Thomas: “Of course, like with a lot of things, we are dealing with it internally, in terms of what we are taking care of it, that is my main message to him.”
Would you prefer your squad not to go on social media?
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Thomas: “Social media, I can't get rid of it. I think it is what some people call the future or it is the now, whatever it is. It is out there and one thing I do know, we all definitely put too much attention to social media, all of us. It seems like everything that is written on social media is the truth. It is such a small number of people who are actually writing something out there and everything we take for granted, ‘that’s the truth’, which I think is a challenge in general, overall. But of course, with everything, that is the way it is, and we just need to deal with it.
What is the ambition in the Premier League from here to the end of the season?
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Thomas: “I also think it is maybe a nice little context to say that Man United don't play European football. I think we can all acknowledge that it is an extra challenge, something we embrace and we are happy with. So, I think let's judge us when we are on the same challenges. The ambition is that we want to do very well and carry on with the good performances and beat Man United in two days' time.”
So many players liked the post - does that make it even more of a delicate thing for you to have to deal with internally?
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Thomas: “First and foremost, we don't know what a like means. I don't know how many words were there in the text. Is it, ‘well done guys, you did amazingly when I had to go off at half-time’? If that's a like, then perfect, then there's nothing.”
Can you understand the fans' fears about the lack of activity towards the end of the window?
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Thomas: “What I like is that the fans are very passionate and they want the best for the club. And are very ambitious, which they should be. Tottenham is a fantastic club, and we should achieve great things. It's also, you say the chances, we have a few players out, some of them are coming back, and a lot of them are coming back also this season, and hopefully sooner rather than later. So, that's one thing. Of course we look into loan options, of course we look into other options, but for different reasons, nothing more happened. I still think it was not like we wanted to buy five players. It was not the case. So, we got a very good player in Conor Gallagher and a good young one in Souza.”
I know it's with hindsight now, but I just wonder, do you look back at all on the Brennan Johnson sale? Bearing in mind we now know no more attackers came in after that, do you still feel the timing was right?
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Thomas: “There's a lot of moving parts in every decision, in terms of when you sell a player or when you buy a player. You can say if you play 3-4-3, we have right now five available players to the front three, which is a decent number. Hopefully, Richy is back soon, then we have six, and when Mo comes back, then we have seven. So, if you look at it from that perspective, I think it's okay.”
I just wondered if you could clarify, was it yourself and Johan, Vinai, whoever, who spoke to Cuti again?
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Thomas: “I can clarify that we dealt with it internally.”
Fabio Paratici has been unveiled at Fiorentina – he’s said Fiorentina have a serious set of owners - I just wondered what you make of those comments?
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Thomas: “I haven't seen them. I don't know them. I back Fabio, so that's probably the truth.”
Spurs have conceded quite a lot of goals from outside the box this season. I just wondered if you had any particular thoughts on why that is the case?
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Thomas: “No. That can be a big analysis on that. There can be unbelievable quality in the moment from players. It could be, for instance, that we didn't put enough pressure on the ball in a specific moment. You can say I think we scored two goals in the last four or five games. That should have given us more points than we got. There’s a lot of things we can improve, one of them is to concede less.”
Can you confirm that you've fined or discipline Cuti Romero?
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Thomas: “I can confirm that we dealt with everything internally.”
What would be the argument to fine or discipline him when he stated he was ill, he felt he had to play because we had 11 players and he thought it was disgraceful - where in what he’s said is not true, I guess?
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Thomas: “I think the beauty of written text is that you can read a lot into it. Nobody really knows what was the purpose of it, except Cuti, or the guys who have spoken to him, and everything is dealt with internally.”
I guess it shows he cares…
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Thomas: “I think it shows that Cuti is extremely passionate. He wants to win. He wants to do everything he can, together with his team-mates, to achieve great things, but you need to ask him next time you speak to him.”
It felt like in January maybe one more signing could have made a difference in pushing to Europe. The club has spoken about ambition a lot, but it feels like the club is kind of settling for mid-table right now. Is that fair to say?
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Thomas: “That's your opinion. This club is very ambitious. I think if it was like this, easy to get another play in, then I'd play Football Manager. I decided it was not as fun to be a Head Coach at Tottenham. So, it's never that easy. It's much more complicated. We all know that. We are in different stages of where we want to be, but that's not to say that we are not ambitious. We are very ambitious.”