Ange Postecoglou’s standing in the court of public opinion has gone up a massive notch after his classy post-match interview following Tottenham’s defeat against Chelsea after he insisted that the decision of the referee has to be accepted, regardless of the final outcome.
The former Celtics boss showed the Gunners’ manager what ‘dignity and grace’ should look like like in his post-match interview on Monday Night Football after the Aussie and his team of stalwarts faced defeat in the Premier League for the first time in a rambunctious 4-1 defeat to the Blues where his team played 40 minutes with nine men and had two goals ruled out for offside.
However, instead of doing a Mikel Arteta pernicious routine vocally denouncing the decisions of the referee over the weekend, the former Celtic boss in fact insisted for more authority to be granted to the on-pitch officials following several lengthy VAR checks at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Postecoglou was firm in his defence of referees: “You can’t tell me the referees are in control of games because they’re not, someone else is in control.
“I guarantee the next thing is we have referees mic’d up and explaining decisions. There will be a forensic study of every decision out there, I think that is the way the game is going and I don’t like it.
“If you look at all that standing around we did today, maybe people enjoy that sort of thing but I’d rather see us playing football.
“You have to accept the referee’s decision, that is how I grew up. This constant erosion of the referee’s authority is where the game is going to get – they are not going to have any authority.
“We are going to be under the control of someone with a TV screen a few miles away.
“The decision is the decision. In 26 years I have had plenty of bad decisions, I have had plenty fall in my favor. It is what it is.”
A Premier League fan said in response: “This is absolutely fantastic and much needed from a manager of a big Premier League club. In stark contrast to how most managers behave re: refereeing decisions.”
A second added: “Terrific from Ange showing Arteta exactly how the dignity and grace in winning and losing thing is done.” A rival then added: “As much as I despise Tottenham I actually quite like this feller.”