Australian manager Ange Postecoglou has joined rare air in the Premier League with a third consecutive Manager of the Month award – but there’s been a brutal injury update that will make claiming a fourth-straight award much tougher.
Postecoglou led Tottenham to a perfect trio of wins in October, beating Luton Town and Crystal Palace away and Fulham at home – enough to scoop him the award for the third month in a row.
It makes him just the fourth manager to achieve the feat, but the first to do it at the opening of the season.
Antonio Conte (Chelsea), Mikel Arteta (Arsenal) and Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool) each won the award three months’ running, while Postecoglou will have Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola in his sights, the manager who holds the record for four consecutive awards (September-December 2017)
Postecoglou has also revealed that Tottenham are expected to be without James Maddison and Micky van de Ven until 2024.
Dutch international centre-back Van de Ven suffered a hamstring injury while midfielder Maddison injured his ankle in Monday’s 4-1 loss at home to Chelsea.
Spurs also had Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie sent off during their first defeat of the league season, which means Postecoglou will be without several key players for Saturday’s trip to Wolves.
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“Fair to say a fair bit happened after Monday,” Postecoglou said on Friday. “Micky obviously with that hamstring injury, we knew it was fairly significant, probably a couple of months for him looking into the new year.
“Madders is a lot worse than we thought. He came off with an ankle injury and the next day wasn’t great, so we sent him for a scan. Again probably into the new year for him.” Tottenham, who are second in the Premier League table, a point behind champions Manchester City, earlier Friday confirmed that Maddison had withdrawn from the England squad for this month’s Euro 2024 qualifiers.
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