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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Dan Kilpatrick

Tottenham: Ange Postecoglou fires warning to fringe players on Deadline Day

Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou has warned his fringe players they face being cut from his 25-man Premier League squad if they do not agree to deadline-day moves.

With Friday 11pm cut-off looming, Spurs were still working to offload Hugo Lloris, Eric Dier, Tanguy Ndombele, Harvey White, Davinson Sanchez and Bryan Gil, while Sergio Reguilon has joined Manchester United on loan and Japhet Tanganga’s loan-to-buy deal with Ausburg has been confirmed.

The club is also hoping to move on Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, which would help facilitate a move for Chelsea's Conor Gallagher after a verbal bid worth £40million was submitted, but the Dane is reluctant to join Fulham.

Spurs already have a squad of around 30 first-team players and are poised to complete the signing of forward Brennan Johnson, 22, after agreeing a package worth £45m with Nottingham Forest for the Wales international.

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Postecoglou will therefore need to cut a number of players from his League squad if they do not complete deadline-day transfers.

"No-one's not been integrated, no-one hasn't been training with the team," Postecoglou said. "I'm not isolating anyone at the moment.

"Players have got their own reasons for making these decisions but ultimately, come the deadline, we're going to have to name a 25-man list and we've got more than that at the moment, so some people are going to miss out. It's up to them to decide the next step.

"From my perspective, we haven't excluded anyone from training. The numbers in training are manageable right now and while they're manageable I don't see the need to do anything different."

Asked about Johnson, who was travelling to Hotspur Way on Friday afternoon to complete a medical, Postecoglou said he was largely in the dark about comings and goings.

"I'm in a position where other people are in control of incomings and outgoings," said the head coach, who was speaking at a press conference ahead of Saturday's visit to Burnley.

"I'm not really in the loop until things are concluded. For me to talk about potential players, where that's ins or outs, when it may or may not happen is not my place. The countdown clock says nine or ten hours. We'll find everything out in the next short period and we'll go from there."

The Australian's predecessor, Antonio Conte, complained about being given "club signings", namely Djed Spence and Arnaut Danjuma, but Postecoglou says he has a "massive say" over all first-team incomings and would never approve a new player who did not suit his style play.

"I don't know what 'club signings' means. I would never approve a signing that I didn't think was going to fit into way we want to play," he said.

"If it is younger level, an academy level, of course it is, but when the club appoint a senior manager and you give him the responsibility of charting a course then you need to give him players that will suit the way he wants to play.

"I think the evidence so far with the players we've brought in is that they've all made an impact which shows that the brief is there that we're looking for players who will play the football and will fit into the system that I want to play.

"I can't refer to the past but the obvious signings I wouldn't have a massive say over are signings that at the academy level and rightly so."

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