The cure for Spursiness has been administered. Finally. For the past two years, the patient has been in the chair, strapped in, squirming, resisting, refusing the needle as it has hovered in place over the arm, questioning the credentials of the doctor. On Thursday morning (AEST) in Bilbao, the injection finally went in. The medicine flooded the veins, steadied the pulse, flushed out the toxins.
Everything is different now.
Now, the Spursiest thing that Spurs could do is let Ange Postecoglou go.
How could they, after this historic, narrative-resetting, mentality-refreshing, era-defining victory? One that offers them, after 17 years without a trophy and 41 without success on the European stage, the chance to build something meaningful?
There have been theories floating around for a while now – based mainly on a misunderstanding of the reasons why he left the Socceroos after sealing qualification for the 2018 World Cup – that a frustrated Postecoglou might walk away from Spurs on his own accord at the end of what has been, until now, a miserable season.
On the domestic front, there’s no getting away from it: they’ve been very bad, but there have been reasons. One of them is, as Postecoglou revealed in his jubilant post-match press conference, that he chose to put the cue in the rack with their Premier League campaign straight after the January transfer window and concentrate on this tournament.
Tottenham’s head coach Ange Postecoglou holds up the trophy.Credit: AP
“It probably was at odds with what other people at the club believed at the time we should do. That’s understandable,” he said after the 1-0 win over Manchester United.
“But I just really believed we could win this. Everything we’ve done since then, everything we’ve done at training, everything we’ve done in terms of the games, the teams I’ve selected, is about making sure when these games came around, that we’re in the best possible condition to tackle them. And that’s come at a cost, for sure, in the league, and I’ve got to take the responsibility for that. But I just felt like the end game of winning something was more important – and it was the only way I was going to do it.”
Those theories – that he could quit – have been put to bed by the man himself, and firmly. He says his work isn’t done and that he’ll be disappointed if he is asked to stop. He’s been fighting publicly for the club through weeks and months of doubt and hate from his own supporters, and he wants to see this thing through. He has shown his players, as he put it, how to “climb a mountain”, and now the next one they scale should be a little easier. “I still feel there’s a lot of work to be done … but not as much work as people may think,” he said. “I really feel that tonight can be a great platform for us to kick on.”
So now it’s over to chairman Daniel Levy. Surely, there is no way he could sack him now. It would be the stupidest thing he could possibly do. It would no doubt trigger a revolt from the players, and then an exodus, and then send the worst possible message to whoever his replacement is: even achieving the extraordinary isn’t enough at Tottenham Hotspur.
Ange Postecoglou and Daniel Levy.Credit: Getty Images
Look at the way the players celebrated – not only with each other, not only with Postecoglou, but about Postecoglou. He lurked off to the side when they did their initial trophy lift, rebuffed their first invitation to join them, and then was reluctantly dragged into the middle of the pack.
Afterwards, the injured James Maddison and Sergio Regulion – banished to less than a bit-part role under the coach and surely bound for the exit in the summer, which means he has every reason to hold a grudge if he wanted to – held up a banner brought in by fans which showed Postecoglou holding the Europa League trophy, wearing those meme ‘thug life’ sunglasses, and the declaration for which he is now globally famous: “I don’t usually win things, I ALWAYS win things in my second year.”
Maddison posted that line again on X a little later, still marvelling at his boss’s boldness. “Bruhhhhhhhh,” he said. Meanwhile, the former England international Micah Richards on the TNT Sports coverage could barely contain himself, yelling at Postecoglou: “HOW DOES THAT FEEL? COME ON! I’VE BEEN BACKING YOU ALL SEASON, I LOVE YOUR FOOTBALL, YOU’VE HAD YOUR INJURIES, YOUNG PLAYERS, BUT YOU DID IT TONIGHT!”
His response? “I can’t say the same for everyone on the panel,” noting the presence of Jamie Carragher, one of his biggest critics.
Postecoglou had another little jab for Levy in his presser, again demonstrating his elephant-like memory.
Not long after he was appointed, Levy acknowledged in a fan forum that Spurs had erred in the past by going for “trophy managers”, or win-now guys like José Mourinho or Antonio Conte, whose philosophies didn’t align with the club’s DNA. Postecoglou, of course, was a perfect match – but the inference was that he wasn’t a “trophy manager”.
He always was, and he is again.
“Even Daniel sort of said: ‘we went after winners, it didn’t work, and now we’ve got Ange.’ Mate, I’m a winner,” he said.
“I’ve been a serial winner my whole career. It’s what I’ve done more than anything else. I know people talk about my football, which I’m very proud of … and I know people dismiss my achievements because they didn’t happen on this side of the world. But for me, they’re all hard-earned, and all I’ve done my whole career is win things.”
There is an irony, though. Postecoglou won this trophy not through classic Angeball but through Mourinho-like grit, and long periods of Conte-style suffering. Spurs had only 27.7 per cent of possession and completed just 115 passes for the whole match – the lowest such figures Opta has recorded by any team in a major European final.
The goal they scored, on the stroke of half-time, was fittingly ugly – albeit, generated by a beautiful cross from Pape Matar Sarr which spotted a great run from Brennan Johnson, but he hardly connected with it, and the ball went in off Luke Shaw and past the turnstile arms of Andre Onana. Johnson was credited with it in the end, and he deserved the moment; in September he deactivated his social media accounts amid a deluge of abuse from Tottenham fans who couldn’t see the things he brought to the team, the things that Postecoglou could see. That was his 17th goal for the season. He is their top-scorer. Maybe now they can see.
From then on, it was about getting in the trenches. They said Postecoglou and this group of players couldn’t defend. Didn’t know how. They were wrong – although it helped that United, in turn, couldn’t attack.
Postecoglou chalked up his marked tactical change in the Europa League to the demands of knockout football. “I’ve had a lot of success in my career in not just winning leagues, but in Australia, I grew up playing finals football to win a championship,” he said. “Knockout football is always different. All my teams have always played a little bit different in knockout games … big games come down to moments. You’ve got to limit the moments of the opposition.”
It’s true, but not the whole truth. Even in cut-throat moments, Postecoglou’s teams have never been so direct or defensively minded.
But, honestly, who cares? The most important thing was that they got the monkey off their back. Now all the self-defeating ‘Spursy’ talk can stop, and they can chart a course forward – ideally playing some sort of synthesis between the mesmerising attacking stuff Postecoglou has dedicated his career to, and the solidity and flexibility displayed in the Europa League.
Later this week, Postecoglou and his team will be lauded in north London with an open-top bus parade with their new silverware. After that, they host Brighton & Hove Albion in their final Premier League fixture.
After that, there are no planned meetings between Levy and Postecoglou – not yet, anyway.
“Maybe they felt like they don’t need to, or they’re waiting for this game,” he said. “Look, what I do know is that I’m going to go back to my hotel room, get my family and friends together, open up a nice bottle of scotch, have a couple of quiet ones … and then Monday I’m going on holidays with my beautiful family because I deserve it.
“And… Que sera, sera.”
Whatever happens next, Postecoglou will be fine. This achievement not only sets his status as an Australian legend in concrete – not that it was ever in doubt – but it guarantees that his next job will be at least as big, or bigger than, Tottenham Hotspur. And he won’t have to go looking. It will come to him. But they’d be mad to let him go.
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