‘I wrote my letter to Santa’ – Postecoglou asks nicely for a new Spurs centre-half | OneFootball

Ange Postecoglou admits an 'oustanding individual' could leave Spurs.

Ange Postecoglou has written a list and checked it twice, but is still patiently waiting to discover if Father Christmas has deemed his work naughty or nice this year.

While all Tottenham and Celtic supporters’ would put the Australian in the latter category for 2023, the fanbases of Arsenal or Rangers may have differing opinions.

Yet regardless of what side of the list Postecoglou ends up on, he knows his wish for Christmas will be difficult to achieve.

With eight players already out injured and Pape Sarr, Yves Bissouma and captain Son Heung-min set to be absent for at least some of January due to international commitments, the Spurs boss would dearly love to get new signings through the door at the beginning of next month.

“I wrote my letter to Santa. Like my kids, now I’ve just got to see whether I’ve been naughty or nice and see what I get mate,” Postecoglou joked when asked about progress on additions ahead of Friday’s trip to Nottingham Forest.

There have been suggestions that he will be able to bring in a centre-half, with Everton’s Ben Godfrey the latest to be strongly linked.

In a more serious tone, he continued: “Obviously with where we’re at injury-wise, the players we’re going to miss, we’ve got some significant games in January and signing somebody late in January could mean they haven’t been able to make an impact in those other games.

“We’re pushing hard but you need all parties to agree to that.

“Other clubs, particularly if it’s players they want, will be wanting to hold on them for as long as possible for their own reasons through January.

“It is a challenge, I get that, but everyone at the club is working hard to get the best outcomes for us and we’ll see how it goes.”

Postecoglou believes there is more to come from Richarlison but even he will not endorse any showboating from the Tottenham forward at Nottingham Forest this week.

Richarlison came under fire last season when he juggled the ball by the corner flag towards the end of Spurs’ 2-0 win at the City Ground.

It resulted in Brennan Johnson, now a Tottenham team-mate, smashing into Richarlison to spark big cheers from the home crowd and while Postecoglou was thrilled to see the Brazilian score twice against Newcastle on Sunday, he does not expect more keepy-uppies from the £60million forward on Friday.

“I reckon even if you did what Richy did as a kid, someone would give you a whack. That’s just part of football,” Postecoglou said.

“It’s all good. We don’t want to take all the fun out of the game, but every player knows there’s a line and if you cross that line, somebody will bring you back into line pretty quickly. Brennan did that with Richy.

“I hope there’s a lot more to come (from Richarlison), hopefully that’s the platform we’ve given him.

Front Page