Happy Days star Henry Winkler sends Spurs boss a message after finding out he's a Fonz fan

  • Watch Graham Stothard's report

Happy Days star Henry Winkler sent Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou a surprise video message after revealing he was a childhood fan of the hit American TV series.

Postecoglou said he once had pictures of Winkler's character the Fonz on his bedroom wall.

The Spurs boss was recounting how rival club Liverpool’s trophy-laden era during the 1970s’ and 1980s’ planted the seeds for him to become a manager.

  • Video from Twitter/X/@TJRamini

He had posters of them on his wall too and made no secret of his early love for Liverpool and recalled on several occasions how he used to watch matches in the early hours of the morning in Australia with his dad Jim.

The Spurs boss added: "Like any kid, I had the posters up on my wall, so Liverpool was my team, but you grow up, things change. I used to love Happy Days back then too, but I don’t have pictures of the Fonz on my wall today either!"

Tottenham Hotpsur manager Ange Postecoglou Credit: PA

Spurs beat a nine-man Liverpool in an incident-packed 2-1 win at the weekend.

Reacting to the result, Henry Winkler said: "Big Ange, hello from LA, California. Congratulations on your win today - Henry Winkler here aka the Fonz.

"So if I signed a poster for you right now would you put it back on your wall? That is the question."

Hope returned to north London at the end of what had been a largely difficult year, with Spurs’ struggles in the second half of last season compounded by homegrown star Harry Kane’s exit. Summer appointment Postecoglou brought excitement back to Tottenham, who moved up to second in the Premier League with Saturday’s last-gasp, incident-packed 2-1 win against Liverpool.

The bookmakers’ odds on Spurs winning the title continue to shorten and victory at Luton next weekend will see them, temporarily at least, go top, but defender Micky van de Ven is just enjoying the moment. “It’s early to say,” the Netherlands international said. “But hopefully we can keep pushing now and we are going to see where it’s going to end. “It’s early to say if we are title candidates this year but we will keep pushing, keep pushing and we’re going to see. “We want the best this season so we’re going to see where it will end. “We are not afraid of any team. We will keep playing our way and hopefully we can improve even more from how we are playing now and hopefully we can keep pushing.”

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know...