Sonny being sonny and when you're a leader you get in the firing line - Postecoglou
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 What's changed and how do you take what he had and turn it into a success for you?
00:07 I think, I've said with him and a number of the players, it starts with them,
00:13 understanding and appreciating the fact that they need to keep improving as players.
00:20 Sometimes when you get to the Premier League and you get to a big club,
00:24 you kind of feel like, 'Okay, well, that's me, I'm good enough now.'
00:30 You soon realise that you need to keep growing, you need to keep pushing yourself,
00:35 you need to keep developing.
00:37 Pedro certainly has from the start of the year.
00:40 Obviously, positionally it's changed for him a little bit, probably drastically,
00:45 because for the most part he's played either as a full-back or as a wing-back more.
00:50 He's got unbelievable technical ability and I think people kind of use that
00:56 in their, whatever sort of system you play it in.
00:59 But with us, you've got to defend as well, especially as a full-back.
01:02 A lot of times you've got to defend that one-on-one and he loves that aspect of it.
01:06 I've said before, Wellesley has done a lot of work with him and all the back four,
01:10 not just as a unit but individually, to really embrace the challenge of being
01:14 a one-on-one defender.
01:16 You can see that now, maybe in the past, maybe because people kind of highlighted
01:21 as a so-called weakness in his game, it was stuff that he kind of avoided a little bit.
01:25 But now he's really relishing in that battle.
01:28 He's had great growth and, again, still young enough where his best years
01:32 are definitely ahead of him.
01:33 Again, he's laid a strong foundation for what's ahead.
01:37 Can I also ask, do you have any plans to get him in that when you get on the game
01:43 next week?
01:45 We won't get time off.
01:46 Yeah, well, we won't get time off, but we'll sort of arrange our training.
01:51 For the most part, I always find that sometimes you play, if you arrange sort of
01:57 a training game or a friendly game with somebody else, you don't get the intensity.
02:02 I think if we do sort of an internal game, I think we'll get more out of it.
02:07 So that's the plan at this stage.
02:09 [Inaudible]
02:29 I think you've got a few stories confused there.
02:31 I think he got injured playing ping pong.
02:33 Is that what you're suggesting?
02:34 [Inaudible]
02:37 No, yeah.
02:39 I mean, no, I don't have any strange stories about that stuff, but Sonny's great.
02:44 It's great to have him back.
02:46 He obviously gave everything for his country, fell short in terms of their goals,
02:52 and it's been great to have him back around the group.
02:55 Yeah, in terms of the incident, I think it's been handled.
02:58 That's for the sort of Korean Football Federation to kind of handle what I know
03:04 of the story, and I haven't asked too much about it.
03:06 I don't think it's in detail.
03:07 I think it's just Sonny being Sonny, being a leader,
03:09 and I think when you're a leader sometimes you get in the firing line.
03:15 Paul.
03:18 [Inaudible]
03:27 Yeah, I think it's important.
03:28 Again, it's kind of historically I've felt if you can have strong form,
03:34 it kind of means two things.
03:35 One is you kind of get the people who are most important, the supporters,
03:45 right behind you because it's great winning away and you kind of share it
03:49 with a small group of travelling support, but there's nothing like when your fans
03:54 come to the stadium and see you win and have that feeling after the game.
03:59 It just brings the teams closer, sort of the two sides of the players
04:04 and our fans.
04:05 So I think it is important, and I think over the course of a season you know
04:11 irrespective of who you play, when you play away from home there's always
04:16 a challenge there.
04:17 So you've got to try and take advantage of kind of the stuff that you're kind of,
04:23 for want of a better term, comfortable with, whether you come to the stadium,
04:28 there's easy access because you've got a car park, you're not travelling
04:33 on a bus, you know the dressing room, you know the people there, everyone.
04:37 So you've got to transfer that obviously into performances and if you can do that,
04:41 that helps you because invariably you're going to get some challenges away
04:45 from home that sometimes make it difficult to achieve a result.
04:50 So I've always put great stock in trying to have really strong home performances,
04:57 mainly like I said because of the fans.
04:59 I think you build a bond quicker when that happens.
05:03 [Inaudible]
05:20 I mean I don't think it's a conscious effort.
05:22 What I do know is that for most fans, they're passionate about their football
05:28 club, what they want to see is if they see a real concerted effort of a commitment
05:35 to something then for the most part they'll back that because ultimately they
05:41 want to be represented out on the football field and when you want to be
05:44 represented you want to know that those that are wearing that jumper are giving
05:49 everything because for our supporters in a sense that's what they feel.
05:54 They're making a huge commitment.
05:57 It's a lifelong commitment to their club and whilst we as managers or players,
06:05 whoever we are, we don't have that lifelong commitment for the most part.
06:09 We were here for a short amount of time.
06:12 They want to see that sort of effort anyway, that sort of commitment.
06:17 So I think they've seen it with our players.
06:20 We've lost I think three games here at home but even in those games they saw
06:25 the players giving it all and giving everything they can for the team and
06:29 trying to play football in a way that our supporters respond to.
06:34 So that's what builds a bond.
06:36 I don't think it's words.
06:37 I don't think it's gimmicks.
06:38 I don't think it's trying to sort of create something artificial.
06:43 I just think it's supporters seeing those who represent them giving everything
06:48 for their football club.
06:50 Okay, we've got John and then finish with Dom please.
06:53 Just to return to the ping pong incident, obviously it's a funny story,
06:57 it's a bizarre story but this is also about discipline and respect in team bonding.
07:03 Is that the sort of captions you're going to get from him?
07:07 Yeah, look, like I said, I don't want to talk about it because I don't know
07:10 all the details.
07:11 I don't really want to know.
07:12 It's kind of an internal matter but like I said before, I think what I know
07:16 of the story is Sonny's showing leadership and that's what leadership's about.
07:22 Leadership's not about being popular or trying to make everyone happy.
07:27 It's about if you see something that you don't think is right that you stand
07:33 up for it because you feel it's the best thing for the group and whatever
07:36 that case may be.
07:37 I see that in Sonny.
07:38 I think sometimes people mistake him for Sonny because he's such a positive guy
07:43 whenever you see him.
07:44 He's smiling and everyone has a real affection for him but he wants to win.
07:49 He doesn't like standards slipping.
07:52 I've seen him do it around here.
07:55 With Romero obviously it matters but especially Sonny, if something's not right,
07:59 he'll say it and sometimes it's not really the popular thing to do.
08:05 But I think for the most part, players and people who follow him respect that
08:10 and that's what you need to do.
08:12 As I said before, sometimes that puts you in the firing line with the playing group.
08:15 Sometimes it puts you in the firing line with the coaches.
08:17 Sometimes it puts you in the firing line with the club.
08:19 But as a leader, if you believe that this is the right thing to do,
08:22 then you should stay strong in it.
08:24 I think Sonny has those characteristics.
08:26 I wasn't going to say that because everybody sees him as a smiley,
08:29 he has a positive, nice guy.
08:31 But that was Roy Keane that's not a nice guy.
08:35 You're saying Roy Keane's not a nice guy?
08:39 To be clear, you said Roy Keane's not a nice guy.
08:43 Look, I think you've just got to be yourself.
08:48 That's what leadership's about.
08:49 You can't copy – Sonny by nature, he is a nice guy.
08:55 He's very polite. He's very respectful.
08:58 That doesn't mean you can't be a real winner and a guy who has high standards
09:04 because he wouldn't be playing at this level for so long unless he did.
09:07 The real discipline that you need to last this long,
09:10 especially in the Premier League, in a position that he plays,
09:14 is the real discipline and inner drive to have high standards.
09:20 I think that transfers to leadership.
09:23 I've seen all kinds of leaders and the best ones are the ones who are themselves
09:27 because I think people respect that.
09:28 When you try and put it on and try and be somebody else,
09:31 then I think people see through that pretty quickly.
09:34 Yeah, like I said, I mean obviously I follow him pretty closely from career
09:43 and national team and being an adversary and knowing how well respected he was
09:48 in the game in that part of the world.
09:52 I knew that's the kind of person he was.
09:54 I knew a few people here at Tottenham as well
09:57 and they all spoke in the same sort of way about him.
10:01 Dom, to finish please.
10:04 Just a question on Keeper Suma.
10:06 He hasn't started for you for two months.
10:08 It's been a slightly stop-start period for him.
10:10 Obviously he's had Afghan and he had the suspensions as well.
10:12 But how much are you looking forward to having him available again
10:15 for a sort of extended period now towards the end of the season?
10:18 Yeah, as I said, it was pretty hard to start him when he was at Afghan
10:22 and he was suspended.
10:23 So it's great to have him back.
10:25 Yeah, look, it's fair to say I think with Bess he's probably a little bit frustrated
10:30 at the way the season's gone because the start of his season was outstanding for us.
10:35 He was a big part of sort of why we got off to a flyer in the first ten games.
10:42 His ability to sort of really – really early on I could see that the way we played
10:50 really suited him and he really sort of thrived in that responsibility and that role.
10:55 So yeah, the fact that he's back, obviously coming back from the tournament,
11:00 him and Sonny and even Papa, I was worried about throwing him in straight away
11:04 knowing how difficult those tournaments can be in the travel.
11:09 But he's ready to go.
11:10 He's had a good week of training.
11:12 Yeah, looking forward, like I said, with him and Rodgerie.
11:15 And obviously Matt is now back.
11:18 Los Alamos is now available.
11:21 Skippy and Pierre were looking really strong through there,
11:24 not just the start games, the ability for us to change games.
11:27 And I think that's going to be a real big part of us having a strong finish of the season.
11:33 Thanks very much.
11:34 Thanks, guys.
11:35 [BLANK_AUDIO]