‘I knew he was the right bloke’ – Postecoglou opens up on his first chat with Spurs star

Ange Postecoglou has praised the attitude of Guglielmo Vicario, revealing that he knew as soon as he spoke to the Italian last summer that he would be the right fit for Tottenham.

Vicario had a superb debut season at Spurs

Although Vicario has only been at Spurs for one year, he is already one of the leaders in the squad and has a strong voice in the dressing room.

The 27-year-old is certainly not shy of accepting more responsibility, remarking in an interview with Football.London a few days ago that he is ready to take up more of a leadership role for the upcoming season and help the young players at the club.

In the interview, the Italy international also spoke of the challenges he faced in dealing with set pieces, insisting that he is working hard to improve that aspect of his game.

Postecoglou admires the fact that the goalkeeper is not one to make excuses and is focused on what he can to address the issue.

When asked about Vicario’s struggles in dealing with corners and free-kicks, the Tottenham head coach told Football.London: “Yeah, it was challenging I’m sure for him, but that’s what you want. That’s how you get growth. If it was all linear, then you wouldn’t get the growth you need.

“I mean, I thought he was outstanding for us last year, and there was a period there, particularly around set-pieces, where I thought the officials were getting it wrong, but we had to weather that storm, and the beauty of it is that he accepted that.

“He wasn’t making excuses; he wasn’t coming in on a Monday, saying, ‘Oh, I can’t believe I’m not getting protected.”. He was going, ‘Okay, how do we resolve this?’.”

Postecoglou’s first chat with Guglielmo Vicario

Postecoglou lavishes praise on Vicario’s character, revealing that he knew soon after his first conversation with the former Empoli man that he would be the right fit for the project.

The Australian added: “As soon as I had a conversation with him [before he signed], I knew he was the right bloke for us, because it’s just beyond him being an outstanding goalkeeper. He’s an outstanding human being, so if you bring a person like that into your dressing room, he’s going to give you more than just being a goalkeeper.

“He’s the kind of guy who is going to have an influence over everything we do. That’s how you keep learning, by bringing these kinds of people in. I think he needed to have a tough patch at some point. How he responds to that is more important, because there’ll be another tough patch, could be something else.

“But I really liked the way he handled it, but it didn’t surprise me he handled it the way he did. I think it’s made him a better goalkeeper. When you think about where he came from – It wasn’t a big club in Italy – to coming to one of the biggest clubs in the toughest league in the world, he had an outstanding first year.”

Spurs Web Opinion

There are quite a bit of similarities between Ange and Vicario, with both having to work their way up from the bottom and not having things handed to them on a plate.

One can see why the Spurs boss loves the Italian as they both share a similar work ethic and ethos.

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