Ange Postecoglou says Tottenham are still a “long way” from playing the football he wants after he fended off talk he could leave at the end of the season to replace Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool.

Klopp announced last month he would depart Anfield at the conclusion of the campaign following nine years at the club and Liverpool have reportedly placed Postecoglou on a shortlist of candidates to replace the German, with Bayer Leverkusen boss Xabi Alonso seemingly at the top of the pile – but the Spurs boss insists his focus is on finishing this season strongly.

“I may be on a shortlist? I don’t think I want to say anything about that because I don’t think that’s ever going to enter my brain space for what is my priorities in life and my profession right now,” Postecoglou said ahead of Saturday’s visit of Wolves. “Well, I am (just getting started at Tottenham). Not just feel — I am. I’ve only been here seven months, so that’s self-explanatory.

Ange Postecoglou says Tottenham are still a "long way" from playing the football he wants after he fended off talk he could leave at the end of the season to replace Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool.

“I’ve been at pains to say we’ve still got a long way to go in terms of the football we want to play, the team we want to be, the squad we want to have. We’ve had two positive windows, I think we’ve had a decent campaign so far, but we’ve got a long way to go.

“That’s the funny space when we talk about managers. When we’re not going well, then there’s questioning about whether we’re going to be here. When you’re potentially going OK, there’s still question about whether you’re going to be here. The reality of it is – most of it is out of our hands.

“I’m never worried or thought about that. I’ve got a history of 26 years of management where you can see pretty clearly what I do. I rely on that as my explanation as to where my thought processes are with all those kind of things.

“Right now it’s about finishing the season strong with Tottenham and making sure we’re trying to establish a really strong foundation for who we want to be in the years to come. That can only happen if I’m totally focused on what these last 14 games can bring for us.”

Asked if links to Liverpool were a compliment, Postecoglou added: “It depends. If it’s just people throwing up names, then who cares? It doesn’t matter, but at the end of the day, if I’m doing a good job then hopefully people will acknowledge that in one form or another — whatever that form is. But so-called ‘chat’, really? That’s of no interest to me.”

What Postecoglou has to deal with in the immediate future is being without both recognised full-backs for the visit of Wolves. Pedro Porro suffered a muscle strain in training this week, while Destiny Udogie was forced off at the end of last weekend’s dramatic 2-1 win over Brighton with a minor issue.

Postecoglou is hopeful both will be back for Tottenham’s home fixture with Crystal Palace on March 2, with the club not in action next weekend due to Chelsea’s involvement in the Carabao Cup final. Ryan Sessegnon (hamstring) has also returned to training, but Spurs’ back-up goalkeeper Fraser Forster has fractured his foot and is set for a “couple of months” on the sidelines.

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