An English journalist who found himself under scrutiny for a strange rant towards Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou has clarified the whole event was a big misunderstanding.
While Postecoglou has been a big success story in the Premier League this season and gained several new fans in the process, it seemed — at least on the surface — that The Guardian’s Jonathan Liew was not one of them.
Speaking on The Guardian’s Football Weekly podcast in November, Liew said he could not “stand” Postecoglou among other bizarre remarks.
“I’m just not having Ange,” Liew said at the time.
“I’m not having Ange Postecoglou. As a coach, I can’t stand him.”
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While podcast host Max Rushden went on to describe Postecoglou as a “lovely man”, Liew was seemingly having none of it, specifically saying the Australians “comes across as a lovely man”.
“All of the people saying he’s great, saying he’s a great bloke — nobody knows him,” added Liew.
“All you know about him are the little 45 second clips that come from his press conferences or that turn up on your Twitter feed every week.”
Liew had plenty more to say at the time and copped lots of feedback from social media users as a result, although now the English journalist has suggested it was all part of a “bit”.
“Should I clarify this? I did a bit on the live show which was a bit,” Liew said on the most recent episode of The Guardian’s Football Weekly podcast.
“I take my writing — my full-time job as a sports writer — incredibly seriously.”
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As for talking, Liew said he takes that “not at all seriously”.
“The very opposite of seriously,” he added.
In fact, Liew proved that very point immediately after as he sarcastically quipped that host Rushden suggested after the joke’s success at the live show that he reproduce it on the podcast to be clipped out of context on the internet.
“So, I did a bit at the live show and then Max [Rushden] thought, ‘Oh that went down really well in front of actual people in a room, why don’t you say it to millions of people that will then cut and snip it and take it out of context and then post it in bad faith on the internet?’,” Liew said.
