Spurs assistant manager: We kept believing it was possible

Nick Montgomery first of all welcome to our podcast SportsZest

obviously thank you for for accepting our invitation

it's a pleasure to speak to a person who is competent in football like you this year we have been assistant coach to coach Ange Postacoglu at Tottenham Hotspur

obviously fresh from the Europa League success and obviously I wanted to start with that.

How would you describe the Europa League success?

Well firstly thanks for inviting me I really enjoy

coming to Malta so it's nice to be back I've been here many times and yeah I love your question in regards to the Europa League success it was amazing amazing experience I think amazing for the club

obviously for the supporters and I think during

the season that we had was very difficult in terms of long

injury crisis but in the end you know to manage to to win

something beautiful and that was a the Europa League so it's

been a very very good few weeks and

now into the offseason so some fantastic memories from the night in Bilbao and yeah from the season in general because it's not

easy to win a trophy and that's been proven for many years, not only at Tottenham but some big clubs in England so to break the trophy drought was something that we really enjoyed.

Obviously it's not easy to win in Europe, it's not easy to win any silver at all in football.

At Tottenham this year had a complex season, domestic competitions, there was a bit of negative patch throughout the season especially in the second part of the season but at the same time

we're really doing well and performing well at the highest level in Europe so what was the key aspect to keep the team motivated and focused on a very very important target like the Europa League

it was a really difficult season in terms of the injuries i

think not just the number of injuries but the sheer length of players missing for for long periods and when you're losing a lot of your your your big players, put some big strain on the squad.

And I think we signed some fantastic young players in Archie Gray and Lucas Bergwahl, for example.

And for them, it's a real baptism of fire because they were having to play three games a week.

And in the big picture for their development, it's a real acceleration for them.

And then the club will definitely, and the players will definitely look in future at this season as a real opportunity

for them to develop quickly but yeah as

the season sort of progressed and we progressed in the Europa League

it was really difficult to manage you know the Europa

League and the Premier League especially with a small squad so yeah it was difficult in certain parts of the season

but I think we always believed that we could do something special

and as a group we were highly motivated from within you know to keep going and keep believing and that was the main thing coming from the manager to believe that we could do something special.

And in the end, yeah, you look back and think you started the season and, you know, you asked anyone, you know, would you want to finish with a trophy, Europa League trophy,

qualification for the Champions League and suffer in the league, which we did.

And we know that was difficult for everybody. But in the end, yeah, it was a beautiful thing.

and as you said, to win a trophy in any country is very difficult.

In England, the financial power from a lot of the clubs

and every team in the Premier League is competitive. But then obviously in Europe, you're talking about a lot of big teams in Europe that are all desperate to try and win the trophy for the same reasons, to get Champions League qualification.

And in the end, yeah, we kept believing we could do it and we went through some real adversity.

and for that reason I think it is even more special.

So obviously this was your first year at Tottenham Hotspur with Coach Ange.

Maybe you can give us a little bit of insight about your role and how did your connection with Coach Ange started as well?

So initially my connection with Ange is I finished playing at Sheffield United after 15 years.

I moved out to Australia to play in the A-League with the Central Coast Mariners and at the time Andrews was coaching at Brisbane Raw, brought a lot of success to Brisbane Raw after many years of them not winning anything.

My first season I went out as a player, helped Central Coast Mariners to win the championship which was their first time in the history.

And then yeah, played against these teams which were very, very good teams and from there