Ange Postecoglou has said that he is totally convinced that new signing Mathys Tel wants to be at Tottenham Hotspur after the forward initially stalled over a move to the club before agreeing to join them in a dramatic U-turn on deadline day.
Tel, 19, is in line to make his Spurs debut in the team’s Carabao Cup semifinal clash against Liverpool on Thursday after he joined the club in a loan deal that contains an option to make the transfer permanent at the end of the season.
Sources have told ESPN that Tel had rejected a move to Postecoglou’s injury-hit team after they had a €60 million ($62.5m) accepted by Bayern Munich before a conversation with the Australian prompted him to make the move to north London after all.
Asked whether he is “100%” convinced Tel wants to be at Spurs, Postecoglou said: “100%. More than 100. Because he took so much time and was so diligent about finding out everything. When he made the decision it was us, and he obviously had options, that gave me even more confidence we were getting the right kind of mentality and player.
“He is very ambitious and has a great deal of self belief and self confidence. He feels like he can reach the very top of the game and he has chosen us which is great vindication for what we are doing.”
The highly rated France under-21 international is Bayern’s youngest-ever goalscorer (17 years and 126 days old) but struggled for game time under head coach Vincent Kompany this season.
Sources have told ESPN that Tel was pursued by several clubs including Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea during the January transfer window after he told Bayern he was keen to explore a move away from the club.
“It’s a simplistic way of looking at it [whether he had to convince Tel to join Spurs],” Postecoglou said. “People need to understand that you are talking about a 19-year-old player who has to make a major decision about his career. It’s not so much that he rejected us or anyone else.
“Rightly so, he was getting as much information as possible. More than anything I think he just wanted to be comfortable with the 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. He obviously wants to play and we have already shown that irrespective of age you will get an opportunity here. And I think the way we play would suit him and certainly with what we have in the next few months and more importantly what we are building beyond I thought it would be a perfect fit for his next step. At the same time I think it was right to take as long as he did and he was totally comfortable with it.
