit, what should they prioritize, was that kind of experience yesterday, I see if

06:43fans helped to reaffirm the players, the club, the fans, you know, what winning the trophy

06:50really means?

06:52Yeah, I, I'm not sure they've had any other parades for finishing third or fourth or second

06:59or, I've always believed winning trophies is what football club's about, because that's

07:05what you remember, that's what football careers are about, I've said the players, you know,

07:10at the end of your career, the most common question you get asked is, did you play for

07:16your country and did you win anything, you know, and then maybe people might say, well,

07:19what was the individual score goals, you win trophies, like individual trophies, how much

07:23money did you make, all that, but if you can say yes to those two key questions, I played

07:29for my country and I won things, then your career all of a sudden is much more validated

07:34and it's the same for football clubs, I believe, you know, what you put in your sort of museums

07:42and up on your walls are trophies.

07:46Now, against the backdrop of that, this club has to obviously finish, you know, in high

07:52positions and be challenging for Premier League honours for sure and there's financial implications

07:56with not being in Europe, I get all that.

07:58But to me, what defines a club is always what it's won and I think yesterday is, you know,

08:07credit to the club who has had a lot of success compared to other clubs, it just hasn't happened

08:13in recent times.

08:14Have you kind of let the, I suppose you've given yourself a moment to think about the

08:21journey that you've been on throughout your career over the past time, two or three days

08:26from Australia all the way up to now and all the influences that you've had along the way,

08:32the way you found yourself yesterday, as I say, in front of that, see what kind of people

08:36did, have you given yourself that moment to think?

08:38No, no, and you know, I don't know, I've always done that my sort of whole career, I have,

08:48unless I sort of get drawn into it when people start talking to me about it, I don't think

08:52about it a lot, I think, you know, when I get to the end of my career I'll kind of, you

08:57know, have more time to understand how I ended up in this place from where I started, but I

09:04tend to sort of just leave the moments in sort of perfect periods of time, it's like

09:11I've never re-watched, I'll never re-watch Bilbao, I've never re-watched any significant

09:16game I've won in my career, because if I do I'll stop picking holes into the performance

09:20and I don't want to do that, it's a perfect memory for me, I don't care, you know, people

09:24say we didn't play well, it doesn't bother me, you know, for me that night will stay in

09:28my memory forever is a perfect night, and then I kind of leave that, you know, in its

09:34rightful place and move on to what the next thing is, but, you know, at some point, you

09:41know, if you chart the course of my last sort of 26 years and beyond from where I started,

09:49it's fair to say it's a pretty rare sort of journey I've been on, I feel pretty lucky

09:55to have been on it.

09:56And, you know, the goal scorer on the night, Brent Johnson, he's had a kind of difficult

10:02journey this season, earlier on this season, he deactivated his social media accounts and

10:07stuff, to where he came obviously in the final, kind of, if you can just kind of put into context

10:16what his contribution means to the club, to himself, I suppose, when he's been able

10:23to deliver such a huge occasion.

10:25Yeah, and, you know, Brennan's kind of indicative of what I've been trying to build here is about,

10:32you know, people of character, people of resilience, and like I said, he hasn't had it easy, but it's

10:39been surprising to me because actually his contribution has been significant from the time we signed him.

10:44I mean, you know, you stack up his record since he's been here to any other winger,

10:48apart from Mo, who's a freak, and Brennan stands up, goals, assists, I mean, that's what, you know,

10:55that's what you need from attacking players, and not just in any games, in big games as well.

11:00And it's a credit to him, and again, fair to say he was one of the ones that's enjoyed himself

11:06the last couple of days, but rightly so.

11:09And I'm hoping that, you know, him doing that on such a big stage, that's just, you know,

11:14he comes back next year with, you know, some mentality monster of, you know what, I know what it takes to win,

11:22and this is what I want again, and that feeds on to everyone else.

11:25So, I mean, that's hope, or your hope, you know, Wednesday night creates, is that all these guys

11:30have got a taste of it now, and, you know, want more of it.

11:34Okay. Thank you very much.

11:36Thanks.

11:37Thanks.

11:38Thanks.

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