Marcus Rashford could be involved in Thursday’s Carabao Cup last-eight tie between Spurs and Manchester United.
Ange Postecoglou (pictured) has no interest in the noise around Marcus Rashford (Adam Davy/PA)
Ange Postecoglou (pictured) has no interest in the noise around Marcus Rashford (Adam Davy/PA) (PA Wire)
Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou has no interest in the noise around Marcus Rashford and Manchester United before Thursday’s Carabao Cup quarter-final home tie.
Spurs will aim to take another step towards ending the club’s lengthy trophy drought, which dates back to success in this competition in 2008.
The pre-match build-up has been dominated by the future of Rashford, who was left out of the United squad for Sunday’s dramatic 2-1 win at rivals Manchester City and – 48 hours later – revealed he was ready for a “new challenge” with the winter transfer window around the corner.
“There’s always noise about Manchester United, come on mate. Where have you been?” Postecoglou said when quizzed about Rashford.
“No interest. Don’t care. Not interested. He is a Manchester United player. A very good player, they have plenty of good players, but I manage my players and other managers will manage their own players.
“In terms of Marcus’ situation, I have no real desire to examine it any further.
“If I looked at everyone we were linked to, I would have no time to do anything else to be honest. I have got other people to do that part of the process.
“For us, we’ve been pretty disciplined in what we’re trying to build here and we’ll continue to be so.”
Asked once more if Rashford was a potential target for January, Postecoglou insisted: “That’s not on my radar. You can ask me about Marcus but you can ask me about every single Premier League footballer and I’ll say the same.”
Spurs enter this fixture after a much-needed victory at Southampton, where they scored five times in the first half, but were also forced to bring off left-back Destiny Udogie.
Udogie felt “sore” in his quad according to Postecoglou and may sit out this midweek clash where Tottenham could take a big step towards a first piece of silverware in 17 years.
However, the Australian insisted they had plenty of work still to do after being reminded of his comments earlier this campaign about always winning a trophy in his second season at a club.
“I haven’t reiterated it many times, but if you ask me a question, I will answer it. So, if you ask me 100 times, I will answer it 100 times but I’m not walking around with banners saying, ‘I win things in my second year’,” Postecoglou pointed out.
“I don’t think quarter-finals is close. You get to a final, then I think you’re close. There is still a fair bit of football to be played. All we can do is be ready for tomorrow night.”
Tottenham supporters regularly chanted about chairman Daniel Levy during the 5-0 victory at St Mary’s and urged the long-serving director to leave.
Postecoglou was happy to sidestep that issue, but did urge the Spurs faithful to create the type of “energy” which was present for the 2-1 victory over Manchester City in the previous round.
He said: “That’s for the supporters, mate. I’ve said a million times, it’s up to them to express what they want to express.
“That night against City, it was a big game for us and the whole atmosphere that night, the way we started, the way we played the whole night, City were good as well and it was a cracking game. It had a real cup atmosphere and we’re going to need that tomorrow night.
“We’re going to need that energy. All these games tend to be pretty tight games and if you get the energy of the crowd behind you, it can certainly lift the players and for us it’s going to be an important factor.”