Under-pressure manager Ange Postecoglou issued some fiery statements ahead of a crucial clash this weekend.
I guess from my perspective I just don't fit, not here, just in general, Postecoglou said to the media in a long monologue in response to a question before Nottingham Forest's home game against Chelsea on Saturday.
If you view it through the lens that I'm a failed manager who's lucky to have this job, I know you're smirking at me, but that's what's been said. Then, of course, these first five weeks look like I'm under pressure. But there's an alternative story.
I joined the Premier League two years ago and took over at Tottenham. I was told by the chairman [Daniel Levy] that this club needs to win a trophy. He said we've tried to bring winners in: José [Mourinho], Antonio Conte, and it hasn't worked. We need something different. I was slightly offended by that because I see myself as a winner.
I took over Spurs who finished eighth. Massive club, but no European football, and one that can't go two years without European football. We finished fifth in my first year and every time Harry Kane scores a goal I think, 'I wish he stayed just one more year.' It would have been useful to have him after finishing fifth.
But somehow that year has disappeared from the record books. It was even used as a reason for me losing my job because even Tottenham decided to exclude the first ten games. Yet the first ten games here are important apparently.
But anyway, we finished fifth. I got them back into European football, which is where a club like Tottenham belongs. Then I was in meetings and was told we need a trophy because it will mean everything to the football club. That's fine.
We won a trophy. We shed the tag of being 'Spursy.' Champions League football, which brings some rewards and the opportunity to bring in better players. But all I have heard since I left Tottenham is that we finished 17th last year.
So if you look at it through the lens of finishing 17th, then I am a failed manager who is lucky to get another opportunity. But again, if I have to explain why we finished 17th, it's really simple. It doesn't have to be too in-depth.
Just look at the last five or six team sheets of last season to see what I prioritized, and who was on the bench.
“And the last game against Brighton, the players were out partying for two days, which I sanctioned because I felt they deserved to. So yes we finished 17th. But if people think that's a reflection of me and my coaching then again, I think they are looking at it through the lens of I just don't fit.
So we get to the current space where there is a different story to tell, that maybe I am not a failed manager who was lucky to get this job and instead maybe I am a manager who, if you give him time, the story always ends the same. At all my previous clubs, with me and a trophy.
Postecoglou has been under threat with Forest still yet to win since the Australian took over from Nuno Espírito Santo early in the season. So far, the team have lost five and drawn two in seven games under his tenure.
