{"id":445900,"date":"2025-04-04T21:00:29","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T21:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=445900"},"modified":"2025-04-05T06:13:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T06:13:18","slug":"ange-bites-back-at-disgruntled-bullying-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=445900","title":{"rendered":"Ange bites back at disgruntled 'bullying' fans"},"content":{"rendered":"

By cupping his ear and waving sarcastically, Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou<\/a> went head-first into a confrontation with his critics.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, those critics were the club\u2019s hard-core fans.<\/p>\n

Postecoglou, whose future at Tottenham has been looking increasingly uncertain in a tough season for the underperforming London team, might have gone a step too far Thursday when he appeared to goad his own supporters during the 1-0 loss at Chelsea \u2014 even though he later denied having that intention.<\/p>\n

Tottenham\u2019s away contingent had serenaded Postecoglou with a chant of \u201cYou don\u2019t know what you\u2019re doing\u201d after the combative Australian coach made two substitutions in the 64th minute at Stamford Bridge, including bringing on Pape Sarr to replace fellow midfielder Lucas Bergvall.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: \ufeff<\/strong>Bennett's subtle Latrell jab amid major Souths claim<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Uncharted waters': Cleary's telling admission in 12-year low<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Within five minutes, Sarr scored a goal from long range and Postecoglou reacted by facing the end containing Tottenham\u2019s fans, cupping his hand to his ear and then waving.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for Tottenham and Postecoglou, the goal was disallowed and Chelsea went on to secure a 1-0 win that consigned Spurs to a 16th loss in 30 Premier League games this season.<\/p>\n

Postecoglou was asked about his actions after Sarr\u2019s \u201cgoal\u201d and, in his unique style, said \u201cI wanted them to be happy, mate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d just scored a cracking goal,\u201d he said. \u201cI wanted them to cheer because they hadn\u2019t had a lot to cheer about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tottenham fans sure will attest to that this season.<\/p>\n

And his explanation might not wash with many fans who appear to have turned against their manager, maybe because of the team's results, maybe because of his style of play, and maybe because of increasingly unhappy demeanour.<\/p>\n

It was only a couple of months ago, after a 2-1 loss to relegation-threatened Leicester, that he attempted to confront a fan who had directed criticism the Tottenham manager\u2019s way as he walked down the tunnel.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

That is one thing, however. Appearing to taunt supporters \u2014 though he denied doing so again in a news conference on Friday, maintaining his actions did been misinterpreted \u2014 is another.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d heard the supporters weren\u2019t happy with my decision, which is fine,\u201d he said, \u201cand my response was to celebrate and get them to make some noise and get them behind the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Postecolou also condemned fans that have intentionally goaded him with taunts, filming the altercations and posting them online.<\/p>\n

"They're not really interested in your answer to the question, they just want a reaction," Postecoglou said.<\/p>\n

"They just want their five minutes of fame because that's what this (a phone) gives them.<\/p>\n

"That's what I was talking about. For young people, it's more dangerous than any other weapon in the world as far as I'm concerned.<\/p>\n

"If I don't pull up, especially young kids who pull up a phone and put it in my face, then what's stopping them from doing that in the schoolyard? What's stopping them from doing that in general life?<\/p>\n

"It's a bullying mechanism. It's not criticism."<\/p>\n

Postecoglou, who is coming to the end of his second season at Tottenham after joining from Celtic, said he wasn\u2019t affected by fan criticism.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been fighting my whole career,\u201d he continued, \u201cand I\u2019ll continue to fight until I\u2019m told to stop by someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given the growing disconnect between Postecoglou and the fans, winning the Europa League \u2014 and thereby ending Tottenham\u2019s 17-year wait for a major trophy and securing a place in next season\u2019s Champions League \u2014 might be the only thing that keeps him in his job.<\/p>\n

Tottenham plays Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League quarterfinals, with the first leg on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Lose and Tottenham just has Premier League games left to play. The team is in 14th place in the 20-team league, making it a woeful campaign for a team among the so-called \u201cBig Six\u201d in England and which was one of the clubs pushing to join a breakaway Super League four years ago.<\/p>\n

Postecoglou, who has previously blamed injuries for his team's poor results this season, said Friday he understood the criticism heading his way and didn\u2019t want to \u201csay something that somehow will change the mood of the fans."<\/p>\n

\u201cI still believe we\u2019ve got a massive opportunity for ourselves this year,\u201d he said, \u201cand I\u2019m not going to let that slip away \u2014 whether that\u2019s from external or internal pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By cupping his ear and waving sarcastically, Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou went head-first into a confrontation with his critics. Unfortunately, those critics were the club\u2019s […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":445902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445900"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=445900"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":445905,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445900\/revisions\/445905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/445902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=445900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=445900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=445900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}