Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou has defended the club’s summer transfer policy and insisted the decision to sign a number of teenagers will eventually bear fruit.
Spurs are in the middle of a difficult period after they suffered a 1-0 defeat at Bournemouth on Thursday night and also lost Ben Davies to a hamstring injury, which made it eight players unavailable.
Barely a fortnight on from a remarkable 4-0 victory at Manchester City, Postecoglou received abuse from a section of Tottenham’s travelling support on the south coast and his task does not get any easier, with London rivals Chelsea set to visit on Sunday.
Chelsea are already eight points clear of Spurs, who signed Dominic Solanke for £65million in the summer, but spent the rest of their budget on teenage prospects in Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall and Wilson Odobert. Yang Min-hyuk, an 18-year-old from South Korea, will also join in January.
While Postecoglou has watched his depleted team lose three of their last six matches in all competitions and drop to 10th in the Premier League, he is positive the club’s long-term approach will pay off.
“We needed to do that because it was a team that was coming towards the end of its cycle, and we were rebuilding not just the squad but the playing style, and you couldn’t replace experience with experience because that is not a rebuild,” Postecoglou said.
“It is still the right decision and I own them (transfers) because I believe they are the right decisions for this club. I have said numerous times, I make these decisions with the kind of background that I’m going to be here for a while to see this through.
“To be honest, if I was worried about my own existence, I would have fought tooth and nail to block Harry Kane leaving (for Bayern Munich) but it wasn’t the right decision for the club because he was in the last year of his contract. That is not what drives me.
“The decisions we made around signing young players are the right decisions for this club for where we are at right now, and they will bear fruit.”
Spurs produced a tired display at Bournemouth – after a bright start where Solanke could have put them ahead – and may have lost by a greater margin than one-goal in the end.
Postecoglou felt the frustration of the fans at full-time, but played down the need for support from the club board or supporters during a tough period of form.
He said: “I’m the person in charge. I’m the person that has set us off in this direction and I am the person who needs to fix it.
“I’m not hurting, I am determined and that’s all. I don’t want to say it is unacceptable because, like I said, it is what it is. I have lived in this world for long enough to know that when people aren’t happy, they’ll express their opinions and I am never going to hide.
“I am never going to shirk that responsibility, that’s fine. I will take it on board. Is it nice? No, because like I said last night I am not just a manager, I am a human being like everyone else and none of us like to hear those sorts of things, but it is what it is.
“It doesn’t disappoint me, it doesn’t frustrate me, it doesn’t make me angry. I am just as determined as ever to get it right, not because of that but because of my resolve to bring success to the football club.
“I don’t need support. I don’t worry about contracts, I don’t worry about support. I just want to make sure that what I set out to do I accomplish, and that is to bring success to this football club.”
Spurs will definitely be without Davies for the visit of Chelsea, but Cristian Romero (toe) could return.