Postecoglou hoping to rock Europe amid troubled tenure

Perth Now

25-04-2025

Ange Postecoglou has cited the 'Stonecutter's Credo' as he still harbours hope that Tottenham can rock Europe even though some of his tenure has gone "disastrously wrong".
Spurs travel to Anfield on Sunday with a point enough to clinch Liverpool the Premier League title, while defeat for the visitors would be a record-equalling 19th for the club in the division this season.
Poor domestic form has increased speculation over the future of Postecoglou, who has masterminded a run to the Europa League semifinals to give Tottenham a realistic shot at a first trophy since 2008.
The 59-year-old maintains the club can enjoy a "special season" if they can progress past Bodo/Glimt in the last four and triumph in a Bilbao final on May 21 after various near misses over the past decade, but knows only Europa League glory will shift the narrative around himself.
Postecoglou brought up the story of the 'Stonecutter's Credo' - first mentioned by Danish-American writer Jacob Riis more than a century ago - as an example of how you never know how far away the decisive blow to crack the rock is.
"I talk to the players a lot about the Stonecutter's creed," Postecoglou explained.
"Only the 101st blow cracks the rock, but 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 not, maybe I haven't, but you won't know that and you won't know how much I've had an impact until we get to that place.
The Australian again highlighted his bemusement with the general media perception around Tottenham and expressed his desire to end a 17-year trophy drought lingering over the club.
"I don't think I feel like it's them (the media) against me. It's more about the club. I'm trying to change the perception of the club," he said.
"I think there is this narrative of trying to set this club up for some sort of fall, consistently and there is no allowance for any kind of building of foundations for something a bit different than before.
"Yes, I'm trying to do things very, very differently. It hasn't all worked out, for sure - some of it has gone disastrously wrong, I accept that.
"But I said from the start, we need to chart a different course if we are ever going to break the cycle that this club has been in.
"Bizarrely, we're still in that position where we can do that."