We’ve done this dance a few times- Ange Postecoglou reacts to the latest Spurs links

Ange Postecoglou comfortably brushed aside media speculation when he sat down to discuss Saturday’s Scottish Cup Final against Inverness Caley Thistle.

After a phoney five minute discussion about the Hampden clash, an injury update and dealing with lower division opponents the main issue was tackled.

When Arne Slot declined advances from Spurs to sign a new Feyenoord contract a couple of London based reports claimed that the Celtic boss was interesting Daniel Levy as the hunt for Antonio Conte’s successor enters a third month.

At the weekend Postecoglou straight-batted the Spurs questions but on Wednesday the speculation increased after a report in The Standard claimed that an approach would be made following the Scottish Cup Final.

5 minutes

QUESTION: You are now being spoken of as the preferred candidate for the Spurs managerial job. If anything how has that changed the scenario for you this week at all, has anything changed for you since we spoke about it last week?

AP: No, somebody else was the favourite for it last week weren’t they? Yeah, so eh, yeah so it doesn’t register.

So I mean, no, I get all the interest and why people sort of love to speculate on these things but we’ve worked ourselves really really hard to get us into this position and for me to let my mind wonder about anything else other than to get our team prepared for a big game on Saturday is just not who I am.

QUESTION: We spoke to Matt O’Riley, Alistair Johnston, they were talking about blocking out noise. Alistair Johnston acknowledges thought that players can’t avoid the TV and seeing the stories quite often. Do you have to do anything in particular to block out that sort of stuff to make sure that the focus does remain on the cup final.

AP: You are making it sound as if this is the first time that it has happened to me. We’ve done this dance a few times this year so I think that the players are well aware of where my thoughts lie so you know. Whatever it is, yeah the players have shown before that they are really good at just focussing on what’s important. What’s important is being ready for a big game on Saturday,

ENDS.

Postecoglou remains on the 12 month rolling contract that he signed in June 2021 after leaving Yokohama F Marinos to take over from Neil Lennon.

Spurs finished their EPL campaign in eighth place meaning that they won’t have European football with the unresolved issue of Harry Kane’s contract likely to dominate the close season.