Inside Ange Postecoglou’s Zoom call with Mathys Tel that convinced him to join Tottenham

Ange Postecoglou shed light on his Zoom call that helped convince Mathys Tel to join Tottenham.

The 19-year-old arrived at Tottenham on deadline day to finalise a six-month loan deal from Bayern Munich in a deal that could be made permanent in the summer.

This came despite Tel rejecting an initial approach from Spurs chairman Daniel Levy just three days earlier.

Manchester United and Arsenal both showed an interest in the French starlet after he rejected Spurs but it was Postecoglou who managed to resurrect the move and give Spurs some much-needed firepower.

Postecoglou was asked about the intricacies of the transfer in his press conference ahead of Thursday's crunch Carabao Cup semi-final second-leg against Liverpool at Anfield, live on talkSPORT.

Pressed on whether Tel had rebuffed Spurs’ initial advances, Postecoglou said: “People need to understand we're talking about a 19-year-old player with a major decision, it's not so much about rejecting us or anyone.

“He wanted to be comfortable with the decision. He didn’t want to be pushed in a certain direction, credit to him.

The Australian continued: “I had a conversation with him, and purely around the football and that I think he’ll find a great place here in terms of where he is in his career.

“We've shown irrespective of age, he'll get an opportunity and the way we play will suit him and what we have in the next few months and beyond it's a perfect fit.

“It's right that it took as long as it did so he's comfortable with it. That he took so much time and was diligent, and made the decision when he had options.

"It means the right mentality, right player, he’s ambitious, with self-belief and self-confidence and feels he can reach the very top.”

Although a forward by trade, how Tel is likely to be deployed at Spurs remains a mystery.

The France under-21 international boasts the ability to play either through the middle or in a wide position, handing the Spurs boss some much-welcomed versatility.

Quizzed on whether he is planning to play Tel as a central striker at Anfield, Postecoglou said: “Oh mate, Archie [Gray] wanted to be a central midfielder, so who knows where Mathys will end up.

“Look, he's got the attributes to play, I think, as a nine for sure, but he's played wide really successfully as well.

"That's the beauty of him coming into us, at the moment we're going to need him probably in all of those areas because it's fair to say, as much as we've got issues at the back, we've probably got bigger issues in the front third at the moment, we're missing three wingers and our striker.

“I get people are still dismissing the fact that tomorrow night (against Liverpool) we're still gonna have nine, maybe ten first-team players out of our starting line-up, so having Mathys who can play both wide and central...

“Richy's (Richarlison) doing great for us at the moment, but again he's coming off not playing for a while and we've got to be really careful with him.

“Sonny's playing all the time, we've got Mikey [Moore] he's a 17-year-old, we've got Deki (Dejan Kulusevski) who can play in there, so having him we can play either side. I reckon in the short term until we get some numbers back, I think he can fill all three roles."