Image Credit: IOIO Images
On Saturday morning, Australian soccer fans woke up to a shock. Two weeks ago we watched Ange Postecoglou lift the Europa League for Spurs, after a tense 1-0 final against Manchester United. History in more ways than one. Ange’s reputation has suffered this season, but at the end of it all he led this club to their greatest moment in a generation. Tottenham’s trophy drought had, in a cruel way, become the cornerstone of their identity. Who are Spurs if not self saboteurs? In light of the way the club is spoken of, nearly two decades without silverware doesn’t actually seem long enough. Well, either way, it’s over now. Not just 17 years of frustration for Tottenham, but a century of irrelevance for Australia.
A man raised in the inner suburbs of Melbourne held aloft a major European trophy as manager. What a laughable concept, except for that it happened. In that moment, like in Sydney in ‘05 and Kaiserslautern a year later, football said to Australia ‘welcome to the big boys club’. Not one fan in this country was unmoved. There’s an insecurity that goes hand in hand with supporting the world’s game from our far away corner of it. A sort of cultural cringe. One that’s felt even more acutely at home than it is abroad. It’s what makes moments like these so special; the chance to rise above all that, and feel nothing but pride.
As we collectively dusted our eyes and checked our devices on the morning of June 7th, the party came to an end. “Following a review of performances and after significant reflection, the Club can announce that Ange Postecoglou has been relieved of his duties”.
So what happened? For many in North London and down under, this decision is an outrage. It’s insulting. How could a club who’ve waited so long for a taste of glory turn so quickly on the man who brought them to it? “The objective is not to win trophies obviously, because Ange has delivered that”, said former Spurs player and coach Tim Sherwood.
Definitive takes are always going to be the first ones amplified, but this wasn’t an easy choice one way or the other. That night in Lisbon was special, no question, but is it cause to completely dismiss the disaster that was Spurs’ league campaign? They finished 17th, with 38 points. In a third of Premier League seasons played, that total would have seen them relegated. They were the first team ever to lose 22 games and stay up.
The statistics will tell you that it’s the worst PL season in Spurs history, but they still don’t paint the full portrait. They don’t tell you how difficult this team was to watch at times.
We’ve seen a shift in recent years, with promoted teams falling further away from the standard of the top flight. Watching the likes of Southampton and Sheffield get played off the park has been a weekly occurrence. There were moments in 24/25 when it felt like they were the yardstick for Spurs. Not the Liverpools, or the Aston Villas, or even the Evertons. In the back half of the season, they just didn’t seem to have the fight in them.
Defensively, they looked at times like a team that didn’t belong at this level. Late home losses to Palace and Brighton were especially dire. In front of 60,000 fans in Tottenham Stadium, the goals they conceded might as well have been training drills for their mid table opponents. The champions Liverpool put 11 past them home and away.
Of course, injuries played a role particularly in the rear guard. Spurs have built their back four around the duo of enforcer Cristian ‘Cuti’ Romero and the lightning quick Micky Van de Ven. Both were absent for long stretches, along with all round defensive stalwart Ben Davies and starting goalkeeper Vicario. Tottenham were forced to make do with a half baked back line throughout the holiday season’s non-stop run of fixtures. The inexperience of Radu Dragusin and Fraser Forster’s rustiness in goal both cost them dearly.
The other major casualty of Spurs’ injury crisis was Richarlison, their often divisive centre forward. £65 million signing Dominic Solanke had a solid enough season in his place up front, though somewhat uninspiring given his price tag. He’s more of a traditional fox in the box, when compared with his Brazilian counterparts’ hard running and ball dominant style of play. Ange would have hoped to be able to rotate the pair throughout the season, but it wasn’t to be.
In January Postecoglou saw the writing on the wall and made the call to invest every resource in the Europa League going forward. The league became an afterthought. In late April, ahead of the Semi Finals and shortly after a 5-1 annihilation at Anfield, he made his position clear.
“If we weren’t in Europe, potentially our league form wouldn’t have suffered as much, because obviously I’ve made a hell of a lot of changes on a week-to-week basis… This club’s had really fantastic, consistent years in the league where they’ve finished top four, top five but haven’t made semi-finals. I think that’s the key thing, we’re in a semi-final, and everything else becomes secondary”.
It’s hard to argue with his thinking now. Look where it brought them.
It also wasn’t the only way in which priorities changed. From the very start of his Tottenham tenure, Postecoglou has set his team up to entertain. He’s a staunch believer in playing football the right way. Pass and move, attack with intent, don’t shy away from the counter but don’t ever find yourself reliant on it because you’ve set a low block. His Premier League footprint has been defined by white knuckle, end to end action. As football fans we love to see it, but the Tottenham faithful have felt fatigue set in. Cast aside those first two months in charge for Ange, and they’ve been the victims of their own strategy more often than not.
In stark contrast, their victorious run through Europa’s knockout stages saw the most pragmatic football his Spurs team have played. There was a clear change in defensive ethos away in Frankfurt for the quarters, where they held a dangerous Eintracht team to a clean sheet, and then again as they travelled to the far North to defend their first leg lead against Bodø/Glimt. They showed they can get the needed result when the brief is ‘don’t concede at any cost’.
It all led up to Lisbon, where after taking the lead through Brennan Johnson’s scrappy opener (truly one of the ugliest goals you’ll ever see win a European final), Spurs defended for their lives. For the most part they suffocated Man United. Only Bruno Fernandes, the reds’ talisman in midfield, had any luck getting them going; his distribution was outstanding as usual. It didn’t matter much though. Every time he opened things up, Spurs closed it again. United’s attackers couldn’t shine individually nor play together as a team. For the neutral it was a tough watch, as the minutes wore on and Tottenham resorted to hoofing the ball for space each time they won it back.
This is the kind of game that, deep down in his beating football heart, Ange Postecoglou hates. If needs must though. “I always win things in my second year. Nothing’s changed”. When you come out with a quote like that you better back it up, and so he did. Who cares how it looked now that it’s done. Club legend Son Heung-Min lifting the trophy, I’d say that looked pretty good; tears of joy let out in a tidal wave as his decade long quest for Spurs silverware met its climax.
The mood in the stands was buzzing when they returned to London that weekend for a final day fixture against Brighton, but again they were outclassed at home. The Seagulls ran riot on the counter attack and won 4-1. Spurs’ long serving chairman Daniel Levy had a grim look on his face as Postecoglou took his lap and applauded the fans. We can’t know for sure, but I do think the decision was made right then and there.
“Whilst winning the Europa League this season ranks as one of the club’s greatest moments, we cannot base our decision on emotions aligned to this triumph. It is crucial that we are able to compete on multiple fronts and believe a change of approach will give us the strongest chance for the coming season and beyond”.
What a statement this was. You don’t ordinarily expect a club to put their reasoning to the public through this kind of press release, but that’s the kind of dilemma they faced. How do you weigh abject failure against catharsis and historic victory? It has to be a matter of where your priorities lie, and Levy and the board have made that clear. The league above all. Knockout success isn’t enough, they need to see sustainable, week in week out performance. “We have made what we believe is the right decision to give us the best chance of success going forward, not the easy decision”.
I have to say I think they’re right. Does it feel right? No. The heart doesn’t like it. The head though, says this isn’t acceptable for Tottenham. What their official statement called “extenuating circumstances” ring like excuses in light of the cold facts. Not entirely hollow excuses, but not enough. What team doesn’t face an injury crisis at some point in the season? Look at who they still had. 30+ league appearances for Son, Maddison, Kulusevski, Porro, Sarr, and Johnson. 25+ for Bissouma, Solanke, Bentancur, Udogie, Gray, and Spence. All told, it’s a group that cost Spurs just over £330 million. Is this lot not good enough to perform above a relegation standard?
When we talk about focusing on the Europa League knockouts, let’s be clear on what we mean. It’s two extra games a month. It means more rotation. It means picking moments to rest your most valuable players. It doesn’t mean throwing up the white flag. Weeks still go by without an extra fixture; weeks in which Spurs showed nothing. No fight. No practicality. No improvement. Ange has had two seasons to implement his philosophy. The club has spent in the transfer market, despite what some would tell you. £147 million last summer, £230 million the summer before. Is this one trophy a worthy return?
I don’t get any pleasure from diminishing Postecoglou’s moment of glory, but it has to be looked at in perspective. This is the new look Europa, with no Champions League teams dropping down. They beat AZ Alkmaar, Frankfurt, and Bodø/Glimt to progress to the final. The first two encounters were nailbiters.
If you want you can frame the final as victory over Manchester United, the 3x champions of Europe and 20x champions of England. In reality it was a dysfunctional, freefalling, 15th placed Manchester United over whom they got the win. A team that had only Spurs to look down on in terms of dismal Premier League disappointment. It was an ugly, uninspiring win at that. A wonderful moment, yes. A flood of emotions, decades of tension released. I just can’t see what great leap forward has been made. Every club with their heads screwed on knows domestic competition comes first. It’s the bread and butter. The marathon, compared to Europe’s late season dash. In that department, they haven’t just been deficient, they’ve gone backwards at a frightening pace. Two years in, and still when Spurs play Ange’s signature brand of football, they almost always embarrass themselves.
I was there, a kid waving my flag behind the goal in Sydney Olympic Park when Postecoglou led his Socceroos to the Asian Cup in 2014. I’ve followed his triumphant travels to Tokyo, then to Glasgow, then to London. I genuinely adore this man, and the way he represents Australia on the world’s stage, but it’s time. The moment to prove himself with Spurs has come and gone. In its passing there was one special, historic night, but look at the bigger picture and he simply hasn’t done enough. He’ll land on his feet though, I’m sure of it.
-Will Newby
