It will bear fruit: Ange Postecoglou defends ‘right decision’ to sign youngsters

Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou has defended the club’s summer transfer policy and insisted the decision to sign a number of teenagers will eventually bear fruit.

Spurs are in the middle of a difficult period after they suffered a 1-0 defeat at Bournemouth on Thursday night and also lost Ben Davies to a hamstring injury, which made it eight players unavailable.

Barely a fortnight on from a remarkable 4-0 victory at Manchester City, Postecoglou received abuse from a section of Tottenham’s travelling support on the south coast and his task does not get any easier, with London rivals Chelsea set to visit on Sunday.

Chelsea are already eight points clear of Spurs, who signed Dominic Solanke for £65million in the summer, but spent the rest of their budget on teenage prospects in Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall and Wilson Odobert. Yang Min-hyuk, an 18-year-old from South Korea, will also join in January.

While Postecoglou has watched his depleted team lose three of their last six matches in all competitions and drop to 10th in the Premier League, he is positive the club’s long-term approach will pay off.

“We needed to do that because it was a team that was coming towards the end of its cycle, and we were rebuilding not just the squad but the playing style, and you couldn’t replace experience with experience because that is not a rebuild,” Postecoglou said.

“It is still the right decision and I own them (transfers) because I believe they are the right decisions for this club. I have said numerous times, I make these decisions with the kind of background that I’m going to be here for a while to see this through.

“To be honest, if I was worried about my own existence, I would have fought tooth and nail to block Harry Kane leaving