Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou says he does not regret stating that he always wins a trophy in his second season at a club.
Spurs’ hopes of silverware hinge on the Europa League having been knocked out of both the Carabao and FA Cups last month.
And the North London club find themselves 1-0 down on aggregate to AZ Alkmaar in the last-16, with work to do in the return leg on Thursday.
But Postecoglou is not feeling the pressure and says his side are still capable of backing up his claim that he wins in his second term.
Speaking ahead of the Alkmaar game, he said: “No, no extra pressure. We were obviously disappointed with our performance in the first leg. The important thing is we didn’t make the tie impossible for us to get back into, it’s still very tight.
“They’ve got the goal advantage but playing at home, if we can play with the intensity and tempo that we did in the weekend then I think we will have an opportunity to progress.
“Should we progress we will have another big challenge in the next round. The focus is to put in a strong performance tomorrow night.
“My view has always been when you’re asked something, you answer it. I wasn’t making anything up, I answered a question.
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“People have used it for their own purposes suggesting I was making a bold claim. I was just stating a fact. If that doesn’t happen, then I can’t say that any more next year, can I? People can twist these things, they can use them.
“If we do win a trophy this season then some people might say ‘oh isn’t it nice that he did that after making such a bold claim’. It wasn’t. People will just use it the way they want to whatever the circumstances. I will always answer questions in the way I am comfortable.”
A swift exit in the Europa League would leave the Australian in a very sticky situation at Spurs.
With the club’s extremely poor Premier League form and preventing them from qualifying for Europe next season, the entire campaign is down to their exploits in Europe.
And when asked whether he may lose his job if Spurs fail to progress, he replied: “There aren’t many professions where you have to come in and answer questions like that, is there?
“I’ll be polite and say look we are focused on winning the game tomorrow night. We need to put in a better performance than last Thursday. That wasn’t near the standard we want to play.
“We did some good things on the weekend, some not so good things. If we can play with the intensity and tempo we played on the weekend, we will give ourselves a good chance to progress.”
