Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou said he was not interested in the noise surrounding Marcus Rashford’s future at Manchester United ahead of their EFL Cup tie on Thursday.
Postecoglou will be aiming to get Spurs one step closer to ending their trophy drought, which dates back to their success in this very competition back in 2008.
But the pre-match build-up has been dominated by Rashford’s future at Old Trafford after he was left out of the Red Devils’ 2-1 win over Manchester City last Sunday.
The United forward said in an interview with Henry Winter published on Tuesday that he was “ready for a new challenge” after a difficult 18 months in Manchester.
Postecoglou has made it known that he wants to improve Spurs’ attack despite his side being only behind Chelsea for the most goals scored in the Premier League this term.
“There’s always noise about Manchester United, come on mate. Where have you been?” Postecoglou said when quizzed about Rashford.
“No interest. Don’t care. Not interested. He is a Manchester United player. A very good player, they have plenty of good players, but I manage my players and other managers will manage their own players.
“In terms of Marcus’ situation, I have no real desire to examine it any further.
“If I looked at everyone we were linked to, I would have no time to do anything else to be honest. I have got other people to do that part of the process.
“For us, we’ve been pretty disciplined in what we’re trying to build here, and we’ll continue to be so.
“That’s not on my radar. You can ask me about Marcus, but you can ask me about every single Premier League footballer, and I’ll say the same.”
Spurs come into the fixture at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on the back of an impressive 5-0 victory over Southampton last Sunday.
They scored five goals in the first half of a Premier League match for the first time ever, whilst their eight shots on target is their joint-most on record in the opening 45 minutes of a game (since 2003-04).
And they will be confident of reaching the semi-finals of the competition given their previous records in the EFL Cup and against Thursday’s opponents.
Tottenham have progressed from their last four EFL Cup quarter-final ties (2014-15, 2018-19, 2020-21, 2021-22) since losing 2-1 to West Ham back in 2013-14.
They are also unbeaten in their last four games against United (W2 D2), all in the Premier League, and have beaten them 3-0 already this season. They haven’t won consecutive games against them since April 1990 (three in a row), however.
But Postecoglou said Spurs had plenty of work still to do after being reminded of his comments earlier this year about always winning a trophy in his second season at a club.
“I haven’t reiterated it many times, but if you ask me a question, I will answer it. So, if you ask me 100 times, I will answer it 100 times, but I’m not walking around with banners saying, ‘I win things in my second year’,” Postecoglou pointed out.
“I don’t think the quarter-finals are close. You get to a final, then I think you’re close. There is still a fair bit of football to be played. All we can do is be ready for tomorrow night.”
