On August 27at 02:45 Beijing time (CEST), Tottenham Hotspur will host Charlton Athletic in the second round of the English League Cup. After the media embargo was lifted, excerpts from Tottenham managerAnge Postecoglou's pre-match press conference were released. This article contains the first part of that content.

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When you first took over the team, given the stage of the season and the dangerous situation Tottenham was in, you and the club faced extraordinary public pressure. A giant club like Tottenham should never find itself in a relegation battle or even facing the prospect of relegation. Yet now your situation is completely different. During this transfer window, the club has invested significant money in new players, and everyone is talking about how we don't have European competition this season. Many say this might be a good thing, because it means most weeks only need to focus on playing one match well. Are you pleased to accept and face this completely different type of pressure? It's almost an instant shift in pressure—what's your view on this?

No, actually, since day one as a football manager, I've felt immense pressure because I'm someone who constantly places extremely high expectations and pressure on myself. I don't feel the external pressure people talk about regarding player transfers. If I could, I'd even want to spend more money in the transfer market—it's not a problem for me at all. Because if you look at our competitors, they're not doing anything different except spending a lot of money.

The pressure I feel is purely because I'm now working at one of the top clubs in the world. Therefore, I'm very keen to do my best to help this club, to compete with strong opponents, and to win the highestrophies. That's all. I don't know if these goals will be achieved this season or next, but ultimately, these are my big goals and my personal pursuit. The club management doesn't force me to achieve anything—they simply ask me to compete fully and work hard.

But I believe that we at Tottenham are no worse than other big clubs in the Premier League, especially during my tenure. I can't judge the situation before I arrived, but as it stands, our transfer operations have been very good and efficient. So why can't we compete? I genuinely don't understand why not. Tottenham absolutely has the strength to compete alongside Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, and Arsenal. I really don't understand why some people think Tottenham can't invest the same amount of money as Chelsea or Liverpool. If it's possible, could someone explain this to me? Because I'm perhaps not that clever and truly can't understand the logic.

You just mentioned a change in mentality. How often do you, your coaching staff, and the players have in-depth discussions about "changing the team's mentality" in your daily work? You just mentioned Andy Robertson and what he could bring to this team. He certainly has rich experience to help lead the team to consistent wins...

That's very good, absolutely right. With a player like Robertson joining, it will certainly help us greatly and unite us into a complete whole. Because only when everyone is united will we be much stronger than fighting alone. But I think this requires a process, and yes, this transformation won't happen overnight. It will be very difficult, because sometimes you think you're in a better position, but then you suddenly realize you may still need to go back and work hard again.

But this is actually a necessary process that all top clubs have gone through in the past. I don't want to comment on other teams, and it's not appropriate todo so publicly. But if you look closely at the Premier League over the last decade—take Chelsea as an example—although they won Club World Cup last season, they also needed two to three seasons of transition to truly build a very cohesive team from the start.

Of course, I think we at Tottenham can certainlydo it faster, but in any case, we all need to stay tightly united, work twice as hard, maintain extreme focus in our work, and always keep our minds clear. We must not completely abandon and personally destroy everything we've built through hard work just because we lost one match; nor should we become arogant and think we're good enough to easily compete and win the Premier League title just because we won one match.

Football is never like that. We must maintain a very good balance in mentality and understand deeply that this journey will be long and exhausting. But perhaps, with the exceptional quality of our players, our great club, and the support of our passionate fans, we can significantly shorten the time needed for this transition period.

Can you give us a specific example? It would help us better understand what you mean when you say "the team environment must change." Or can you give an example of something that currently isn't good enough?

No, no, I'm not saying something was done wrong or incorrectly; I'm referring to the players' mentality. Because after two seasons of ups and downs like that, I'm eager to experience the feeling of five consecutive wins, winning five matches in a row. That means you need to completely change old habits, right? That is, to completely change the overall team environment, this group environment, which refers not just to the players but also to our medical team, our fitness and rehabilitation team, and my entire coaching staff.

Because I think perhaps we haven't yet reached our best condition, but in the coming weeks, I'm confident we'll be ready to win three, four, or even five consecutive matches. Just like what we experienced last season: last season against Brighton, we unfortunately dropped two points in extra time; but we won away at Wolves, and we also beat Aston Villa; although we didn't get three points against Leeds United, our performance in that match clearly deserved a win rather than a loss—that was four strong performances. And at the beginning, it seemed very difficult for us to even win one match.

May I also ask about Tonali? After the Brentford match, you mentioned that Tonali, VanHecke, and Senesi weren't in optimal physical condition, or more precisely, the right condition at that time. Why was Tonali also on this list? After all, he trained with you throughout the summer and didn't go to the World Cup. Is there a specific reason for this?

No, no, actually there is, because during our pre-season tour of Australia, we had to play every three days, and the one-way flight lasted 25 to 26 hours. After such a long and exhausting journey, the next day we couldn't do high-intensity training under normal physical conditions. After we returned to England, we couldn't immediately start systematic physical training because there was a friendly match against Getafe.

Over the last two weeks, the international players who participated in the World Cup gradually returned to the team. We trained in a complex environment with an incomplete squad and special circumstances. So I think Tonali really needed more time to recover. In that friendly match, if you consider the previous match against Hoffenheim, Tonali's performance a week earlier was actually very good.

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