Tottenham: Son Heung-min ‘unhappy’ with Ange Postecoglou after incident v Newcastle United
Tottenham captain Son Heung-min would have been “unhappy” to have been substituted so early into Spurs’ defeat to Newcastle United, according to Alan Hutton.
Ange Postecoglou’s side suffered a huge blow to their Champions League hopes as they were well beaten 4-0 by Eddie Howe’s Magpies on Saturday (13 April) to fall below Aston Villa and out of the Premier League top four.
With Spurs trailing 3-0 in the 58th minute, Postecoglou decided to substitute Son in place of Dejan Kulusevski with Brennan Johnson moving into the central role in a call that baffled both supporters and pundits alike.
While Hutton believes the 31-year-old would have been disappointed to be withdrawn, he admits that the South Korean international will just “have to deal with” it and return to form in the North London derby clash with Arsenal.
“He’s the captain of the football club, he wants to play every minute of every game,” Hutton told Tottenham News.
“But so does everybody else. If the manager feels there’s an opportunity to change something because he can see something within the game, then that is up to him to do so because he is the manager. He’ll live and die by his decisions.
“As a player sometimes you just have to deal with that. Of course, as the captain it was a disappointing result, he would have wanted to try and make an impact on the game and it didn’t quite happen.
“Maybe he was just bringing him off and thinking this game, it is what it is now so we’ll make the changes and try something else while saving him for the next game, only he will know that.
“Of course, he will be unhappy, everybody would be. Especially when you’re getting beaten.”
Son Heung-Min unhappy at Tottenham after surprise Ange Postecoglou substitution v Newcastle United
Postecoglou is blessed with plenty of depth in the forward areas at Tottenham currently and that means that strikers and wingers are always going to be rotated in and out of the side week in and week out.
While Son has previously been undroppable, he was nowhere near his best against Newcastle and Postecoglou simply had to try and do something else to find a way back into the game and stop Spurs’ slump.
As Hutton suggested, being substituted is part of being a footballer and while Son would have been “unhappy” with the call, it is unlikely to see him force a move away from North London this summer.
Hopefully, the 31-year-old and the rest of Postecoglou’s side can get back to winning ways against Arsenal after a week off. A win in the North London derby would massively boost their hopes of a top-four finish.
In other Tottenham news, Postecoglou will be “looking” at Leeds star Archie Gray after a new summer transfer update emerged
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