Ange Postecoglou gave his final press conference today, ahead of Wednesday’s Europa League final against Manchester United in Bilbao. Straight away, he answered a couple of questions that have been at the forefront of Tottenham Hotspur fans’ minds — what’s up with Pape Sarr, and might Lucas Bergvall actually play?
There was good news, and there was some disappointing news — Sarr appears to be fine and fit for the final, but despite some crazy rumors floating around social media, Lucas Bergvall will not feature despite being on the plane to Bilbao.
“[The team news is] Pretty much the same as last week. No, Lucas isn’t available. Same as we were as of last week.”
Spurs fans got overly excited this past week as training videos and photos emerged that appeared to show Bergvall training on grass and walking around without a boot. Bergvall was injured in the win over Bodø/Glimt in Norway, and the reporting at the time was that he’d be out for the remainder of the season. Well, that apparently still holds.
I think the majority of the copium was coming from the recent videos that showed Spurs players boarding the plane to Bilbao, and Lucas was seen walking more or less normally. That said, Radu Dragusin was also seen boarding the plane as well, and nobody’s expecting him to play. My guess is that the club extended the option to any player on the team who’s physically able to travel the opportunity to watch their team potentially lift their first trophy since 2009. (That, sadly, doesn’t appear to include Dejan Kulusevski, who recently had surgery on his knee.)
Tottenham have beaten Manchester United three times this season — a 3-0 win at Old Trafford, a 4-3 home win in the League Cup, and a 1-0 win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. But when asked, Postecoglou said that all those results go out the window, and they don’t really matter.
“It’s a final and you know that those kind of things aren’t important. If we had lost all three games your question would probably be ‘do you feel the pressure because you can’t beat them’, so… What I do know, and I’ve been in this situation a few times in my career in the big games, even your form going into it, even if you’ve got terrible form… it doesn’t matter.
”What matters is how the players cope with the occasion tomorrow. How they cope with understanding the importance of the game. For both clubs, you just don’t know how players are going to react to such a big occasion.
“My role in that is to try to prepare the players in the best possible way and also to prepare the players for Manchester United to be at their best, and that’s what you have to prepare for. If you prepare that way, and then you go out there and play to the potential that you can, you give yourself an opportunity.
“But I don’t think it really matters what you’ve done before any opposition when it comes to big games. Maybe in the league it’s a bit different. But in a final, everything gets decided on the day.”
The other big item discussed was, obviously, Ange’s future. There appears to be an assumption in the media at the moment that Postecoglou will leave Tottenham at the end of the season whether he wins the Europa League or not, despite the context of the season and that he still clearly has the support of his Spurs players. Ange was asked whether he has discussed his future with his team, and he replied that his focus has been entirely on tomorrow’s match.
“No, because I think again that would not be really help with what is before us right now. I’ve said to the lads from day one, nothing is guaranteed in life, nothing is guaranteed in sport. You just need to try and make sure you take every opportunity before you. That’s what I have done my whole career. I’ve been in this position before where the big game was the last game I managed. It’s not unusual territory for me. I have always navigated it pretty well because for me nothing is more important than my responsibility for this football club and its fans that tomorrow me, the players, our mind is only on one thing and that is to create something special.
“My future is assured, mate. I wouldn’t be the first person who changes job. We all change jobs. I am sure you’ve had more than one job. My future is assured, I have got a beautiful family, I’ve got a great life, I’ll keep on winning trophies until I finish – wherever that is. Don’t worry about my future, mate. My future is not intertwined with anything. My future is assured provided god-willing my health remains, my beautiful family is beside me, my friends, there is nothing wrong with my future, mate. Don’t stress. Sleep easy tonight. I’ll be OK.
“... I don’t think my job is done here. I really feel like we are building something and what a trophy does is hopefully accelerate that. So, I still think there is work to be done. It is quite obvious with the challenges we’ve had this year, which I think are well chronicled but there is some reasoning in the context of that, but also there has been some growth and I would like to see through. Whether that happens or not is not that important right now, but I don’t think far from it is this job finished. I certainly feel there is some growth there that we can take this club to where it needs to be.”
The Europa League final is tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. ET / 8:00 p.m. BST. It is televised on CBS Sports Network and streamed on Paramount+, and televised on TNT Sports 1 in the United Kingdom.