Mathys Tel will be a Tottenham player next season, says Ange Postecolgou | OneFootball

The loanee has already agreed terms on a six-year contract

Ange Postecoglou says deadline-day signing Mathys Tel "will be a Tottenham player" next season, insisting: "I didn't bring him here for six months."

Asked if he was confident that Tel would stay put if Spurs take up their option, Postecoglou said: "He'll be a Tottenham player, mate. He'll be a Tottenham player.

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"I think he'll show everyone he's going to be a Tottenham player in the next six months. I didn't bring him here for six months.”

"I think he is very, very exciting," Postecoglou added. "When you meet him you realise he’s got that bit about him as a person who has enormous self-belief and confidence in what he can do and what he wants to do.

"Even though he’s young, physically he’s already in a place where he can take on the enormous challenges of being an attacking player in the Bundesliga and I think he can handle the Premier League. He’s a goal-scorer, he can take people on, he’s got speed. He is exciting.

"I’d be very surprised if there was a club that wouldn’t be interested in somebody like him.

"Irrespective of the situation we’re in, us being able to get him in and the circumstances behind it, is fantastic for the football club.

I got a sense pretty early on that there was a connection there and he was hearing what he wanted to hear

Ange Postecoglou on speaking to Mathys Tel

"He will play a significant part in our end of season and beyond. I know he wants to make an impact and I'd be expecting him to make an impact."

Spurs agreed a deal with Bayern for Tel towards the end of last week but the French forward spent time mulling over his future before agreeing to join Spurs with just hours until Monday's 11pm deadline.

Postecoglou spoke to the teenager on the phone and the pair exchanged messages "over a couple of hours", which was key to Tel's decision.

"I got a sense pretty early on that there was a connection there and he was hearing what he wanted to hear," Postecoglou said of their conversation.

"It is a big decision. He is a 19-year-old man at a fantastic football club. They [Bayern] would have been quite happy to keep him, I am sure, but he also knew he needed to play. But not just play. Play where he is going to develop.

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"It is a credit to him that rather than just jump at what came at him, he was very thorough in the way he made his decision.

"I think I’ve got a pretty compelling story to tell," Postecoglou added, when pushed to explain his his powers of persuasion.

"When I speak to players, I’m not trying to sell anything that there isn’t plenty of evidence for. I think for most players, that’s where they get comfort more than anything else. I don’t think it’s smooth-talking, or selling, I think there’s a real good story here which I really believe in.

"I speak from a real strong conviction that what I’m saying will come to fruition. I really believe that. I don’t think I need to do anything special."

Postecoglou admitted that he did not have a "100 hit rate" at winning over players and revealed there were "a couple" of conversations in January which did not work out.

He continued: "I get comfort from that too, when I walk away and think, ‘Jesus, he’s a good player but I don’t think it’s going to be a good fit’.

The last thing I want to do is bring a player here who is not a good fit. It is not good for me or the player

Ange Postecoglou

"It’s not going to be a good fit for him, it’s not going to be a good fit for us, so it works out well either way.

"There are red flags. I am 59 years old and...with age comes wisdom, which is much more powerful than knowledge. You get a sense of these things. Get a sense of people. I think I am a pretty good judge of a person.

"To contextualise that, not a good or bad person, but will the person fit what I am trying to do. That is the main thing for me. There are fantastic footballers, fantastic people who are maybe not the right fit.

"I am not the right kind of manager for them. You have got to accept that. It is not a judgement call on a value basis. Does their personality, does their character, where they are in their careers.

"The last thing I want to do is bring a player here who is not a good fit. It is not good for me and it is not good for the player either. They have got a big decision to make and they need to know what they are walking into and I try to paint as clear a picture as possible what they are coming into."