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Nicholas Quinlan • May 16th, 2025 6:00 pm
Ange Postecoglou has maintained the belief he is serving Tottenham’s best interest by prioritising the Europa League final over their EPL clash against Aston Villa.
Speaking at his press conference in the lead up to their final EPL clash, Postecoglou rejected the assertion that the Premier League’s integrity was at risk by him potentially playing a weaker side against Aston Villa.
“I'm not sure what people are talking about when they talk about the integrity of the game, I don't know what that means,” Postecoglou said.
“We have certainly put out teams this year that, because of our injury situation, were not the strongest, but we still needed to play those games, and it's the same with other clubs.
“I don’t even know why that question is being asked, if people think we are not going to give out our absolute best to win a game of football. That’s the only time when integrity gets questioned.”
He would then go on to reiterate the importance of providing Tottenham the best chance to win their first men’s title since 2008 and qualification to next year’s Champions League.
“Champions League is very important for all those clubs fighting for it at the moment, I can see how important it is, and every game and every decision is crucial, but we are in exactly the same boat,” Postecoglou noted.
“We've got Champions League qualification plus a trophy to win. It would be negligent of me if I wasn't doing the best thing for our football club to make sure we achieve that.”
Postecoglou would also confirm that Swedish forward Dejan Kulusevski will not feature for the rest of the season due to his knee injury.
“Look, it’s disappointing news, initially we kind of thought it wasn’t too serious,” he admitted.
“The medical team were sort of worried about, kind of structurally, how the knee was, but it seemed pretty good.
“But it kind of blew up, the day after, and we kind of knew that there was an issue there.
“He’s had surgery, and it will put him out for at least a few months.”
Tottenham will play Aston Villa early Saturday morning.
After that, they will head to Bilbao on Monday afternoon (London time) to take on Manchester United in the UEFA Europa League Final as Ange looks to continue his second-season trophy streak.
