Ange Postecoglou admits Tottenham may sign new centre-back and defends 'tourist supporters'

Ange Postecoglou has admitted that a new centre-back signing is part of his plans for Tottenham this summer and has defended those labelled 'tourist' or 'plastic fans'.

Spurs signed Radu Dragusin from Genoa in January in order to fix a threadbare centre-back department within the squad which featured only Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven as natural centre-backs, with full-backs Ben Davies and Emerson Royal having to fill in when both were out.

Dragusin, 22, will now start against Fulham on Saturday at Craven Cottage after Van de Ven suffered a minor hamstring problem. Postecoglou was asked whether with only 18-year-old Ashley Phillips, currently on loan at Plymouth, as another natural centre-back and the out on loan Joe Rodon and Japhet Tanganga likely to leave the club, Spurs could look to enter the market again for another defender this summer.

«If you’re saying 'is it an area we can strengthen?', yes it’s an area we will probably look at,» he said. «With all these things it’s about trying to strengthen the group as much as anything else. If you think about when I first arrived, we had maybe six or seven centre-backs at the club. So it’s not just numbers. It's more about the ability of those players to play the football we want and to fit in to what we're trying to build here.

»I think it is an area of the park we will look to strengthen, but I think we’ll look to strengthen all areas of the park come the end of the season. That’s planning that’s already underway, and other people are in charge of it at the moment."

Tottenham fans have been left unimpressed by the club's decision to increase season tickets prices by six percent next season and to remove senior concession season tickets for new applicants after the next