‘Like turning gold into cr**’ – Postecoglou hits out at ‘negativity’ around Tottenham | OneFootball

Ange Postecoglou says questions over whether Brennan Johnson should have taken a penalty instead of Mathys Tel during Sunday’s 3-1 win over Southampton are “like turning gold into crap”.

Johnson was on a hat-trick at the time but Tel instead took the late spot-kick and scored to make it 3-1 and secure victory for Spurs.

And Postecoglou was in disbelief that there are questions over whether Johnson should have been given the penalty instead.

He also suggested it is indicative of the outside negativity around the club.

“We scored and we won,” he responded. “I’m delighted.

“It’s incredible. It’s literally turning gold into crap, when it’s Tottenham. Seriously.

“We were 2-1 up. If we’re 2-1 up tomorrow night and we get a penalty in the last minute, I want the best penalty taker to take it.

“The one slight against this club is apparently that it hasn’t been a winner. Well a winner’s mentality in the last minute of a game is to score a goal.

“We scored a goal and yet somehow in this ultimate universe where everything that Tottenham does is wrong, that’s come out as a negative.

“From my point of view I was delighted because if that’s tomorrow night and we get a penalty in the last minute and we get a third goal which could be really decisive, I’ll be really pleased with the way the players handled it.

“It doesn’t matter.”

Questioned further on those comments, Postecoglou says he and his players are fighting a losing battle if their main motivation is to change people’s opinions, however.

Spurs face Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final and Postecoglou instead urged his squad to focus on their own goals and take the opportunity.

“I just think we’re in that position now where even the good stuff we may do is going to be turned into some glass half full kind of rhetoric,” he said.

“From our perspective I don’t think that can be a driver in what we want to do.

“The lads are really keen to get ourselves in a better position where we can bring success to the club, keep driving the principles of why we started this journey and the football we want to play, really stick together as we have in the toughest of periods.

“Hopefully we’ve worked ourselves into a position where we can make an impact for our season in a really disappointing season for us.

“I just think there’s a real determination to take the opportunity they’ve earned up to this point.

“I just don’t think you can win that argument of convincing people. I think you (reporter) wrote even if we win it I’m gone anyway. I’m not having a go at you, I think that’s just the general sentiment of people.

“If you’re trying to use that as a motivation you’re not going to win that anyway so there’s got to be something more in it for us and for us the most important thing as a group is that we’ve been through a really tough time but we’re still in a position where we can make an impact.

“You don’t know how often you’ll get these opportunities. I don’t know how many times the club has been in a quarter-final of a European competition and you don’t want to let that slip by or have the wrong sort of mindset going into it.

“I think the players are handling it well in terms of how they’re trying to embrace this challenge.”