Tottenham Hotspur loanee striker Mathys Tel entered the away end at Craven Cottage to address furious supporters after Sunday’s Premier League defeat to Fulham. Ange Postecoglou’s side slumped to their 18th loss of the season against their London rivals – and their third in five games – to remain 13th, 14 points adrift of the Champions League spots.
Spurs managed just one shot in the first half and, despite an improved showing after the interval, couldn’t find the breakthrough before the Cottagers’ bit twice late on. Rodrigo Muniz fired the hosts ahead in the 78th minute before Ryan Sessegnon came off the bench to put the result out of doubt against his old club. Tottenham supporters have aired their frustration over their regression under Postecoglou this term, and toxicity was unsurprisingly rife among the travelling faithful at full-time.
According to X account @SpursArmy, vice-captain James Maddison fuelled the fury by giving the upset fans a thumbs up as he headed directly towards the tunnel.
However, 19-year-old striker Mathys Tel earned praise after the same account shared a video of him talking face-to-face with supporters in response to their anguish.
The Frenchman, who joined from Bayern Munich in January, was heard making pleas like “we need to be together” and “we need you”.
As he was in deep conversation with some fans at the front of the stand, others were heard shouting uncomplimentary remarks, including “it’s not good enough” and “get him out”.
The latter was likely aimed at Postecoglou, who has been dealt a dreadful hand with injuries throughout his second campaign at the helm.
Spurs crashed out of the Carabao Cup semi-finals after a 4-0 second-leg defeat to Liverpool days before also exiting the FA Cup, losing 2-1 at Aston Villa.
Postecoglou’s memorable claim that he always wins trophies in his second season is still beating, though.
The Australian’s outfit have reached the Europa League quarter-finals after finishing fourth in the league phase and edging past AZ Alkmaar 3-2 on aggregate in the last 16.
But he doesn’t want his players to continue to flop in the Premier League solely with their European task in mind.
“I told the players not to have the idea of ‘It’s just the Europa League and nothing else’,” Postecoglou explained after the final whistle.
“The reality of it is when we get back, we’re going to have Thursday and Sunday games, and we’ve found already that we can’t do that with 11 players.
“So we need to get some game time into the guys like Mathys Tel and others so that when the time comes, after the break, we have the squad to be able to tackle both.”
