Ange Postecoglou responds to injury jibe from League One boss in brutal fashion

Ange Postecoglou has claimed Leyton Orient boss Richie Wellens has “had his five minutes” in the spotlight after mocking the Spurs boss. A bruising week for Tottenham saw the Australian’s side savaged by Sky Sports pundits following their Carabao Cup semi-final defeat at Liverpool. But last weekend League One manager Wellens snapped at a reporter when asked if his team's injury list was to blame for the defeat to Stockport. "I'm not Ange Postecoglou, keep using it as an excuse,” he said.

Wellens, who faces Manchester City in the FA Cup on Saturday, has since apologised. Asked if Spurs fans were getting tired of his repeated references to the injury situation, Postecoglou responded: "I don't know how it's a narrative when you are just stating facts. "If people don't see a situation where you are missing something significant there is nothing I can say to that. If they say 'well, that shouldn't really make a difference' I don't know how to answer that. I get that people's senses get dulled or people get bored - everyone wants a bit of drama. But that's not drama, that's just stating facts.

"We have been missing some really key players for a long time and have had to deal with that. Whether people see that as significant or not... If people think I'm trying to create a story out of nothing I don't know what to say about that. And as for other managers, mate, he's had his five minutes so lets move on. Asked if Wellens had contacted him to apologise personally, Postecoglou added: "He's had his five minutes, that's good enough for me.”.

Amid the biting criticism from the TV pundits, former Tottenham defender Michael Dawson claimed: “They didn't show any character.”. But the Aussie manager said: “It is really easy - people can sit back from the comfort of their surroundings and say: ‘They are not trying’. Or: ‘They lack fight or character’. “But that is not what I see. As I keep saying, maybe we would have been better off if we had not been in the sem-final and we had a week off and preparing for the FA Cup on Sunday and people would look at us differently. But the fact is that we got to a semi-final. These players worked really hard to get there. We didn’t have an easy road to get there. We had a disappointing night for sure. But I don’t question the character or determination of the players to continue on and try and be a success.”.

Tottenham are down in 14th place in the Premier League. Asked how long it would take to match leaders Liverpool, Postecoglou said: I know that this is all kind of reactive to last night and I get it. Everyone saw there was a big gap between us and Liverpool, but Vicario, Romero, Destiny, van de Ven, Solanke, Wilson Odobert, I could go on and on. "We had 10 missing last night, senior players, but you take seven or eight key players out of any team and you are playing the best team in the world who are at their best, I don’t think you make judgements in these moments.

“I get that it dulls the senses after a while when you say the same thing after week after week and it sounds like it is what it is, but that’s the reality of our situation. A lot of the players I mentioned and Maddison, I mean Brennan Johnson, I don’t make judgements on last night apart from the fact we didn’t perform in the manner we wanted to. Even if we did, we may not have won anyway but the disappointing thing is we just didn’t play the way we wanted to, so we need to address that.”.

Spurs travel to Aston Villa on Sunday for an FA Cup fourth round tie. “Our main object now to play a little bit more like ourselves,” said the Spurs boss. “It won’t be easy because Aston Villa are a good side and playing at home. Again, it will be a challenge with literally the same group of players backing up, but there is an opportunity for us there and we want to make sure we tackle that opportunity in the right way.”.

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