How perfect reply to ‘plastic’ fan question, touching act are proof of Ange Postecoglou’s biggest strength

Ange Postecoglou enters the international break with two weeks to get his team’s top-four tilt back on track as Tottenham targets a Champions League berth in his first season in charge.

Although ask the Australian about guaranteeing a place in Europe’s elite competition and he will continually echo a similar sentiment.

That what he is building is greater than just Champions League qualification. That a top-four finish won’t be Tottenham’s “Willy Wonka golden ticket”, putting Spurs on an unassailable path to greatness.

“Fourth is not my end goal. I don’t want to finish fourth if we haven’t grown as a team and developed as a team,” Postecoglou said after Tottenham’s recent 3-0 defeat to Fulham.

“Success is built on more tangible stuff.

“If we finish fifth and I think we’ve got a team to challenge next (season), then I won’t be disappointed.”

In an industry so often defined by results and outcomes, Postecoglou instead is more interested in the process.

And that isn’t to say that Postecoglou will stubbornly accept any defeat as part of that process, only last weekend telling reporters his team was “careless” on the ball in the loss to Fulham.

“We were too keen to get forward. We lacked some conviction in our last third play,” he said.

“It’s part of our growth. Feel that pain and learn from it. It does go down as a bad day at the office but we don’t accept it.”

Postecoglou’s authentic and straight-shooting approach is a large part of his appeal, along with the aggressive, front-foot style of football that he likes his teams to play with of course.

But it is the main reason why former Tottenham manager Tim Sherwood can’t stop talking about how impressed he is by Postecoglou in his first season at the helm.

“I love him, I