Ange Postecoglou has revealed he sensed during his conversations with Micky Van de Ven, James Maddison and Guglielmo Vicario in the summer that they were extremely keen to play for Tottenham Hotspur.
Spurs’ summer recruitment decisions have worked a treat, with Vicario, Van de Ven and Maddison hitting the ground running in North London.
Even Manor Solomon showed some promise before his injury while Brennan Johnson has also shown glimpses of his quality over recent weeks.
A couple of weeks ago, The Guardian explained that one of Postecoglou’s non-negotiables when deciding who to sign was to look at players who were desperate to come to the club.
The report claimed that the Tottenham head coach spoke to all the players in the summer and only approved the deals if he got the right feeling about them.
They even asserted that the Australian passed on a player as he got the impression that the player was more driven by getting away from his side rather than joining Spurs.
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New trio were all determined to play for Spurs
Postecoglou has now admitted that hearing how keen Vicario, Van de Ven and Maddison were to join the club was very important for him.
The Spurs boss told TNT Sports’ Behind the Lines: “I try and make a conversation and you see where the conversation goes. It’s the ones where you just see it in them that nothing is as important as they just want to be at the club.
“When I spoke to Vicario or Van De Ven or even Madders it was like I want to play for Tottenham, I want to play for you guys. When you hear that in your voice that’s the best starting point for me.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Cynics will say that all managers are the same and only want players who are keen to come. However, there is a big difference between a player simply seeing Tottenham as a decent career option and one who is desperate to play for the club, with Ange alluding to only wanting the latter.
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