Ange Postecoglou
Tense: Ange Postecoglou
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Ange Postecoglou has insisted he was not trying to goad Tottenham fans when cupping his hand to his ear during short-lived goal celebrations.
Spurs fell to a 1-0 defeat to Chelsea on Thursday night, their 16th Premier League loss of the season and a fourth on the trot to the Blues.
Enzo Fernandez gave Chelsea a deserved lead early in the second half as Spurs served up another toothless display.
Postecoglou replaced Lucas Bergvall with Pape Matar Sarr soon after the goal, which was met with boos from sections of the travelling Spurs support and chants of “you don't know what you're doing".
Soon after, Spurs looked to have equalised when Sarr beat Robert Sanchez from distance, and Postecoglou was spotted cupping his hand to his ear and turning in the direction of the away fans.
The gesture was interpretted by some as a reaction to those boos, which the Spurs boss denied after the game.
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"I wanted them to be happy, mate,” he told Sky Sports. “I wanted them to cheer as they haven't had much to cheer about recently.
"It's not the first time my substitutions have been booed, if you've followed my tenure. They're allowed to boo, but I wanted them to cheer."
Asked again in the post-match press conference about the incident, Postecoglou replied: "Jesus mate, it's incredible how things get interpreted. We'd just scored, I just wanted to hear them cheer."
The goal was eventually disallowed for a foul by Sarr in the build-up, with VAR taking more than four minutes to come to a decision. It followed a similarly long delay for an earlier disallowed by by Moises Caicedo.
Sky Sports reporter Patrick Davison asked Postecoglou if he agreed with the decision, to which Postecoglou snapped back: "Look Pat, you can try and force me into a corner ... you are. Did you think last night was a red card? Clear and obvious? Yes, okay.
"How many minutes did it take this referee to figure out it was clear and obvious? In your basic knowledge of vocabulary, clear and obvious, what does that suggest to you. If you have to watch something quite a few times, is that clear and obvious?"
Davison then replied: "No, it's maybe not clear and obvious [but] I do think it was a foul, if I'm honest," to which Postecoglou retorted: "Right, there you go. So the referee didn't see it, he then needs to see it for six minutes, but he gets the right outcome so you're happy.
"That's why the game is going the way it is. I guess people like you will continue to be happy, sitting on your couches, waiting six minutes for clear and obvious stuff. I don't agree with it, but that's fine."
More follows.