Glory for Tottenham Hotspur on one front left Ange Postecoglou vulnerable on every other

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17 hours ago

The silence had become deafening.
The absence of any news out of north London creating rumour and intrigue.
With Ange Postecoglou and Daniel Levy both on holiday, the vacuum created its own ominous void.
And yet the longer the gap between that heady night in Spain that ended Spurs' lengthy trophy drought and any news one way or another from the club about the Australian's coaching future, the more it seemed as though Postecoglou's time would be up.
How can Spurs get rid of a man who has delivered exactly what he said he would?
The end of Tottenham's trophy drought could and perhaps should have been Postecoglou's ticket to a third season at the helm.
However, in the cold light of day, Postecoglou was always going to be hard pressed to keep his job.
Yes, the euphoric scenes in Bilbao painted a picture of a team that had suddenly achieved something few thought they would.
And yes, the backing of his players in recent weeks had created a deafening roar of ascent amidst the screaming void of nothingness from the boardroom.
But the facts don't lie.
Things at Spurs started so well for Postecoglou.
Unbeaten in their first 10 league games of the 2023/24 season, they were five points clear at the top of the Premier League table before a chaotic defeat to Chelsea scuppered their progress.
That was the best start to a Premier League season by any new manager in the league's history (since 1992) and was Tottenham's best start in the top flight since 1960/61.
Then, Spurs managed just one draw in their next five matches, the worst form of any team in the top division, bringing Postecoglou back down to earth with a bump.
That Chelsea defeat was more than just the start of a slide though; it epitomised everything that pundits have since claimed has been Postecoglou's problem all along, the stick with which he has been beaten into submission.
"It is just who we are mate," Postecoglou said after his nine-man team was overwhelmed, its high defensive line mercilessly and repeatedly exposed by Chelsea's pacy forwards.
His stubborn rigidity to his tactical ideals, despite the disruption caused by one of (note, one of, not the) worst injury tolls in the league, saw Spurs tumble back down to earth with an almighty thud.
Spurs finished 17th in the Premier League this season, suffering a whopping 22 defeats, their worst top-flight season since 1976/77.
With a sizeable playing budget at his disposal — estimated as being the seventh highest in the Premier League — that is simply not good enough.
Over the course of his two-year tenure though, the picture is far rosier.
If we combine the last two seasons into one 76-match campaign, Spurs would sit eighth.
The devil though, is in the detail.
After the first 19 Premier League games of his time in charge, Spurs were sitting in fifth spot on the Premier League ladder with 11 wins.
The following 19 games saw Tottenham drop to eighth on the form guide with nine wins.
The next 19 games, at the start of the 2024/25 season, saw Spurs win just seven games, just good enough for 11th.
The 19 after that saw just four wins.
"Following a positive start in the 2023/24 Premier League (PL) season, we recorded 78 points from the last 66 PL games," a Spurs statement read, the appalling numbers laid bare.
If Postecoglou's first 10 games were among the best in Premier League history, that stands all the more glaringly against his final 10 games in charge where he won just a single game, with one draw.
That run of four points over the 10-game period was second only to Southampton as the worst in the league.
This inexorable slide has not gone unnoticed and, despite enjoying the backing of the players, shifting that momentum is always going to be tough and, in the cut and thrust world of the Premier League, there is little room for error.
"At times there were extenuating circumstances — injuries and then a decision to prioritise our European campaign," Spurs said in its statement.
"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."
Postecoglou said he had thrown everything he had at the Europa League to the detriment of the league. But finishing so low is an appalling reflection of where the club is at.
Spurs managed just 11 wins in the Premier League this season, all but four of those coming against clubs in the bottom half of the table.
Of teams that finished in the top half of the table, only Brentford twice (10th), Aston Villa (sixth) and Manchester City (3rd) were beaten by Spurs, with other victories coming against relegated Southampton (twice) and Ipswich, as well as Everton (13th), Manchester United twice (15th) and West Ham United (14th).
Even digging into these fixtures highlights issues.
Everton were a basket case at the start of the year, which is when Spurs played them, while the away victory over Manchester City came slap bang in the middle of the defending champions' dire run of form where they lost seven games in a row in across competitions.
In the cups, things were only slightly better.
Non-league Tamworth were the only team Spurs managed to beat in the FA Cup and even that victory required extra time. While in the League Cup, lower league Coventry, both Manchester clubs and Liverpool were beaten in one-off matches.
Even the Europa League triumph, as giddy and joyous as it appeared in Seville, when looked at in the cold light of day was hardly something to scream at.
Since the restructure of the Champions League, there is no doubt that it has become easier in Europe's second-tier competition.
No longer are the teams that finish in third place in the Champions League group phase parachuted into the competition, making the overall standard that much lower.
Wins over Qarabağ, Ferencváros, AZ, Elfsborg and Hoffenheim should have, in truth, been expected given Tottenham's far superior resources.
Victory over Eintracht Frankfurt, which finished in third place in the Bundesliga, over two legs in the quarterfinal was impressive.
But Bodø/Glimt? As tough as it is to play on an artificial pitch north of the Arctic Circle, the budget disparity between the two clubs makes David's biblical contest against Goliath look like a reasonable piece of matchmaking.
"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," Spurs said, revealing its cold-hearted pragmatism.
"This has been one of the toughest decisions we have had to make and is not a decision that we have taken lightly, nor one we have rushed to conclude.
"We have made what we believe is the right decision to give us the best chance of success going forward, not the easy decision."
It should not and cannot be understated how impressive it is that Postecoglou won a trophy.
To boldly state that you always win something in your second season and then deliver on that promise is the ultimate mic drop.
Banishing Spurs' recent history of choking in the biggest moments has been a feat incapable of some of Europe's biggest-name managers.
Ange has, undoubtedly, helped make Spurs less Spursy.
"[Tottenham is] a club that is trying to break free … [of] this mindset of thinking themselves of as a big club but being the team that everyone else takes the piss out of," Sydney Morning Herald football journalist Vince Rugari told ABC's Offsiders last month.
"They're a joke in England.
"They've got a manager that 100 per cent recognises what is going on there [at Spurs] and is doing everything he can to break it as well.
"He's made comments in press conferences, he challenges the narratives that are around about Tottenham Hotspur."
Given the strides Spurs were making, should Postecoglou have been given more time?
Should he have been given that chance to test himself against the best in the Champions League?
The answer to both those questions is probably yes.
And that Spurs have thrown away the only manager that has managed to break their trophyless curse to the wayside might well be the most Spursy thing that they could have done after all.
Sacking Postecoglou fits with Tottenham's recent reputation of throwing away promising situations and making life uncomfortable — or even torturous — for its supporters.
Postecoglou, as he said repeatedly in his post-match press conference after the Europa League triumph, will be "fine".
He has shown himself to be a winner in every league he has had an extended run in, be it Scotland, Australia, Japan and now England.
Postecoglou's self-confident bullishness counted against him as Tottenham's season descended into the mire, but it is not unfounded.
Any other club will see Postecoglou's availability as a chance for them to pounce on a proven winner.