What Postecoglou told Bissouma on first day as Tottenham boss agrees with Messi

Ange Postecoglou has been speaking to talkSPORT about Yves Bissouma's brilliant start to the season and why he would not like to come up against Cristian Romero

Ange Postecoglou has admitted that he told Yves Bissouma that he can be a "leader in this group" during one of his first Tottenham training sessions. Not hitting the heights in his debut campaign for Spurs due to a combination of reasons, Bissouma returned to Hotspur Way in the summer looking to make up for lost time.

Immediately catching Postecoglou's eye in training, the 58-year-old knew he had a player on his hands who could be a key component in his Tottenham team. Despite clearly getting a lift from Postecoglou's words, Bissouma was unfortunately late to training the following day and had to be reminded by the head coach about the responsibility of being a leader.

"I don't think I've done anything specific with him," explained the Tottenham boss when speaking on talkSPORT. "All the players, it's about creating an environment. I put the responsibility on them too because you can sometimes, when you've had a disappointing season, you can blame the manager in the past or other things, but ultimately I said to all the players that it's about them now.

"I kind of grabbed him and said to him that the way he was training at the time, the first three or four sessions we mainly had young guys and I said 'you can be a leader in this group'. I already knew about his ability but the way he was training, I could see he got a lift from that.

"He was late the next morning and again I said to him that to be a leader means being on time and he's been good since then. So there's always lessons to be learned there. I think with him and all the players it's about creating an environment, a framework to say 'you should really have no excuses, I'm not going to allow you to have any excuses to not be the best you can be'. Within that context then the rest is up to them."

"I don't argue with Messi," he said. "I tell you what, I wouldn't like to play against him. Most of the boys don't like to train against him. He's a real competitor. I love that about him. Whether it's training or a game, what you see is what you get with Romero."