From football.london
Numerous Tottenham players have spoken about Postecoglou's chat with them being the deciding factor in their move with the Australian convincing James Maddison to join Spurs rather than Saudi Sportswashing Machine, Lucas Bergvall to spurn Barcelona and Radu Dragusin to turn down Bayern among many tempted to N17 by the 59-year-old.
So what exactly is so persuasive about the Australian's phone manner? He admitted that his conversations are not always a success and that January brought a couple of misses when he did not connect with transfer targets.
"I think there is something to be said for honesty and integrity, and as much as actions speak louder than words, I think I’ve got a pretty compelling story to tell," he said. "When I speak to players, I’m not trying to sell anything that there isn’t plenty of evidence for. I think for most players, that’s where they get comfort more than anything else.
"I don’t think it’s smooth-talking, or selling, I think there’s a real good story here which I really believe in. I speak from a real strong conviction that what I’m saying will come to fruition. I really believe that. I don’t think I need to do anything special."
He also admitted: "You’re hearing the success stories. There are plenty of people where it hasn’t worked out. Plenty. There’s been a couple in this window. You know straight away that there is a disconnect and it’s not going to work. What I’m saying and the questions they’re asking, we’re on a different page.
"And that's not a criticism. People look for different things. You're looking for something that resonates. I definitely don't have a 100 per cent hit rate, that's for sure, but I think that’s part of it as well. I get comfort from that too, when I walk away and think 'Jesus, he's a good player but I don’t think it’s going to be a good fit'. It's not going to be a good fit for him, it's not going to be a good fit for us, so it works out well either way."
So what are the red flags when he's talking to a prospective signing and would he name any of the players he didn't connect with?
"You will have to wait for my book!" he responded. "There are red flags, there are. Like I said, it is because I am 59-years-old and we spoke about knowledge before. With age comes wisdom, which is much more powerful than knowledge. You get a sense of these things. Get a sense of people.
"I think I am a pretty good judge of a person. To contextualise that, not a good or bad person, but will the person fit what I am trying to do. That is the main thing for me. There are fantastic footballers, fantastic people who are maybe not the right fit. I am not the right kind of manager for them. You have got to accept that. It is not a judgement call on a value basis.
"Does their personality fit, does their character, where they are in their careers. What kind of questions are they asking? You get a sense of what they say where they are in their careers, and you go 'that marries up with what we are trying to do here'.
"There are red flags, and I think it is important that there are because the last thing I want to do is bring a player here who is not a good fit. It is not good for me and it is not good for the player either. They have got a big decision to make and they need to know what they are walking into and I try to paint as clear a picture as possible what they are coming into.
"There have been times when players have said 'that is not for me'. I respect that. I would rather have that than agree and everyone is happy and the worst thing you can do is have got a great contract and great money and you are not happy and you realise that is not the important thing."
Postecoglou explained that he is not utilised to speak with every player that crosses Tottenham's radar.
"I don’t like having conversations unless I think there’s a real interest there from both sides. It ends up a waste of my time," he said. "Unless we’re really convinced about someone and we feel like there is some sort of interest coming the other way, then I’m not going to get involved in it.
"I don’t really get involved until everything else has been sorted out around financials and that kind of stuff and I know, OK, this is the final box we need to tick, and they’ll kind of wheel me out then."
Spurs' final moves of the transfer window brought two different age profiles in the teenage Tel and the 26-year-old centre-back Kevin Danso from Lens on a loan with an obligation to buy for £20.9million. Postecoglou was asked whether he had to be convinced about signing so many young players with Danso, Dominic Solanke and 21-year-old Antonin Kinsky the only players over the age of 19 brought to the club in the past 12 months.
"I've been a big driver of it. I feel when I took over we needed to rebuild a squad. This wasn’t tinkering around the edges, I’ve said that all along," explained the Australian. "If you’re going to do that invariably you’ve got to go young and allow them to develop together. We had some experience here which has helped and signing Dom was an important part of that. Kevin to an extent because he’s a little bit more experienced.
"Again, that doesn’t mean I’ll see the fruits of that labour. That’s the nature of it, but I’ll always makes decisions I feel are best for the football club and to bring success, that’s the way I’ve worked. All these decisions, I’m as much a driver of as the club. No-one has been thrust upon me who I don’t think is going to fit."
That in itself is surely a sign of some security within his job for the Tottenham head coach?
"I'm not interested in security. It doesn’t exist in the modern game no matter what anyone tells me. Somebody can say 'hey Ange we're right behind you' and then you know.... I mean I've lost him (points to one reporter). I'm down to Ali and that's about it. We're ok, we're solid yeah?" he turned and asked of football.london, prompting a jokingly half-hearted "yeah...." in response which drew a worried exhale of air and laugh from the Australian.
He continued: "I know it’s not the real world. Ultimately, the real world exists around if I keep getting results then I’ll be OK and if I’m not then the inevitable pressure that’s been on me for what feels like the last three or four months will still be there. There’s no guarantees about anything but I don’t care about that.
"Being a manager especially in today’s world you can feel so isolated and so vulnerable, and I don’t feel that. I feel like the playing group is rock solid, the staff are rock solid, I feel supported and that’s all I can ask for. Where that takes us, time will tell. I firmly believe it will take us to success, but there’s no guarantees and I understand that."
Postecoglou would love to call upon Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero to help him on that road to success but both of his key centre-backs are struggling to regain confidence in their bodies after picking up injuries on their returns to action in December against Chelsea.
It is reminiscent somewhat of the way Richarlison took longer than expected to return and Spurs and Postecoglou were ultra-cautious about him coming back into the team. At one point the Spurs boss told the media to stop asking about the Brazilian because there was no set timeframe and he admitted understanding the feeling from the outside that it was dragging on with the centre-backs' returns.
"It probably does [feel that way], it’s probably why I get asked about it on a weekly basis and I understand it, they’re two significant players, but I think whenever a player is out for a significant amount of time and gets reinjured, then you err on the side of being cautious," he said.
"We could take risks with both of them, for sure. Football is funny, they may be able to get through 70-80 minutes, but the fact that there is a risk there and with everything we’re dealing with at the moment, I don’t see the sense in pushing that through. They’re different cases, of course, but they’re both so invaluable to us that I guess the one thing I’m looking at is that when we bring them back, I want them to stay back, because we can’t afford to have another player in that position having a setback after losing Radu.
"What we’ve done with Richy has worked really well for us, this time. The first time he came back, he got reinjured. He’s playing more than I want him to at the moment, which is not great, but he looks strong, he feels a lot better. He was convinced when he came back that he was ready to go. I guess I need to get to that space with Micky and Cristian where they feel like, ‘Yeah I’m ready for the Premier League and whatever else we need to tackle’."
