Ange Postecoglou has told fans there will be no repeat of Antonio Conte’s infamous rant as Tottenham return to Southampton for the first time since that explosive press conference.
Spurs in March 2023 let a two-goal lead slip at bottom-of-the-table Southampton to draw 3-3 and prompt a remarkable tirade from the animated Italian, who said: “[The players] don’t play for something important, yeah. They don’t want to play under pressure, they don’t want to play under stress.
“Tottenham’s story is this, 20 years there is the owner and they never won something but why? The fault is only for the club, or for every manager that stay here. I have seen the managers that Tottenham had on the bench ... Until now I try to hide the situation but now, no, because I repeat I don’t want to see what I have seen today.”
Conte left the club ‘by mutual consent’ just eight days later.
A little under two years later and Spurs head to St Mary’s with one win in five and languishing in 11th place with Southampton again at the foot of the table.
“I was well aware of it,” Postecoglou recalled about watching Conte’s rant. “I think you know when a manager gets to that point that there’s obviously some underlying issues.
“Antonio is a world-class manager and I think most of the time when managers do that they’re trying to get a reaction, trying to get some sort of impact on the team. In difficult moments, what you want from your leaders is action rather than inaction of just letting things drift along.
“He did it to try and get a positive impact on the group, one way or another. We’ve all been in that situation as a manager where you feel ‘this is the time to send a message’.”
Postecoglou was asked whether he would ever consider giving up and leaving Tottenham if he had his own suspicions that he was not up to the task ahead.
“[Antonio] has his own way of doing things, his own reasons for doing that — I am here, I am in for the fight,” he said.
“For better or worst I am not going anywhere at the moment, because everything is still in my power and my responsibility. I still have a real desire to get us through this stage so that people see what is on the other side.
“My resolve and determination hasn’t wavered one little bit. I love a fight, I love a scrap, I love being in the middle of a storm when everyone doubts, because I know what it is like on the other side if you get through it. My job is to get through it.”
