Ange’s Press Conference on Tottenham vs Brentford Game
In a detailed press conference ahead of the Tottenham vs Brentford game, the Tottenham manager Ange opened up about various topics including Harry Kane’s situation, new signings, and the team’s preparation.
Full Transcript of the Press Conference:
Question: Any guesses for the first question?
Ange: No idea, but good turn-out. We had to cancel it last week because no one was interested in what I had to say. It is obviously not about me (the first question).
Q: What’s the latest on Kane?
Ange: Yeah, look fair to say I don’t have a blow by blow account of the whole thing but my understanding is it has progressed to the point where it looks like it will happen. That’s all the information I have at the moment. From that perspective at least it gives us some clarity unless anything unforeseen happens and we move forward without Harry.
Q: Does it need to happen quickly?
Ange: No, I don’t have feelings either way in terms of needing anything. From my perspective it is just about understanding where we are at and where the status of it is. The information I have at the moment is the deal is imminent but like with all these things, until it happens you leave yourself some leeway but for the most part moving forward and certainly with training today and preparing for Brentford, we are doing it without Harry.
Q: How should Harry Kane be remembered?
Ange: I guess it is best Harry speaks for himself in terms of the decision but look, there’s no doubt he is one of the greats of this football club and that doesn’t change. His record speaks for itself, his standing amongst our supporters stands for itself. I am only new in the building mate and I am certainly not a spokesperson for this football club in the sense of proclaiming people’s status but it is fairly evident Harry Kane will always be one of the greats of this football club.
Q Do you need a like-for-like replacement for Kane?
Ange: Oh I don’t think there is a like-for-like replacement for Harry mate but yeah in terms of a striker again we’ve been planning for this, fair to say, for a while. It doesn’t take too much investigative work to realise that this was going to happen so we’ve been sorting of planning for it to happen anyway so a lot of our business up to now is with that in mind. This doesn’t change things dramatically from my perspective anyway in terms of what we’re trying to build.
Q: Have you given Daniel Levy a shopping list?
Ange: I don’t think it works that way. It is not my wife handing me a shopping list to go and get milk and bread for the kids. Our whole strategy has been around the fact Harry wasn’t going to be around more than likely so it is not like we’ve had a pow wow this morning and jeez what do we do. We knew it was coming and we’ve been working towards that. From my perspective we’re preparing for Brentford and there won’t be anyone incomings between now and Sunday so that’s where my focus is.
Q: How has Micky van de Ven settled in? Can he play against Brentford?
Ange: It is good to get Micky in and he’s settled in well. It is always easy for me to say but having been through it myself it, it is not as simple as him coming out and training, you have to settle yourself off the field as well and all these things take time. He’s had a pre-season with Wolfsburg but he hasn’t played 90 minutes yet so match-conditioning wise he is probably not at the level but he’s definitely available for the weekend. He trained well today and we’ve got a session tomorrow so in terms of the team selection I’ll make some decisions after that but he is available.
Q: Any injuries?
Ange: No, we’ve obviously got some long-terms who won’t be available but everyone else who played against Shakhtar and Barcelona, apart from a few minor knocks, they’ve all trained today. There’s no-one who will miss out from the guys who’ve been involved.
Q: Is the team ready for the start?
Ange: The league is not going to wait for us so we’ve got to be ready for it. Obviously it’s a great test for us, Brentford away is tough for anybody in the league, they showed that last year, and I think you’ve seen growth from their team every year they’ve been in the Premier League. Again they’ve made some astute signings and it’s going to be a great challenge. It’s a great physical challenge, they work hard, they’re well organised, difficult at set pieces. We’ve got to try to counter all that but play our football. We’ve been working hard on that in pre-season
and this is our first chance to lay some foundations.
Q: Was there any part of you that thought Harry may stay?
Ange: If you’re involved in the football business as long as I have [you know] clubs aren’t talking to each other unless the player knows about it. We weren’t negotiating with Wolfsburg for Micky van de Ven and then trying to figure out if he wants to come to us. All those kind of things are decided. I had a conversation with Harry the first day arrived and he was up front and honest, and I was the same. You kind of get an indication there that he kind of made up his mind that if the clubs agreed he would go, particularly if it was before the first game. That was my preference as well.
There’s nothing along the way that’s sort of made me feel there’s anything other than this outcome. None of these things happen in isolation, everyone is pretty clued into what’s going on, so from my perspective I hadn’t received anything from Harry, the club or anyone else to suggest to me anything had changed about his stance.
Q: Will James Maddison fill part of the hole left by Harry?
Ange: He was one of the first pieces of business we did. He was available and I was really excited to bring him into the group, knowing what we needed to build here. And again, knowing if Harry was going to leave that’s a fair few goals walking out of the door and knowing you can’t just replace that with one player. An area of the club that needing bolstering was midfield threat in terms of goals, and that’s what Madders provides – goals and assists. If we’ve going to cover the fact that Harry’s gone and all the goals are leaving with him, we’re going to have to spread that out and Madders provides that. He’s been brilliant since he’s come in, he’s been outstanding. Not just in the games but in training and the way he’s embraced the club and developed in the football we want to play.
Q: Can you unite the fanbase?
Ange: Look I think it probably belies the general impression of managers but we’re all eternal optimists or else we wouldn’t do this role, mate. There’s enough people telling you you can’t do things that if you don’t go into any challenging believing you can be successful and bring success, there’s no point in being in it. I was under no illusions about the enormity of the challenge but bullish that we could accomplish something here. In terms of the supporters, I’ve said all along they’ve got the right to feel the way they want to. If there’s a negativity amongst them, it’s up to us to turn it around. It’s not up to them. They’ll always have this faith in their football club but in terms of us, the people who represent it, it’s up to us to prove to them there’s something to get behind there. Sunday is an opportunity for us to begin to do that and hopefully that positivity transfers to our next home game because the energy they provide the players will be enormous for us.
Q: Have you decided on your captain yet?
Ange: Yeah I have mate [decided]. I’m not telling you. (Laughs) We’ll go through that process tomorrow. Knowing that Harry wasn’t going to be here, it was something I had on my radar. I’m not a massive one for having an outstanding captain,. Leadership is very transferrable through the group. Your youngest player can show leadership skills. It’s about creating a culture and environment that’s driven by the players. The people you have, have to drive that, and that’s been part of my brief here. I’ve observed the players and how they interact, and the environment they’ve set for themselves and which players seem to take the lead in that. I’ll go through the formalities of that probably tomorrow.
Q: Is Sonny a strong candidate?
Ange: It’s not like a leadership poll. I’m not having votes or anything, but there are some players here who have already contributed outstandingly to this club. It’s not just about experience, or playing ability, it’s more about the person they are, and how they’re going to represent us as a club and the playing group. I’m really comfortable with the group we have. We’ll get a strong leader out of it and hopefully some lieutenants alongside him.
Q: Is Ivan Perisic in your plans for this season?
Ange: He’s been playing, and playing very well. I’ve followed his career for a long time, he’s an absolute professional, the way he looks after himself, and he’s had a really strong pre-season, in games and training. So he does have a future with me and the club.
Q: Did you try to convince Harry?
Ange: I didn’t see the point [in trying to convince him to stay]. Whatever I was going to say was going to be irrelevant to what he felt. I could give this grand vision, but I’m sure he’s heard it all before. It’s how people feel and what they see and perceive in how the group works. My feeling was, we’ll get to know each other over the next month, and that’s the best way to navigate this early bit of our relationship as manager and player. In my mind, after that initial conversation, it seemed like Harry had made up his mind that if the clubs could agree he was going to go. If not, he was happy to stay. It’s not like he was forcing it on me., He was very professional about it and I tried to treat him with the respect that someone of his standing deserved.
Q: Are you frustrated that it’s taken this long?
Ange: I’ve been around for long enough not to get frustrated by these things. I’ve been involved in negotiations, so I know it’s never a simple process. Us managers would love it to be. You’re talking about one of the greats of this club. There’s got to be some torment and turmoil on either side. So while it would have been great to have it clarified earlier, I didn’t feel like that was going to happen. It was always going to be borderline. The one thing we’ve tried to stay strong on is we don’t want to go into the first game with stuff undecided, because then it gets even murkier. It’s happened, hopefully we’ll get confirmation over the next few hours and we can move forwards and so can Harry.
Q: Do you have any reassurances that you’ll have the money to spend?
Ange: I don’t need assurances. We’ve been working on that premise already. Nothing has changed from today, or yesterday. We’ve had a clear idea of what we wanted to do in terms of bringing in players. There still needs to be some movement out. Within that context, we’ll wait again to see how this unfolds. There are still areas we need to do business. But that’s not because of what happened today. That’s been planned from day one.
Q: What does a successful season look like for you?
Ange: The same thing it looked like for me yesterday. Nothing changes. We’ll try to build a team that hopefully plays football that excites our fans and brings success to this football club and the ultimate measure will be our fans. They will tell me whether they’re satisfied with what I’ve done. That will soon be relayed to the people here and to you guys and that will happen as a running measure of how we’re going. I’m not putting any (Laughs)
Q: What does it feel like in terms of the size of the task?
Ange: Well, it’s big. I don’t think anyone’s under any illusion there. It’s a fantastic football club with a great history and it’s our responsibility now to add to that history. We can only do that through hard work, having a vision and trying to execute that.
You talk about trophies and it’s important and it’s something we should always be aspiring to. In terms of success, it’s about building something people can be proud of, whether that’s the players, the staff or the fans. We’ll just work as hard as we can to get to that point.
