Guglielmo Vicario has told his Tottenham team-mates to and stick a picture on the club’s wall of honour that is not black and white.

Rather than shy away from the weight of the past, head coach Ange Postecoglou has been hammering home the need to embrace their opportunity to flip the “Spursy” narrative on its head.

That has included Postecoglou pointing out most of the celebratory shots on their stadium walls are from before the age of multicolour photography. And the under pressure coach’s point has struck a chord with Vicario.

“Winning would be massive for the players, for the staff and especially for the fans,” the Italian goalkeeper says. “We know we can create history for this football club.

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“We know that probably next year when we walk through the corridors into the dressing room we will see some photos of us lifting that trophy. But it is not certain, so we have to keep working as best we can.”

Separating their dire domestic form from controlled performances on the continental stage has been quite simple in recent weeks, according to a number of Spurs players.

But there is added personal motivation for Vicario because this season has already brought the highest and lowest moments of his career – on the same day.

In November he fractured his ankle in the pyrrhic victory away to . That 4-0 triumph moved Spurs to sixth place, three points off third, but it also kickstarted an injury crisis Postecoglou describes as “unprecedented.”

Vicario had broken the bone when Spurs were two goals in front. Except he did not think it was serious and decided to continue because “to keep a clean sheet at the Etihad is a dream.”

Little did he know the damage being caused. “Unfortunately it was a big mistake to play on,” he says. “We won a big game, I kept a clean sheet but it has been one of the best and one of the worst days of my life.”

Spurs went on to win just one of their next 11 games as most of Postecoglou's first-choice XI faced spells on the sidelines.

"We know in the league we haven’t performed great and we are very disappointed about that because this football club cannot accept as many losses as we’ve had this season,” Vicario says.

Yet the context around injuries should be impossible to ignore. Six months on Postecoglou’s selection headache is yet to ease with Spurs’ three creative midfielders - , Dejan Kulusevski and Lucas Bergvall - all missing tonight.

But in the face of such adversity, a bond has formed and Vicario has found himself stepping into a leadership role.

“Sometimes you can speak a lot but it is the way you act,” he says. “It’s in the way you behave in the dressing room, or during training and being the first to go to the gym and last to go away from the training ground on a daily basis.

“That is good because people can see how committed you are and how much you embrace the challenge. I think that is a big part of my journey, of my life and then try to just give them the best example of how to behave on the pitch, off the pitch and try to be the best human being you can be.”

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