Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou has taken aim at the social media trolls who played their part in forcing Brennan Johnson to deactivate his Instagram account.
The 23-year-old was signed by Spurs from Nottingham Forest for £50million last season and in his first campaign at the club managed to rack up 15 goal involvements in 35 Premier League matches with five goals and 10 assists. The young Wales international has not yet found his groove in the first four games of this season, other than a positive display from the bench at Newcastle United this month.
Johnson has been on the receiving end of social media trolls in the past year and on Instagram he limited the ability for anyone other than those he follows to comment under his posts. However, that does not completely remove abuse as, for example, it does not prevent users from sending unsolicited direct messages on the platform which collect in a separate folder.
After Sunday’s North London Derby and the defeat to Arsenal, the young attacker deactivated his account entirely and Postecoglou was asked whether social media abuse was now just par for the course for players in the game nowadays.
“I hope not. I hate how we’ve just normalised all that stuff,” said the 59-year-old. “I’ve been around long enough and even when I was playing, I copped a fair bit, but it was usually on the terraces and then the game was over and you’d go home. When people are at the game they get a bit frustrated that you’re not playing well, they give you some fairly direct feedback, I’ve had all that.
“You’re talking about a young guy who is probably lacking a bit of confidence at the moment. Things haven’t gone his way, but he comes here every day, he’s working his backside off, he’s asking for feedback, he’s doing everything right, he’s trying so hard to become the player he wants to be, it’s hurting him a lot.
“It’s not like he’s out on the town and he doesn’t care and he rolls up late. So what’s his crime? His crime is he isn’t performing at the level that people expect of him. As a professional footballer you’ve got to expect that you’re going to get criticism about that, that’s part of your growth. He’s still a young player and I think there is so much more of Brennan that we’re going to bring out in him.
“It’s sad for me that we’ve kind of normalised that stuff. That getting abuse, and it is abuse and a lot of it personal, is ‘oh well, that’s part of the territory’. I don’t see that.”
He added: “I don’t cop it anymore. If somebody is abusive to me, they’re going to hear it back. I don’t believe that’s right. I’ll take criticism because that’s my role, and scrutiny, you have to because that’s your role, but I don’t have time for abuse. I feel sorry for the young people today, they are on these social media platforms. I can switch off and my one follower doesn’t get upset by it.
“For the young guys today, it’s part of their world. They seem to get some sort of enjoyment from it. I don’t understand it but they do. The fact that they’ve got to limit their world, close their world a little bit because of… I mean what kind of person writes abusive things to an individual?
“Criticism is one thing, exasperation at a game, you accept that. To sit down and write something abusive anonymously… say it in front of me, you’ll get a punch on the nose, you won’t do it again, mate. But they won’t do that. They’ll hide behind this… I hate that it’s normalised but unfortunately that’s the world we live in.
“When I look at Brennan I see a young man who is trying his hardest to be the best he can be. It doesn’t always guarantee success and it’s part of his journey how he deals with all this, but he’s a great kid, a great footballer and I’m very optimistic about what he’s going to do for us.”
Postecoglou is positive about his attacking options on the whole at Tottenham and the room for growth that his players have in that department.
“I think there is so much more upside. We’re nowhere near capacity in terms of the players we have there at the moment. Dom Solanke is an obvious one, Richy hasn’t even played yet. It’s fair to say Sonny has had a stop-start to the season. He hasn’t hit the consistent levels. The other guys like Brennan and Wilson [Odobert], I think there’s a lot of growth in there. Timo [Werner] hasn’t had much of an opportunity,” said the Tottenham boss.
“I look at our attacking midfield players, I think there’s massive upside in [Dejan] Kulusevski. I’m seeing more and more growth in him in that attacking midfield role. I definitely think there is capacity to improve there in that area, for sure, 100 per cent.
“Dom and even Richy, just having a focal point up there, that’s the reason we signed him, is going to make a big difference to us in that area. I think we have at present enough there to overcome the deficiencies we have at the moment through more a lack of fluency and cohesion in that front third. We just haven’t been able to nail on a formation there that will give us some consistency.”
Much has been made of Postecoglou’s exasperated interview with Sky Sports after Sunday’s defeat in which he made it clear after being asked about his record of winning trophies in his second season at clubs that he was looking to do so at Tottenham as well.
It was put to the Australian on Tuesday that his candid statement might have heaped unnecessary pressure on him and the team to deliver, especially with a potential banana skin of a Carabao Cup third round fixture at Coventry City on Wednesday night.
“By stating a fact? I’m not sure. What did I do, did I unfurl banners and get a band out?” he asked. “Am I supposed to say that’s not really relevant or that doesn’t really count or that’s not really important? Because it is to me. That’s what I’ve got to rely on, that in my 26 years of managing I’ve had success and most of that has come in the second year, not all of it. Sometimes it’s happened in the first year, sometimes in the third year.
“I rely on that. It’s something I’ve achieved. If by the end of your career you’ve won a couple of Pulitzers mate, and somebody asks you about winning a Pulitzer, would you say, ‘Well it’s not really that important’? I don’t see why that puts extra pressure. It doesn’t put extra pressure on me because I love the fact that I’ve done that. It’s what I want to do here.
“I’d like to think that just saying the truth is the way to go forward, but I think sometimes that’s too confronting for people. They’d much rather I didn’t.”
Postecoglou was asked whether by using that standard he sets himself will it be a failure in his mind if he does not win a trophy at Tottenham this season?
“Yes. I failed last year in my head because that’s how I’m geared. I think I’ve made it pretty clear what my expectations are, but that doesn’t mean that I stop, that just fuels the fire of ‘Why didn’t I do it? Why didn’t we achieve last year? Why didn’t we win something last year?'” he said.
“That gets me going for this year and this year it’s about progress. That’s been my whole career, that’s my foundation. That’s why I’m sitting here. There’s no other way I could have got here. No chance in any universe I could have got here from Australia and been sitting here answering questions at one of the biggest clubs in the world and the best competition in the world if I didn’t have some sort of self belief based on something of substance. I was never going to get here with my charm and good looks.”
So by that logic everyone else can judge the Spurs boss by his own standards?
“Yeah. I’ve never tried to steer it another way. Have I ever downplayed anything since I’ve been here? So I’m willing to be measured against that, that means that I’m fair game. I’ve never said not to. Now, how you come to your summary at the end, that’s as much on you as it is me,” he explained.
“You can make your assessment on just one thing or many things, but I’m happy to be judged against that standard because that’s my standard, that’s what I’ve done in the past and I don’t want to dilute that because then I miss the opportunity to continue on the road I’ve been on. I have no problems with people using that as a yardstick.
“I will say we’re four games into a new season, it’s pretty early. I realised in Scotland, they’d rule me out after two games. They said it was all over in the year we won the double, so…I just find it…It’s just me, I’m going to be me. I’m just going to say these things the way I always have and I’m not going to change.”
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