Ange Postecoglou has hit out at criticism of his management by insisting "I am not a clown" and vowed to "keep winning trophies" wherever he goes as speculation mounts over his future at Tottenham Hotspur.
Spurs will aim to end a 17-year wait for a major trophy in Wednesday's Europa League final against Manchester United, an achievement which would go a long way to salvaging an otherwise desperate season in which they have suffered a club-record 21 Premier League defeats and sit in 17th place.
Sources have told ESPN that Postecoglou is facing an uphill battle to save his job and one report suggested Wednesday's game could define the 59-year-old as either a "hero or a clown" depending on the outcome in Bilbao.
"I'll tell you one thing: irrespective of what happens tomorrow, I'm not a clown and I never will be," Postecoglou said in a pre-match news conference. "I'm really disappointed that you would use such terminology about a person who for 26 years without any favours from anyone has worked his way to a position where he's leading out a club in a European major competition [final].
"For you to suggest that somehow us not being successful means that I'm a clown ... [I'm] not really sure how to answer that question."
With speculation rife about his future despite having two years left on his current contract, Postecoglou continued: "Does it matter? Really? It doesn't matter because the reality of it is the opportunity is the same, for me and more importantly for the club.
"I've said before that whatever happens beyond tomorrow is kind of irrelevant when you think about the opportunity that exists right now.
"That opportunity is to provide something special for the football club and for the supporters and for everyone who has worked so hard, not just this year but for the 15, 16 years, however long it has been without a trophy and also the 41 years without a European trophy.
"If I was worried about my tenure at this football club, it's fair to say we wouldn't have been in this position because I would have been distracted long ago."
Sources have told ESPN that the club's hierarchy have grown increasingly concerned about the team's domestic slump despite their progress in Europe and Postecoglou dropped the clearest hint yet he could be sacked.
"I've been in this position before where the big game was the last game I managed," he said. "It's not unusual territory for me. I have always navigated it pretty well because for me nothing is more important than my responsibility for this football club and its fans that tomorrow me, the players, our mind is only on one thing and that is to create something special.
"I qualified for a World Cup and left. Won the treble with Celtic and left. Won at Brisbane and left. It's actually more common than you think.
"My future is assured. I wouldn't be the first person who changes jobs, we all change jobs.
"I've got a beautiful family, a great life, I'll keep winning trophies until I finish, wherever that is, don't worry about my future, my future is not entwined with anything, my future is assured."
However, Postecoglou insisted that ending Tottenham's trophy drought would not be a big enough achievement for him to walk away satisfied from the role.
"No, because I don't think my job is done here," he admitted. "I really feel like we're building something and what a trophy does is hopefully accelerates that.
"I still think there's a lot of work to be done. The challenges we've had this year are well chronicled, but there's been some reasoning in that and there's also been growth I'd like to see through, but whether that happens or not is not that important right now.
"I think this job is far from finished. There's some growth there to take this club where it needs to be."