by Ange Postecoglou paid tribute to the late Tottenham manager Ugo Ehiogu on what would have been his 52nd birthday following his side’s 4-1 win over Aston Villa on Sunday.
Ehiogu died following a cardiac arrest at Spurs’ Enfield training base in April 2017.
The former Villa and England defender joined the London club as youth coach in 2014 and worked in the academy alongside Matt Wells, who is now Postecoglou’s assistant manager.
Towards the end of his post-match press conference, Postecoglou brought up Ehiogu off the cuff and revealed that Wells had spoken to the team about his late colleague during the week.
“I’m really proud of the guys,” Postecoglou said. “Today was an important day for us.
“Because it’s also the late Ugo Ehiogu’s birthday and he was a big influence on Matty Wells here at the club, I know he played for Villa but he was obviously a manager at our football club.
“Matty spoke very highly of himself. When you hear things like that and how people affect your life, it helps clarify to the players what we’re trying to do here.
“Obviously it’s probably going to be a tough day for his wife and son, but I hope they take some comfort in the fact that Wellsy made a very important point, that he may be gone but he is not forgotten.
“He just talked about it during the week. We mentioned it today because it was his birthday today. Like I said, you don’t dismiss that stuff, because he was with our football club when he sadly passed away. It is therefore important that the memory lives on.”
Trailing at half-time by Morgan Rogers’ goal from a corner, Spurs scored four times in an exhilarating second half to overcome Villa and move to within two points of fourth-placed rivals Arsenal.
Brennan Johnson leveled the match with a back-post strike from Heung-min Son’s cross and James Maddison scored the fourth with a brilliant curling free-kick in stoppage time.
In between, Dominic Solanke scored twice, a lovely dink over goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez and a close range finish from substitute Richarlison’s cross.
Postecoglou believes summer signing from Bournemouth has made Spurs a better team.
“The huge effort he put in on Wednesday night to help us win a football game, not just physically but mentally and his ability to help the team in any way possible,” Postecoglou said of the signing summer of Solanke.
“To back that up today with such a massive effort against a team that’s quite difficult to play against in that sense, it’s just incredible. Yes, the goals are superb and of course, as a striker, I’m sure ‘He likes the fact that he can score a few goals, but even if he hasn’t, again, I can’t speak highly enough of what he brings to our team right now and. May this continue for a long time because with him playing this way, it makes us a real champion better team.
