Every word Ange Postecoglou said in Nottingham Forest press conference, video, record, Tottenham

Ange Postecoglou came out swinging in an extraordinary press conference that saw the Australian reiterate that if he is given time at a club it always ends “with me and a trophy” as he fights to save his job at Nottingham Forest.

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The Australian, whose team host Chelsea on Saturday, has failed to win any of his first seven games since taking charge at Forest last month.

The two-time European champions, who finished seventh last year under former boss Nuno Espirito Santo, are languishing 17th in the Premier League, just one point above the relegation zone.

Former Celtic and Tottenham boss Postecoglou has already faced calls from fans for his sacking, but has so far retained the support of Forest’s hierarchy.

With questions swirling over his future despite just five weeks in the job, he is confident that his story at Forest will end in the same way as his previous jobs: with a trophy.

Read on for a full transcript of Postecoglou’s passionate press conference.

Question: How important is it to get a win on Saturday?

Postecoglou: “It’s always important to win the next game irrespective of what’s happened previously. It’s no different tomorrow.

“We’re facing a very good opponent but we’re here at home which is good and looking forward to the challenge of it. A good couple of weeks training with the guys who were with us here. We had a few on international duty but they came back in good condition and ready to play.”

Question: Did the talks with Marinakis happen during the break?

Postecoglou: “No. We are just getting on with it.”

Question: Does Chelsea feel like a big game because of the noise and the pressure?

Postecoglou: “I guess from my perspective, I just don’t fit. Not [talking about] here. Just in general.

“If you look at it through the prism of: I’m a failed manager who is lucky to get this job — I know you’re smirking at me and that’s what’s being said and I can find the print where that’s being said — then of course it looks like this manager is under pressure.

“There is an alternative story. I came to the Premier League two years ago, I took over Tottenham — ‘Spursy Tottenham’. I was told by the chairman at the time: ‘This club has to win a trophy. We’ve tried to bring winners in, Jose [Mourinho] and Antonio [Conte] and it hasn’t worked, we need something different.’

“I was slightly offended by that as I see myself as a winner. I took over Spurs who finished eighth. No European football. Massive club who can’t have two years without European football. We finished fifth in my first year. And every time Harry Kane scores a goal, I wish he’d just stayed one more year. It would have been handy to have him after finishing fifth.

“But somehow that year has disappeared from the record books. In fact it was used as a reason for me losing my job because even Tottenham decided to exclude the first 10 games because they were an anomaly apparently. Although the first 10 games here are very important apparently.

“We finished fifth, I got them back into European football where Tottenham should be. I was in meetings and people still at that club were in those meetings where I was told winning a trophy is everything for a football club. That’s fine.

“We win a trophy. We shed the tag of being ‘Spursy’. It’s Champions League football which brings some rewards, the opportunity to bring in better players. But all I’ve heard since I finished at Tottenham is I finished 17th last year. So if you look at it from that prism of we finished 17th, then yeah, I’m a failed manager who is lucky to get another opportunity.

“But if I have to explain why we finished 17th, it doesn’t have to be too in-depth. Just look at the last five or six different team sheets in the league last year to see who I prioritised, who was on the bench and who I was playing. The last game against Brighton, the players were out for two days partying — which I sanctioned because I felt they deserved to.

“So we finished 17th, if people think that’s a reflection of me and my coaching, then people are looking at it through the prism of: I just don’t fit.

“So we get to the current space where there’s a different story to tell that maybe I’m not a failed manager who was lucky to get this job — but maybe I’m a manager where if given time, the story always ends the same. At all my previous clubs it ends the same: me with a trophy.

“So just to finish up — and it’s a longwinded answer which probably won’t get any coverage but that’s okay — you can look at these first five weeks and say ‘he is under pressure because he was lucky to get this job’.

“Or you can look at it and say there has been a major change. I am trying to change the way we play. The players are adapting but there’s been inconsistency in there for sure. But some will look at the weeds, I will look at what’s growing.

“The flip side is I’m really still excited about the opportunity here. That’s how I’m embracing it. I have a group of young players who are willing to change, that’s the first thing. I’m heading down that road.

“The rest of it? I’m not going to waste my time or my energy worrying about that. Whether it’s internal or external I couldn’t care less. At the end of the day, I will do what I think is the right thing to do to bring success to this football club and that’s what I’m focused on.”

Question: Are you under pressure?

Postecoglou: “Of course there’s pressure. There’s pressure anyway. So if we win on the weekend, the pressure is there. There’s always pressure.

“There’s a difference between pressure and saying that somebody should lose their job after five weeks. I mean, I only just found an apartment to move into, which may be a bad decision on my behalf.

“I should have stayed in temporary digs. That’s how early it is. So there’s a difference.

“We haven’t won a game and I’m as disappointed as anyone. No one likes not winning games of football. But within that context, if you look at those games and suggest to me that we were in a position to win any of those, then that’s a different story as well.

“The pressure’s there, it’s always there. Pressure is part of managing at this level. And we’re all judged by our results. And at the moment, the results are suggesting I’m not doing a good job.

“That’s a far cry from people saying I should lose my job. Or speculating I should lose my job after five weeks. That’s a different end of the spectrum. But when you’re coming in this early on someone like me, as I said, you’re looking at it through the prism that I’m really fortunate.”

Question: Are you frustrated about the noise?

Postecoglou: “I’m not frustrated. I guess from my perspective, I don’t know how to address it. I’m not going to sit there and try and justify it.

“If people have already made up their minds after five weeks about it — particularly as I’m not a newcomer, I have a history — how do I address that? Do I do what I did today, try and explain it? Maybe I’m not great at PR around myself.

“Maybe I need to get people [rooting] for me. But again, I don’t think that’s the way to go. So it’s not frustration.

“It’s just, like I said, I’m not really sure how to address it other than just to try and emphasise the fact that it doesn’t affect my day-to-day, what I’m trying to achieve at this football club and the fact that I’m really excited about the opportunity here.”

Question: Is the noise taking away from the game on Saturday?

Postecoglou: “Yeah, it’s not helpful. Again, it’s just something we have to deal with and try and insulate the players from. As I said, they’ve been great since I’ve come in. We’ve obviously changed a lot of things, the way we train, the way we play.

“We’re seeing underlying improvement in that. Some of the physical metrics are getting closer, but we’re still well off where we need to be.

“But the guys are getting to a physical base that they haven’t been to before, which is great for us.

“Some other underlying metrics show that we’re heading in the right direction in terms of style. The ultimate metric of winning a game is what’s eluding us at the moment. I guess that encourages me that the players are not too distracted by what’s going on.

“But I guess all that stuff is not helpful. I’m sure they read the same stuff that everyone else does.”

Question: How do you get the fans onside?

Postecoglou: “It depends on the prism in which you work at. If people don’t think I fit just because of who I am before I even started, they can’t change that.

“My feeling towards supporters has always been the same. They’re allowed to express whatever opinion and emotion they need.

“There’s always a caveat to it. They’re allowed to change. Usually, results will change. So I don’t take that stuff personally.

“For me, I’m sure there will be a supporter out there who’s not desperate for us to win tomorrow, whether they like me or not. That’s the key thing.

“From my perspective, it’s about trying to focus on that. Giving them something to be encouraged with, to get behind the team. It helps us play our own games.

“I don’t get the sense that supporters are not behind the team. I think they are. They can create a special atmosphere. Whatever sort of issues surrounding me or my appointment there may be, they can easily be overcome. Again, wins on the board .That’s what we focus on.”

Question: Have you done anything different during the break?

Postecoglou: “I think [international breaks] are an opportunity to assess, reassess. Training was important, because we haven’t had a lot of training time since we got here. We had less than four weeks from the moment I got appointed to the start of the next break, we had seven games, so we didn’t have a lot of training time.

“The opportunity to have some training time with the guys that were here was important. Obviously there’s no games, no press conferences, so it gives you a chance to sit down and reflect on what’s been happening, even on a personal front, just do the things that normal human beings do. So from that point of view, it’s been good.”

Question: What’s the most difficult part of the job right now?

Postecoglou: “Firstly, it’s to ignore everything that’s going on, because it’s of no concern to me, and I can’t control it.

“Again, I’ve dealt with this in the last four months at Spurs, but every week I get questions about my future. Didn’t stop me bring success to that club.

“I’m pretty comfortable in embracing the challenges before me. I think the biggest thing for me is to make sure that we don’t lose track of what we set out to do, part of that was change the way we play, use the kind of underlying metrics that we need to hit, from a physical perspective, from a football perspective.

“I firmly believe that if we do that, the results will come for us, and they’ll come on a regular basis, and not try to look for some magical solution to change the current climate.

“Because as I said, if we win tomorrow, then it’ll be about Thursday, and then if we win Thursday, it’ll be about the next game, so that will always be the noise.

“The narrative around me, again, I can’t change. If people have seen the two years I’ve been in the Premier League as somebody who needs to prove himself and fail, then I can’t change that. If people have made up their minds, so be it.”