Ange Postecoglou has implored Tottenham Hotspur to “stick to something” to bring about lasting change at the club in echoes of Antonio Conte’s final act as manager.

Postecoglou is under more pressure after a 1-0 loss at Chelsea on Thursday made it 16 defeats in the Premier League this season and the Australian faced backlash for his decision to cup his ear in celebration towards the away Spurs fans before Pape Sarr’s strike was subsequently ruled out.

While the 59-year-old later insisted his gesture had been misinterpreted, it was another fracture in his relationship with the supporters ahead of Sunday’s visit of Southampton, which is followed by the first leg of a pivotal Europa League quarter-final with Eintracht Frankfurt.

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Defeat in the competition would extend Tottenham’s trophy drought into an 18th year and more than likely put Postecoglou on the brink, but he reflected on the difficulty of the job and made remarks akin to Conte’s explosive rant at St Mary’s in 2023.

Conte, days before his departure, stated: “It is time to change this situation if Tottenham want to change. If they want to continue in this way, they can change manager, a lot of managers, but the situation cannot change believe me.”

Postecoglou said: “Every manager’s got their own sort of views on this. I just don’t think it’s about the managers themselves.

“I’ve almost lasted two years, it’s pretty good for Tottenham! At some point, I think the club needs to stick to something. If I say it now it sounds self-serving and defeats the purpose, so maybe not now.

“But I think that if you want to change the course of your events, you need to change materially a lot of things in terms of the way your outlook as a club.

“Last year was a good year, I don’t care what anybody says. We lost Harry (Kane). I know everyone talks about our start (but) we lost Harry, we finished fifth, we changed the way we played.

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“It seems like, you have one good year, you have one poor year and then that’s it, ‘let’s move on to the next’, but that’s what I accepted so I can’t sit here and say, ‘ah, woe is me’. That’s the challenge I accepted.

“Fair to say at the moment I’m not doing a good job of turning that mind-shift around, but I am a fighter. I will continue fighting until told otherwise.”

Amid a chaotic season, Postecoglou does still have the chance to win a trophy and become one of the most successful managers in the club’s history.

“What a trophy does is eliminate some of the noise around the club and what other people feel is missing,” Postecoglou admitted.

“It’s not what I feel is the only piece that’s missing. I think you need to build something sustainable and I’ve said that from the start.

“We started that last year with the way we played and the squad we have, a young squad we want to keep growing, but certainly it would quieten a lot of the noise, whether internally or externally, about what’s missing at this club.

“If a trophy is the only way – it seems to be the only way – well OK let’s see if we can deliver that and see what happens.”

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