Ange: I want to knock Pep, City off Prem summit

Ange Postecoglou has said he is happy Pep Guardiola signed a contract extension at Manchester City so he has a chance to “knock him off” the Premier League summit.

City confirmed on Thursday that Guardiola will stay at the club until 2027 after agreeing a new two-year deal.

Guardiola is seeking an unprecedented fifth consecutive league title but despite Tottenham‘s last silverware coming in 2008, Postecoglou has never hidden his ambition of returning Spurs to serious challengers for the game’s biggest prizes.

When asked in a news conference whether there was any part of him that wanted Guardiola to leave City after a period of sustained success, Postecoglou said: “I look at it the other way — ‘imagine you knock him off?’ That would be something, eh? And I’m at the stage of my life where I’d rather have a chance of knocking him off than missing that opportunity. In the right way, obviously.

“I think when greatness is around, you want to be around it. Hopefully it challenges you to be like that as well.

“I love the fact that there is a massive target out there that can seem insurmountable. It does for me anyway, raises my level, gets me going.

“I keep saying, I lived the experience of equalisation of sport in Australia and it is great from a competitive point of view because everybody believes they can win but after a while I used to get frustrated with it because excellence tends to be capped at a certain point. It is up to everyone else to bridge that gap.

“I love the challenge of that and I never see that as a bad thing.”

Postecoglou also insisted he had no concerns about the integrity of Premier League officiating despite recent revelations regarding referee David Coote.

The 42-year-old was suspended last week by referees’ body Professional Game Match Officials Limited pending an investigation after footage emerged in which he appeared to make derogatory remarks about Liverpool and their former manager Jürgen Klopp.

“I’m not across the detail of it but firstly, he’s obviously made some poor decisions, made a big mistake,” Postecoglou said.

“He’s a human being so you worry about his welfare. I’m sure he’s getting good support around him. With our officials, rightly so, we hold them to the highest possible standard because of those things but I don’t think just because one person makes a mistake that necessary means … I’m not silly to think every official is perfect, like no manager is perfect or anyone else. We all make mistakes.

“I never lose faith in the officialdom because if you do then it is a very slippery slope. I’ve worked in a couple of leagues where that was always kind of the undertone and I hated it because you kind of questioned everything.

“I don’t want to do that. I believe the officials. I believe in the integrity of the officials. I’ll always abide by their decision-making and accept it.”