Every word Ange Postecoglou said on Romero and Werner injuries and Mikey Moore illness

Tottenham Hotspur take on Galatasaray in the Europa League on Thursday night and on Wednesday Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou was speaking to the media in Istanbul.

The north London side flew into Turkey on Wednesday evening and were immediately whisked to RAMS Park for the press conference for the head coach and a training session on the pitch with the players available for the game. On Thursday they will come up against a Galatasaray team full of big names such as Victor Osimhen as well as former Spurs defender Davinson Sanchez, who played more than 200 games in a Tottenham shirt and played briefly for Postecoglou.

Our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those in Istanbul putting the questions to Postecoglou ahead of the game. Scroll down for a full transcript with every single word the Australian said in response to the questions from the British and Turkish media.

You've got a lot of young players in the squad, there's no fear then that they can handle the atmosphere?

No. I’m sure that they’re all looking forward to it. That’s why you play football. I kept saying, especially with this generation, a lot of them have experienced what football is like without supporters. You certainly don’t like that when we went through Covid.

We’re looking forward to it. It’s a fantastic stadium, the supporters create an unbelievable atmosphere here, they love the big European nights.

They’re a very, very good team. It’s exactly the kind of games you want to be involved in in Europe, whether you’re young, you’re old, irrespective of the role you have, you look forward to it.

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Galatasaray have players like Icardi and Osimhen, how do they influence the team?

As I said very good team, very good individual players but that's what you expect when you play against a top European side. We play in the Premier League so we are playing top opponents every week so we understand what that is about and top individual players, but it's a good test for us tomorrow. We've started well in the Europa League, our results have been good home and away and we want to continue that.

They are a team that are good at set pieces and you will come up against Davinson Sanchez again, what do you think about that?

Yeah, they've scored a lot of goals from set pieces. They're a threat. I think they're an attacking threat with the players they have, especially in the front third. So again we're going to have to work hard defensively tomorrow at different times. I think you always do when you play away in Europe. We'll be ready for that.

Yeah, Davinson Sanchez, it'll be good to see him again. He was at the club when I first arrived. Very good professional, always trying very hard. Good guy and looking forward to seeing him tomorrow.

What's the latest team news and who has had to stay at home?

Yeah, so from the weekend obviously Richy unfortunately injured his hamstring so I'm still getting the final information but I think he'll be out for a while. Romero, I think nothing too serious hopefully.

So, hopefully still a chance for the weekend. Timo Werner has been carrying a bit of a groin complaint, which is still there, so he didn't travel, and Mikey Moore picked up a bit of a virus yesterday, so we've left him at home as well. I think everyone else who's fit and eligible is here.

What kind of rotation will you make with all the absences?

Through the Europa League we've rotated the team as we've seen. Obviously we are playing three games a week at the moment, have been since the start of the season and we've used pretty much all our squad, but that's worked well because players have come in and been fit because they're playing football regularly. We'll make changes tomorrow night but again it's just about making sure we have a team out there we believe can match the opposition and get a result for us.

What do you think are Galatasaray's strengths?

They definitely have a lot of threat in the front third. As I said, their attacking players are very, very good individually. They're a strong team physically, so we're going have to match the attacking threats they have with the way we play. Obviously, like I said here at Galatasaray, at this home stadium with the fans behind them, there's a great energy in all their games, so it's a great test for us, but as I said one we're looking forward to. We're in good form, we're playing good football ourselves. It should hopefully be a good game.

I promise this is a football question, but with the current political news across the world and everything going on, what is football's responsibility to provide escapism?

I could give you a cracking non-football answer but I'm not going to .. It's where we are as a society at the moment. Sports always provide a constant in terms of escapism for people whether in the broader context of global political landscapes or people’s lives in general. We've all got things in our lives that sometimes aren't in the greatest shape so I think sport, and football in particular because it's the global sport, does. It provides some escapism, hopefully some joy, and some collective tribalism in a positive way. You feel part of something, connected to something on a weekly basis which is your team and you share that with other people. I've always felt sport and football, for me, has always been a great avenue for people to enjoy something in a community aspect and hopefully that continues.

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