Postecoglou rails against narrative of Tottenham always being ‘set up for a fall'

Yahoo

09-05-2025

Ange Postecoglou has railed against what he says is a well-worn narrative around Tottenham – the club must always be set up for a fall, negative interpretations at every turn. And yet the manager still believes they can break the cycle of frustration, leaning on the words of Jacob Riis, a journalist and social reformer in late 19th and early 20th century New York, to inspire his players.
Postecoglou has endured a miserable Premier League season, losing 18 matches. He takes his team to Liverpool on Sunday admitting that some of his work has gone 'disastrously wrong'. It is why he may not remain in his post beyond the end of the season even if he wins the Europa League. Spurs are into the semi-finals, where they take on Norwegian club Bodø/Glimt.
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What has got to Postecoglou is his sense that all of the challenges he has faced have been overlooked – chiefly, how he has been asked to overhaul the squad, placing an emphasis on youth, and reimagine the playing style. In his first season, he led the team to a fifth-placed finish; an improvement on eighth from 2022-23.
Postecoglou felt the achievement was poorly received. Spurs had been in pole position to finish fourth, which would have guaranteed a return to the Champions League, until they lost five of their final seven games, including the penultimate one at home to Manchester City. Most of their fans had wanted them to lose that night to ensure Arsenal did not win the title. Fifth place will be enough for Champions League qualification this season. Spurs are 16th.
'I love the frenzy around finishing fifth this year … they're all brilliant, aren't they?' Postecoglou said. 'We finished fifth last year. Why is it such a disaster that we finished fifth? Around this time last year, I was asked to lose a game [against City]. And I was wrong for wanting to win it.
'We finished fifth but it's not a good story. A better story is my tenure has been a disaster and it continues to be. I just think that the kind of hysteria that is surrounding what's happening at the moment is all premeditated for a certain outcome. Hopefully we can defy that.'
Postecoglou said the Spurs fans he met were very supportive; he has never felt it was them against him. His impression, though, is that there is a tension between people and the club.
'There is this narrative of trying to set this club up for some sort of fall – consistently,' Postecoglou said. 'There is no allowance for any kind of building of foundations, for something a bit different than before.
'The one thing you do know is what doesn't work here. Yes, I'm trying to do things very, very differently. It hasn't all worked out, some of it has gone disastrously wrong. I accept that. I said from the start: 'We need to chart a different course if we are ever going to break the cycle this club has been in.'
'But I think there is a narrative around that this club has been on some sort of downward spiral again or is going down the same rabbit hole that it has in the past. Whereas I think this is totally different and there has been very little acknowledgment of that.'
Postecoglou has previously said that winning a first trophy for Spurs since 2008 would not change everything but he is now all-in on Europa League glory. He brought up a quotation from Riis about the endeavours of a stonecutter and he clearly sees the parallels.
'I talk to the players a lot about the stonecutters' creed – only the 101st blow cracks the rock,' he said. 'No one sees the other 100 blows and they think it's the last one that does it. It's not. So time will tell … whether what I've tried to do over the last two years gets us to crack that stone.'
If Postecoglou reaches the Europa League final, it would be his 100th game for Spurs – with one league match to follow before the end of the season. 'You won't know how much I've had an impact until we get to that place,' he said of the final. 'We need to take the opportunity that's before us and that won't happen because we're good for the next two to three weeks. That will only happen if what's got us to this place gets us what we want.
'What it [the Riis quotation] says is that if you keep doing the right thing, the impact it has is unseen. You won't break it with the 101st blow unless you've done a lot of things which, to the naked eye, seem like you're doing nothing or maybe the wrong thing. But the stonecutter knows you need to keep doing it because it'll come.'
When the manager cannot crack it at Spurs, it is invariably him who pays the price. But Postecoglou continued to brush off the swirl of speculation about his future. 'If you asked any Tottenham supporter what's the most important thing for them right now – who is going to be the manager next year or whether they win this thing [the Europa League] – 100% of them would say: 'Just make sure we give ourselves the best opportunity to make some history,'' Postecoglou said. 'The rest of it doesn't matter. It will all take care of itself.'
Postecoglou reported that Son Heung-min would not play at Liverpool as he recovers from a foot injury. The captain returned to training on the grass on Friday and will be monitored before Thursday's first leg at home to Bodø/Glimt.