Tottenham Hotspur boss Ange Postecoglou has denied claims that Spurs are enjoying a 'honeymoon period' in the early stages of his tenure.
He insisted that the challenge to place The Lilywhites back amongst Europe's elite and challenge for silverware is tough but not impossible, and it will take time to implement his tactics.
The Australian manager stressed that given Spurs' challenging pre-season that saw their game against Leicester cancelled and the high turnover in his squad, it has been far from plain sailing for him.
He also heaped praise on Tottenham's young talents, and detailed the most challenging periods of his career.
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On his Tottenham 'honeymoon period'
Postecoglou was quick to shut down any suggestion that he was enjoying a honeymoon period at Tottenham.
He reminded fans that he lost star striker Harry Kane in the summer, and dealt with several arrivals and departures, which were difficult to organise.
"I don't know what your honeymoon was like, but mine didn't have me losing the best player in the history of this football club on the eve of the start of the season, me trying to scramble to get players into the club and fighting for everything I do.
"My honeymoon was, relaxed, stress-free and very enjoyable.
"I'm well aware after 25 years of the pitfalls of management, I've gone into this with my eyes wide open, if you thought I was thinking that everything's going to be smooth.
"But at the same time, there's a reason why this is happening [winning Manager of the Month], people aren't just doing this just from the goodness of their heart, they're obviously encouraged by what they see.
"I'm not going to dismiss that because that's what we're trying to do: create a football club that our supporters are excited about and other people are talking about.
"So I take that as encouragement to keep going down this way.
"At the same time, I don't sit here and think to myself that this has come to me and was served to me on a plate.
"I've worked hard mate, really hard, it's been a really tough period, and nothing like my honeymoon.
"Things have been going well my whole career, I've had a lot of success, and through that all I've focussed on is whether my team are playing the football I want, if they're training the way I want and whether the environment is the way I like it.
"That's what I'm constantly looking at, irrespective of the short term, where there may be challenges because the results aren't there.
"Even if they [the results] are there, I'm fairly even in my temperament in terms of dealing with it in the same way.
"The radar's always up, when things aren't going well the radar's up to see are our guys going to respond in the right way, is there something we're missing here?
"When things are going well, are we at the edge we need to be or are we getting complacent?
"The scenario doesn't change for me.
"If you have any sort of longevity in the game you kind of know that all these things you need to treat with equal measure in terms of not having too may extremes in your reactions one way or another.
"If you do that, then the people you work with and the people you're around tend to follow that lead."
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On Tottenham's young players
When asked about Destiny Udogie's impressive start to life in North London, Postecoglou was keen to praise the other new members of his youthful back line.
He also referred to central midfielder Pape Matar Sarr in his praise, and said he had helped the young players by giving them the freedom from being judged by their performances early on in the season.
"We started off with Destiny [Udogie] playing his first Premier League game, Micky van de Ven having two training sessions and then played his first Premier League game, and Vicario playing his first Premier League game, all starting in a back four or five.
“But within that context, you give guys the platform, the opportunities and hopefully the belief that we’ll support them and you get these outcomes.
“There’s still the chance to do that, with Destiny, Micky and Pape Sarr who’s probably another one in that boat, these 20 and 21 year old’s, to say to them that you’re not going to be judged on your performances in these early games, not by me.
“I think they’ve embraced that and enjoyed that.
"They’ve enjoyed the freedom and belief that nothing was going to happen out there that was going to say to me that they weren’t going to be a player at this football club, because I was putting them out there.
“For them, it’s not easy just putting them out there in the Premier League, and it wasn’t just one I was putting out there, it was three or four of them.
“We spoke about it as a coaching staff for that first team selection, it could’ve been easy to go safer, but we needed to change and challenge things.
"Guys like Destiny and Micky and these players, haven't just gone in there and found their feet, they’ve tried to smash it, and that’s what I want.”
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On why he joined Tottenham
When asked whether he felt he had signed up to an impossible job, the 58-year-old made it clear that the difficulty of the task to bring Tottenham trophies was actually something that made him interested in the role.
He also said that his side would need at least two more transfer windows to be able to realise that vision and compete for silverware on several fronts.
"I think the biggest enticement for me to come here was the fact that it seems like a really difficult challenge, but I wouldn’t say impossible, because it can't be impossible.
“You look at the facilities, you look at the resources this club has and the footballers it has, it can’t be impossible.
“Is it difficult? Yes, but like I keep saying, you can’t roll up and not change things and be different and then expect different outcomes.
“So my role within that is to say ‘ok, I’ve taken on this challenge, so I’m going to do it, and in a way that hasn’t been done before, and take it down a different road’.
“Like I say, that might take us down a road again that doesn’t take us anywhere, and that’s on me, but I really don’t think it’s impossible.
“I think there are managers out there with clubs who have a hell of a lot more challenges than this club has and would be looking at me and saying ‘I wish I had his job’, with the footballers, facilities and resources I have.
“So it’s all a matter of perspective, so I do believe it’s a difficult challenge because when a big football club doesn’t win something for a long period of time, there’s obviously things that need to be done differently.
"But I think it’s far from impossible.
“I enjoy it the harder the challenge is, I enjoy being in that space."
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On the challenges in his career
Whilst it has been somewhat of an incredible and unprecedented rise to the top in his career, Postecoglou was adamant that his career has not come without challenges, including in North London.
He also said in his first job at South Melbourne, the president decided to avoid a meeting about Postecoglou's future after a bad run.
He said that at that stage in his career, he was mainly motivated to avoid the sack by his desire to avoid having to return to his role as a bank teller, a job he quit to pursue opportunities in the dugout.
"I think, and it's only natural, that people get swayed by outcomes.
"At Celtic, we lost three of our first six, at Yokohama we were battling relegation, but I can tell you that the same sort of building stuff that I did in those two places I'm doing here.
"The only difference is that the results have been better and more encouraging here, for sure.
"I love this period, because there's a day-to-day uncertainty about where we're at, and that'll be here for the next six months to a year probably.
"Everywhere I’ve been, the second year has been where I’ve felt the team has really taken hold, but I also understand that at this football club I can’t go three, four or five months without results.
“It was the same at Celtic, obviously we lost three of our first six, so I sort of knew that if we were going to be champions, we couldn’t lose another game for the rest of the year, and we didn’t.
“But, it didn’t make that easy, and that doesn’t make this easier than the others, this has been just as challenging.
“When you think about our pre-season, it wasn’t smooth mate.
“You think about the players we’ve had to get in and out in a short period of time, it hasn’t been easy.
“New staff, a new way of training and a new way of playing, but I love it, and I think because I love it people seem to think that maybe it’s easy, but it’s not."
