Ange Postecoglou says forward Mathys Tel never rejected Tottenham move | OneFootball

Ange Postecoglou insists Mathys Tel did not initially reject a move to Tottenham before his deadline-day loan switch from Bayern Munich.

Spurs entered talks with the 19-year-old last week after an agreement with the Bundesliga club had been struck for a deal in the region of 60 million euros (£50.2m).

However, negotiations stalled on Friday with Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United also interested in the France Under-21 forward, but he performed a U-turn over the weekend and was persuaded by Tottenham boss Postecoglou to join the club on Monday.

Tel’s loan deal does include the option for Spurs to make the transfer permanent in the summer.

When asked about whether Tel had initially rejected Spurs, Postecoglou said: “I think people need to understand that you are talking about a 19-year-old who has to make a major decision for his career and it’s not that he rejected us or rejected anyone else.

“More than anything I think he just wanted to be comfortable with his decision. The sense I get was he didn’t want to be pushed in a certain direction. I think it is credit to him that he took his time and spoke to the right people.

“I had a conversation with him and mine was purely about football. I think he will find a really great place for him in terms of where he is in his career.”

Tottenham will have Tel and centre-back Kevin Danso, signed on loan from Lens, available for Thursday’s Carabao Cup semi-final second leg at Liverpool but Postecoglou has revealed Micky van de Ven is set to miss out.

Both loan additions have received their international clearance and work permits to be in line to debut at Anfield, but a “conservative approach” will be taken with Van de Ven, who played in last week’s 3-0 win over Elfsborg after a seven-week lay-off with a hamstring issue before he missed the victory over Brentford.

“Kevin and Mathys are both available. They have trained and are cleared to play so they are all good,” Postecoglou explained.

“With Micky and (Cristian) Romero to a certain extent, I kind of feel we have to be a bit more conservative with them.

“Micky got through the game alright but I don’t think he feels ready for that step up to the Premier League, the intensity of it. Same with Romero.

“After losing Radu (Dragusin) for the rest of the season, which is really disappointing for him and for us, my view is – and I made the decision – that I don’t want to risk losing these guys.

“We are going to keep them ticking over in training and try to make sure they are absolutely ready without any more setbacks.”

Van de Ven’s comeback against Elfsborg raised hope he may feature in this second leg and, while Postecoglou reiterated the Netherlands defender had not suffered a new issue, he suggested he is not yet ready to handle the physicality of Premier League opposition after a lengthy absence.

Postecoglou added: “He got through the game no problem but we had a look at the figures towards the physical (side). He does a lot more training and he got through it OK, but the Premier League’s a whole different beast.

“And after losing Radu, I kind of sat down and thought about what we’ve got ahead of us still.

“Look, don’t get me wrong, we’ve got a couple of massive games this week for sure (Liverpool on Thursday, Aston Villa on Sunday) but we’ve also afforded ourselves a couple of weeks, hopefully, without midweek fixtures, and beyond that, Europe kicks in, which is massive for us.

“Hopefully we’re in the final of the Carabao Cup, hopefully we’re still in the FA Cup. I just don’t see the sense right now in risking that.

“Having Kevin in is a massive bonus for us. (Van de Ven) hasn’t re-injured the injury or anything like that, it’s just that I just feel we need to get more into him. I think he feels he needs to get more into him, same with Romero, so it’ll just be a wait-and-see approach.”