"I just want to set out to achieve what I wanted to and that's to bring success to this football club. I'll work my backside off to do that and I won't be deterred from that," said Ange Postecoglou on the morning after Tottenham Hotspur's disappointing night in Bournemouth.
It's been a tough month for the former Celtic boss, with The Lilywhites picking up just one win in their last five, which has included a loss at home to Ipswich Town and an uninspiring defeat away at AFC Bournemouth.
When the Australian went over to applaud the travelling Spurs contingency at the Vitality Stadium, he was met with a barrage of boos and personal insults, with many fans on social media speculating that failure to win against Chelsea at the weekend could bring an end to his eighteen-month spell in North London.
When asked whether he feels the support from the club, he replied with this - "I don't need support. I don't worry about contracts. I don't worry about support."
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Defending the summer signings
In the summer, Spurs completed five signings in excess of £100m, four of which were teenagers.
Yang Min-Hyeok went straight back on loan to Gangwon FC, where he was signed from, whilst it's evident that Ange Postecoglou is reluctant to use Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall as they have started just one Premier League game combined, and that came from from the former Leeds United man on the South Coast last night. Meanwhile, Wilson Odobert has had a torrid time with injuries at the start of his career in N17 and could be missing until well into the new year.
This has led to a gap in the depth of the squad, but the Spurs boss continued to back his decision in the transfer market.
"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 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."
Whilst there are some spots in the squad that need to be filled in the January transfer window, it's clear that there is heaps of potential with the signings that were made in the summer.
South Korean attacker Min-Hyeok will be flown to London in the week leading up to Christmas, before he joins the club officially in January, with Spurs hoping to get him up to speed to make an impact in the second half of the season.
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Taking responsibility
The Australian took responsibility for the loss at Bournemouth, and it isn't the first time that he has done so this season. Most notably, after the second-half collapse at Brighton in October and the horrifying home loss against Ipswich.
Postecoglou was asked whether he processes defeats by himself, or with the rest of the coaching staff, but said he carries out that duty personally.
"It’s me, mate. I’m the one responsible for it. There is no point in the toughest moments palming off the responsibility to other people. 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."
With Spurs failing to taste victory in five of their last six outings, the question does have to be asked about how much longer the manager can openly take responsibility without facing repercussions, but sacking him now would only set the entire 'rebuild' project back another eighteen months, and would be entirely unnecessary, with no new manager being an upgrade on the 59-year-old.
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Team news
Ange Postecoglou's defensive injury woes continued on the South Coast last night, with Ben Davies pulling up with a hamstring injury in the 62nd minute.
On Friday morning, the Australian admitted that he doesn't know how long the Welshman will be sidelined for, but he delivered a positive update on vice-captain Cristian Romero.
“Ben [Davies] too early again [to tell], he'll go for a scan today. Cuti [Romero] is due to train, we're not doing much today but we'll see tomorrow."
