Ange Postecoglou ignoring talk of Tottenham future as Europa League semis loom

Ange Postecoglou will continue to shut out hysteria around his position and keep Tottenham focused on an “unbelievable opportunity” to win the Europa League.

Spurs travel to Liverpool on Sunday with the aim of spoiling the party at Anfield, but the biggest match of their season occurs on Thursday.

Norwegian champions Bodo/Glimt visit north London for the first leg of a Europa League semi-final tie, but even last month Postecoglou acknowledged the “growing sentiment” is he will leave even if he wins the competition.

Success in Europe would bring Tottenham a first trophy in 17 years and Postecoglou is determined not to lose sight of the job at hand.

“We finished fifth last year, but it’s not a good story. A better story is my tenure has been a disaster and it continues to be. I just think that the kind of hysteria that is surrounding what’s happening at the moment is all premeditated for a certain outcome. Hopefully we can defy that,” Postecoglou said.

“After I’ve left clubs, there’s always a story about how I was close to (the sack). Even in my first job at South Melbourne, 30-odd years ago, there were famous stories about a board meeting getting cancelled where I was supposed to get sacked.

“Now that’s people telling me, I was oblivious to it. Maybe that’s happened at Yokohama, Celtic, I don’t know.

“If you asked any Tottenham supporter what’s the most important thing for them right now, who is going to be the manager next year or whether they win this thing? One hundred per cent of them would say, ‘Listen, just make sure we give ourselves the best opportunity to make some history’.

“The rest of it doesn’t matter. It will all take care of itself. The worst thing you can do is focus on what may or may not happen and miss this unbelievable opportunity that’s before us. We’re in the final four of a European competition.

“I can assure you, from my perspective, there’s nothing more in my thoughts than us being absolutely ready for Thursday. We’ve got a massive challenge.

“For us to be ready Thursday, we have to make sure we go into Sunday against Liverpool really clear-headed about what kind of performance we need to put on to make sure we’re ready for Thursday.”

Postecoglou has rotated his options before and after European ties, but is expected to hand minutes to key personnel at Anfield with Destiny Udogie, James Maddison and Dominic Solanke set to be recalled.

Liverpool only need a point to seal the Premier League crown and the Spurs boss knows what to expect.

“The fact that they have a great prize at the end of it should they be successful means we’re going to face a very motivated opponent and a very motivated crowd,” Postecoglou said.

“If we do (win) then we’ll have played awfully well and that would be fantastic and give us impetus going into our most important game of the season on Thursday.”