Tottenham was lost to Arsenal at home on a Sunday afternoon in mid -September when Ange Postecoglou clarified his previous season statements about 'mostly' winning trophies in his second season.
“I will correct myself,” Postecoglou said in a Flash Sky Sports interview immediately after the game. 'I usually don't win things, I always win things in my second season. Nothing has changed. I've said it now. I don't say things unless I believe them. '
And so the story was established. Some praised are refreshing fearlessness. Others shouted to fire him so misled when the campaign went wrong. Anyway, his words will hang in the air while Spurs find out if they are good enough to revise a 1-0 deficit against AZ Alkmaar and reach the last eight of the Europa League.
“My opinion has always been when you ask a question, you answer it,” said Postecoglou, when it was asked on Wednesday if there was regrets about that statement. “I don't want anything. I was asked a question. I answered that question. People used it a bit for their own purposes to suggest that I made a daring claim, but I wasn't. I explained a fact.
'If that does not happen this year, I can't say that if I am asked next year, right? What should I say? “I always win in the second year, but well, I have been where I have been in the past, it won't happen here.” Is that what people want to hear?
'Maybe we will brave the opportunities and I will win something. Do you know what people will say? “Is it not great that he made such a daring claim.”
'People just use it the way they want, depending on the circumstances. I will always answer things as I feel comfortable to answer them. I am really comfortable and proud of the fact that I have been won everywhere. I wouldn't be here if I didn't. Whether I win something in my second year here will learn time. '
In Tottenham, where they have become specialists in recent decades, something may have been considered as degrees of not winning. Going out in the last 16 of the Europa League, a competition in which they left as favorites, free from the competition of Europe's elite, will not go well with the masses that have generally refused to turn on Postcoglou but will expect more.
AZ are capable and good in balance, as they proven in Alkmaar last week. They are well coached with strong ties and understanding of the players who graduated from youth ranks together. They have a number of dangerous individual players, such as wing player Ernest Poku.
Yet they are sixth in the Dutch Eredivisie. And when they visited Tottenham in October, they were defeated by a team that mainly consisted of Postecoglou's Fringe players on one night when teen Mikey Moore shines and James Maddison compared him to Neymar.
Spurs have been strong at home in the Europa League and there is no reason why they cannot turn this draw and move forward with ambition in the last eight to play Eintracht Frankfurt or Ajax.
Although it is a real test of their character. How damaged are they what is there? Do they wear psychological scars from home defeats against the struggle of Ipswich and Leicester or a FA Cup-equal game when they needed extra time to abandon the fifth-layer Tamworth or a few hidings by Liverpool, or nervous versions when the heat was in intense sound at Galatasaray and Rangers.
Or because of the simmering dissatisfaction among supporters, whose protests have focused on chairman Daniel Levy and the Enic ownership, but it is fair to say that love with the Ange Ball project is not what it was.
On Sunday they were loud back to the dressing room after a timid first half against Bournemouth before they save a draw.
Dejan Kulusevski, their best player this season, is out with a foot injury, Rodrigo Bentancur is banned and Kevin Danso, signed in January, is the last one with a hamstring injury.
There will be a time to take stock of the medical problems and comments of Cristian Romero about the physio, but tonight (do) Postecoglou has most of his best players available.
And although he may prefer that they have more minutes in their legs, Danso's absence will tempt him to first defend Romero and Micky Van de Ven in the defense, because they were both injured against Chelsea in December.
Traces are always better with both of them in the team. We are about to find out if that is enough to keep the season alive at least, to keep Postecoglou in the habit of always winning something in his second season. Maybe to keep him at work.
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