Postecoglou’s view on the start of his Spurs rebuild & why he reportedly snubbed a Barca star

Ange Postecoglou loves a rebuild. The Tottenham boss stressed that during his standard Friday press conference and while there has been clear signs of progress, he was quick to stress the Spurs project was only in its “infancy”.

Tottenham are only three games into the Premier League season, yet Postecoglou has already endeared himself to Spurs supporters, bringing a feel-good factor back to north London after troubled regimes under Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte.

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While Spurs were ousted from the Carabao Cup on penalties by Fulham after the A-Leagues legend made wholesale changes to his team, he has overseen an unbeaten start to the Premier League campaign, which includes a 2-0 win over juggernaut Manchester United, despite the loss of all-time leading goalscorer Harry Kane.

The former Brisbane Roar, Melbourne Victory, Socceroos, Yokohama F.Marinos and Celtic boss has been serenated by Spurs fans with a viral chant, while pop icon Robbie Williams has been seen singing a tribute song.

As Tottenham prepare to visit newly-promoted Burnley on Saturday (Sunday AEST), Postecoglou discussed his start to life at the club, who failed to qualify for European football last term.

“It’s been encouraging and promising, I guess,” he told reporters. “We’ve done a lot of changes this year.

“We’ve changed coaching staff, the way we train, significant personnel. Within that context, you know with such major change, it takes a while for things to feel comfortable for everybody, the whole club, even me – I’m still new.

“Within that context, I’ve been really encouraged by what I’ve seen. The players are trying to play the way we want to.

“They’ve shown real resilience to adjust and not let the fact that so many changes have happened affect our performance. Our performance has been fairly consistent. Because it’s very easy for the players, with so many changes, to have excuses for why we wouldn’t start well.

“We’ve had four official games so far and three have been away from home, so it’s not been an easy start for this group of players. I like the fact they’ve shown that character but we’ve got a long way to go. We’re still very much at the beginning and we have plenty of challenges ahead.”

When asked if this is what he thought Spurs would look like by now in terms of a rebuild, Postecoglou replied: “It’s part of the process, but a rebuild is something that happens over a period of time.

“You have to overcome certain hurdles and landmarks along the way, one is a change of personnel, change of methodology.

“There are so many things within that and the rebuild I love is one that takes time, and we’re still at the beginnings of it. Where we’re at at the moment is where we’re at, and every team I’ve been at there have been different challenges.

“How much the team changes in one window, how much of change there’s been from the previous regime, there are always lots of other factors that go into it. I’m at pains to keep saying it but we’re still at very much the infancy of what I want to create with the team and the club we want to be.

“Notwithstanding that, we understand that we still need to perform and get results. In my experience, that’s the only thing that accelerates that process is if you can get some real belief. Because with every performance and every result whatever barriers there are slowly get chipped away.”

Tottenham ended deadline day with the signing of Nottingham Forest star Brennan Johnson, having also recruited James Maddison, Micky van de Ven, Manor Solomon and Guglielmo Vicario following the exits of Kane and Harry Winks.

Late moves for Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher and Bournemouth centre-half Lloyd Kelly also collapsed after failing to offload Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg or Eric Dier.

Sergio Reguilon (Manchester United), Djed Spence (Leeds United), Joe Rodon (Leeds United) and Japhet Tanganga (Augsburg) were among the players to leave on loan.

Spurs had been heavily linked with Barcelona sensation Ansu Fati before the Spain international joined Brighton and Hove Albion on loan, while Tottenham pursued Johnson.

David Ornstein – The Athletic’s football correspondent – claimed Postecoglou turned down the chance to sign Fati.

“Clearly Ansu Fati was seen as Xavi and Barcelona as among the names they were willing to part with,” he told The Athletic Football Podcast prior to Tottenham completing the Johnson deal.

“A number of clubs were offered him including Tottenham and Chelsea, they considered it, in the case of Tottenham, Ange Postecoglou was keen to pursue a different profile of forward, it appears that is Brennan Johnson from Nottingham Forest.”