Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou has insisted he was not trying to goad the club fans when cupping his hand to his ear during short-lived goal celebrations.
Spurs fell to a 1-0 defeat to Chelsea on Thursday night, their 16th Premier League loss of the season and a fourth on the trot to the Blues. Enzo Fernandez scored the decisive goal as the Blues held on to an important victory.
Tottenham taught they’ve equalised when Pape Matar Sarr soon beat Robert Sanchez from distance. Postecoglou was spotted during the short lived celebration cupping his hand to his ear and turning in the direction of the away fans.
His move came just minutes after he replaced Lucas Bergvall with Sarr. This substitution was met with boos from sections of the travelling Spurs support and chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing”.
Pape Matar Sarr of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates with team mates after scoring a goal that was later disallowed following a VAR review. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
The gesture was interpretted by some as a reaction to those boos, which the Spurs boss denied after the game.
“I wanted them to be happy, mate,” he told Sky Sports. “I wanted them to cheer as they haven’t had much to cheer about recently.
“It’s not the first time my substitutions have been booed, if you’ve followed my tenure. They’re allowed to boo, but I wanted them to cheer.”
Asked again in the post-match press conference about the incident, Postecoglou replied: “Jesus mate, it’s incredible how things get interpreted. We’d just scored, I just wanted to hear them cheer.”
Pressed on whether it was a mistake to do it, the Spurs boss added: “I am at some disconnect with the world these days – I don’t know. Maybe you are right.”
Sarr’s goal was eventually disallowed for a foul in the build-up, with VAR taking more than four minutes to come to a decision. It followed a similarly long delay for an earlier disallowed by by Moises Caicedo.
Asked if he agreed with the decision, Postecoglou snapped back: “Look Pat, you can try and force me into a corner … you are. Did you think last night was a red card? Clear and obvious? Yes, okay
“How many minutes did it take this referee to figure out it was clear and obvious? In your basic knowledge of vocabulary, clear and obvious, what does that suggest to you. If you have to watch something quite a few times, is that clear and obvious?”
