Latest news with #KeithBurkinshaw
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
PSG and Inter could thrill us in the Champions League final, but something has already been lost
Before this season's League Cup final between Newcastle United and Liverpool , the Times (London) interviewed Malcolm Macdonald, the former buccaneering Newcastle centre forward. Macdonald played for Newcastle in the 1974 FA Cup final and brought up the name of Keith Burkinshaw, who was a coach at St James' Park at the time. Burkinshaw moved to Tottenham Hotspur , where he became manager and won the 1984 Uefa Cup – Tottenham's last European trophy until 10 days ago. Burkinshaw walked out soon after a boardroom disagreement. In a famous exchange with the reporter Ken Jones, a former player and cousin of Spurs legend Cliff Jones, both looked back at old White Hart Lane and agreed: 'There used to be a football club over there.' It was actually Jones referencing a Frank Sinatra song, but the point was made. A year earlier Tottenham Hotspur had been repackaged into Tottenham Hotspur plc, which was subsequently floated on the London stock exchange. Others followed. Now shares in clubs, and clubs themselves, could be bought and sold in a way Football Association rules had previously forbidden. It was a historic moment of change; it continues to shape the present. As season 2024-25 reaches its European climax with the Champions League final in Munich between Internazionale and Paris Saint-Germain , the Burkinshaw remark feels as pertinent as ever – not just about Tottenham, but Newcastle, Manchester City and both of these finalists, among others. READ MORE Formed in 1908 via a schism inside AC Milan, Inter remained in Italian ownership until 2013 when a trio of Indonesian businessmen bought 70 per cent of its shares. In 2016 those were sold to Chinese group Suning, who then defaulted on a loan. It means US investors Oaktree today own a sporting institution 117 years old. United States ownership of Serie A clubs is up to eight. PSG were not formed until 1970, via a merger. The French capital did not have an elite football club and the newly renovated Parc des Princes required tenants. Originally fan-owned – annual subscription: six francs – the club moved, some would say stumbled, through various ownerships until 2011 when Qatari Sports Investment acquired them. Whether six-francs fans wanted it or not, PSG were now part of the Qatari regime's 'National Vision 2030″, a policy aimed at turning the Gulf city-state of Doha into an 'advanced, sustainable society'. Apparently European football was deemed essential to this vision. PSG had been champions of France twice until 2013. Between 2000 and 2012 seven different clubs had won Ligue 1. Now so much money has been ploughed in that PSG have been French champions 11 times in the past 13 seasons. Qatari-PSG eliminated variety. At Uefa they were worried quickly. Having seen the inflationary effect of Roman Abramovich at Chelsea , then Abu Dhabi's purchase of City in 2008, Uefa began to formulate new financial regulations to prevent the 'financial doping' concern Arsène Wenger raised in 2009. That remark was about the new Chelsea, with the whiff of Lance Armstrong still in the air of sport. As Miguel Delaney notes in his valuable book on the subject of modern football, States of Play, PSG had an income of €398 million in 2012-13, but an estimated €200 million came from the Qatar Tourism Authority, which was convenient. Delaney quotes a then senior Uefa spokesman saying of PSG: 'They know the rules are that they have to generate revenues to cover their costs without cheating.' His name was Gianni Infantino . As president of Fifa, Gianni Infantino announced Saudi Arabia will host the World Cup in 2034, 12 years after it was hosted by Qatar. Photograph: Nick Potts/PA Wire Doping, cheating: those are quite the words. In May 2014 PSG's Qatari owners and Uefa reached a 'settlement'. There was a headline €60 million fine and a reduction in Champions League squad-size from 25 to 21 players. Later the same month Man City received the same sanction. [ Ken Early: Fifa president Gianni Infantino has relentlessly sucked up to Trump since 2017 Opens in new window ] The new men from the Gulf who ran both clubs were incensed by Uefa's language, but then these are men who are rarely challenged. The Qatari hierarchy in Doha had schemed to get the 2022 World Cup and in doing so had become close to French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Uefa's Michel Platini. They were good at manoeuvring. Even in their anger at Uefa, Delaney writes the situation can be seen as 'two clubs owned by autocracies pressurising a governing body into a secret deal'. As with Spurs in 1983, Delaney traces this compromise as a turning point. With €50 million raised in finger-clicks, the likes of David Luiz, Angel Di Maria and Julian Draxler were added to PSG in the next transfer windows. Then in the summer of 2017 the world record transfer fee was obliterated as Neymar joined from Barcelona for €222 million. Not content with that PSG signed Kylian Mbappé on loan from AS Monaco. 'Loan' is a gentle way of putting it: Mbappé cost €180 million the following summer. Qatar splashed this €400 million, plus €1 million a week for Neymar and all the rest, shortly after they had been geographically isolated by Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and others, who cut diplomatic ties. The projection of Vision 2030 was still working for Qatar, but it was alienating neighbours as well as having a numbing side effect on domestic French football's competitiveness. Having arranged to parade David Beckham for the last five months of his career in 2013, in August 2021 Qatar brought Lionel Messi from Barcelona to join Neymar. Qatar had already, controversially and undeservedly, been given the 2022 World Cup. The tournament climaxed with Argentina beating France in an unforgettable final; Messi was draped in a bisht over his Argentina colours as he lifted the trophy. Qatar, make no mistake, thought they owned football. Lionel Messi, then of PSG, gets his hand and lips on the World Cup after victory in Qatar in 2022. Photograph:Who could argue with them? Their ownership of PSG is 13 years old, indisputable, normalised. 'Ici c'est Paris' is PSG branding, a statement of geographical pride; yet when the club played the French Super Cup against Monaco in January, the game was staged in Doha, not France. As reported by Doha News, PSG head coach Luis Enrique said before the game: 'We're going to play this match as if it were at home, because we are at home.' Ici c'est Doha. Doha News, though, was focused on why so few locals stayed around to watch the trophy presentation. 'Why has Qatar's ownership of PSG not translated to fandom at home?' it asked. Maybe, we thought, because it's a manufactured enterprise in a city-state of 1.5 million people with no serious football culture? The bigger issue, of ownership, was not in debate. Burkinshaw had thoughts on all this 40 years ago. Now Tottenham Hotspur send out advisory notes to broadcasters to call them 'Spurs' or 'Tottenham Hotspur' but never simply 'Tottenham'. Even if it's to protect copyright, it's crass and a denial of origin. Such 'brand' policies help explain why six weeks before Tottenham won the Europa League, their fans were on the street protesting about the running of the club and what it has become, a sports company mes que un club. 'Built a business, killed a football club' read a banner. James Montague, in another recent book – Engulfed: how Saudi Arabia bought sport, and the world – notes that sports reporting in the Gulf can be curiously strong, given other criticism is not tolerated. Saudi Arabia came to sport's non-sport potential later than its much smaller competitors, Qatar and the UAE, but the Saudis have rushed to make up for that. They brought out their own Vision 2030 and it now directs much of global golf, e-sports and boxing – Saudi minister Turki Alalshikh bought The Ring magazine; plus football, via its Cristiano Ronaldo-led Saudi Pro League and the acquisition of Newcastle United. Saudi Arabia's Mohammed Al-Owais saves a shot from South Korea's Jae-Sung Lee during a friendly match at St James' Park, Newcastle in 2023. Photograph: Will Matthews/PA Wire Saudi Arabia has a long-standing football culture and connections – Saudi Telecom has sponsored Manchester United for years. Saudi Investment Bank SAIB started sponsoring Real Madrid two years ago. The country's right to hold a World Cup, which they will do in 2034, is more convincing than Qatar's. But how they got it – via the tricky chameleon Infantino – is less so, and Burkinshaw might question the Saudi Public Investment Fund's motivation in taking over at St James'. It was about influence and the hardening of soft power. It involved, as the Daily Mail reported in June 2020, direct contact between then UK prime minister Boris Johnson and Saudi's ultimate leader Mohammed Bin Salman. A purchase stalled suddenly changed gear. Public delight at St James' baffled and disturbed. But northeast England had long felt a geographic distance from political power, which fed Brexit sentiment. At Newcastle United the feeling was doubled by the deliberately hollow running of the club by previous owner Mike Ashley, for whom it became a commercial billboard. A club's identity is precious, but not impregnable. Those who disdain Newcastle since the Saudi takeover may be fed up hearing these explanations as to why there is almost no protest in the city – Montague did not find many dissenters; instead a big river of more than 200,000 people flowed through the streets in celebration at winning this season's League Cup. Equally, Newcastle fans are fed up with hearing about Saudi Arabia's human rights record, or having it pointed out that the League Cup could not have been won without Saudi money, or that the reserve team kit is Saudi green, training camps are held in Riyadh and in September 2023 Saudi Arabia staged two friendlies at St James'. Those of us there for the South Korea game heard the tannoy announce: 'It's been a pleasure to host Saudi Arabia here at St James' Park.' Everyone got the message. And as each match, each season passes, it all puts the norm in normalisation. Flowers of variety There never used to be a football club over there: so in Paris they created PSG. It was not for the same reason Viktor Orban, for example, has built his club, Puskas Akademia, in Hungary but like the former Felcsut FC, Qatari-PSG has been transformed into a different entity. PSG's identity has become increasingly blurred under in recent years. Photograph: David Davies/PA Wire And here they are in the last game of the season. We all admire this version of PSG, however – how could you not with talents such asKhvicha Kvaratskhelia and Désiré Doué? [ In Orban's Hungary, football clubs like Robbie Keane's Ferencváros are no longer just teams Opens in new window ] It makes for a strange end to a curious season, which was somehow simultaneously dull and dazzling. The new Champions League format worked, mainly, and there were great nights for Celtic and Aston Villa. The incredible Inter-Barcelona semi-final made you smile out loud. In England Liverpool may have walked alone to the Premier League title, yet there were amazing scenes of jubilation at Crystal Palace, in Leeds, Newcastle and at 'Tottenham', in Tottenham. In Scotland 40 years of Old Firm league domination was offset by Aberdeen's Scottish Cup win. Flowers of variety have bloomed. On Saturday night we have an enticing climax. Qatar has its name literally written all over it – Qatar Airways' press release on Thursday revelled in their sponsorship of both finalists and the tournament itself. And it's not over. Six years after Jürgen Klopp sat in an Edinburgh hotel preseason and warned of player burnout, bureaucratic ego and sports politics – Infantino – bring us the needless, money-soaked Club World Cup, starting in Miami in a fortnight. Football in 2025. It never ends. Laugh and sigh.
The Irish Sun
20-05-2025
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
Ange Postecoglou does not know his Tottenham history if he thinks Europa League win will save him his job
IF ANGE POTSECOGLOU believes winning the Europa League could allow him to keep his Spurs job - he doesn't know his Tottenham history. It was in 1984 that Keith Burkinshaw won his third trophy as Advertisement 3 Ange Postecoglou does not know his history if he thinks the Europa League will save his job Credit: Getty 3 Keith Burkinshaw won the trophy back in 1984 but was still given the boot Credit: Getty Postecoglou's modern-day Spurs are out to win the same trophy in Bilbao on Wednesday. But like Yorkshireman Burkinshaw, Aussie Ange seems set for the exit door no matter what happens. Although the current Spurs hierarchy have kept their counsel about Postecoglou, back 41 years ago, Burkinshaw's imminent departure was known for weeks - much to the frustration of his squad. Burkinshaw's relationship with chairman Irving Scholar, always strained, had broken, irretrievably. Advertisement READ MORE IN FOOTBALL The manager believed it was his club, to manage as he saw fit. Scholar believed otherwise. The final, decisive breach came in March on the afternoon of the quarter-final second leg tie at Burkinshaw subsequently explained: 'About 4pm in the afternoon he came to my bedroom with the assistant chairman. Advertisement Most read in Football BEST ONLINE CASINOS - TOP SITES IN THE UK 'They said: 'You're not going to be allowed to run the club as you've been doing. We are going to bring in the players. We're going to decide how much they will get as wages.' 'And it went on and on. I said: 'Don't you think this is the wrong time to be coming in here, at 4pm when we've got a quarter final at quarter to eight....?' How Europa League final will be decided - four key Man Utd vs Tottenham tactical battles 'That started it all off. In the end I knew he'd been looking for another manager. I knew of it. And he'd made a proposal to one of them.' Advertisement That 'another manager' was, in fact, Burkinshaw and Scholar agreed there was only one way to resolve their differences, with his players turning his imminent departure into a cause. Graham Roberts, who skippered the side for the second leg in the absence of the suspended Steve Perryman, said: 'We wanted to win it so much, not just for ourselves but also for Keith, because we all knew it was his last game at the club. 'But it was a Cup Final, in front of our own fans. You don't get the chance to do that very often in a career, if at all. It meant so much.' Advertisement Burkinshaw's departure brought one of the most withering farewell comments in the history of the game. Collared by waiting reporters as he walked away for the last time, he was ready to vent. He explained: 'I was really sick about it. And the way the club was run was being changed. 'Clubs were becoming Public Limited Companies. So they were being run as businesses rather than football clubs. So I said to one of the reporters, 'This used to be a football club here.'' Advertisement 3 Man Utd vs Spurs - Europa League final:
The Sun
20-05-2025
- Sport
- The Sun
Ange Postecoglou does not know his Tottenham history if he thinks Europa League win will save him his job
IF ANGE POTSECOGLOU believes winning the Europa League could allow him to keep his Spurs job - he doesn't know his Tottenham history. It was in 1984 that Keith Burkinshaw won his third trophy as Tottenham chief, with Tony Parks' shoot-out heroics seeing off Anderlecht to win the Uefa Cup. 3 Postecoglou 's modern-day Spurs are out to win the same trophy in Bilbao on Wednesday. But like Yorkshireman Burkinshaw, Aussie Ange seems set for the exit door no matter what happens. Although the current Spurs hierarchy have kept their counsel about Postecoglou, back 41 years ago, Burkinshaw's imminent departure was known for weeks - much to the frustration of his squad. Burkinshaw's relationship with chairman Irving Scholar, always strained, had broken, irretrievably. The manager believed it was his club, to manage as he saw fit. Scholar believed otherwise. The final, decisive breach came in March on the afternoon of the quarter-final second leg tie at Austria Vienna. Burkinshaw subsequently explained: 'About 4pm in the afternoon he came to my bedroom with the assistant chairman. 'They said: 'You're not going to be allowed to run the club as you've been doing. We are going to bring in the players. We're going to decide how much they will get as wages.' 'And it went on and on. I said: 'Don't you think this is the wrong time to be coming in here, at 4pm when we've got a quarter final at quarter to eight....?' How Europa League final will be decided - four key Man Utd vs Tottenham tactical battles 'That started it all off. In the end I knew he'd been looking for another manager. I knew of it. And he'd made a proposal to one of them.' That 'another manager' was, in fact, Alex Ferguson, with Scholar under the impression that the then-Aberdeen boss wanted to come down to London. Burkinshaw and Scholar agreed there was only one way to resolve their differences, with his players turning his imminent departure into a cause. Graham Roberts, who skippered the side for the second leg in the absence of the suspended Steve Perryman, said: 'We wanted to win it so much, not just for ourselves but also for Keith, because we all knew it was his last game at the club. 'But it was a Cup Final, in front of our own fans. You don't get the chance to do that very often in a career, if at all. It meant so much.' Burkinshaw's departure brought one of the most withering farewell comments in the history of the game. Collared by waiting reporters as he walked away for the last time, he was ready to vent. He explained: 'I was really sick about it. And the way the club was run was being changed. 'Clubs were becoming Public Limited Companies. So they were being run as businesses rather than football clubs. So I said to one of the reporters, 'This used to be a football club here.'' 3
Daily Mail
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Spurs cannot sack Ange Postecoglou if he delivers European glory - they made that mistake with me! KEITH BURKINSHAW is joined by fellow club legend STEVE PERRYMAN to discuss Tottenham's 1984 UEFA Cup success and the painful aftermath
As parting shots go, Keith Burkinshaw's was an absolute zinger. 'There used to be a football club over there,' was the show-stopping quote coined to mark his exit from Tottenham Hotspur, fired despite winning the UEFA Cup. There has been conjecture in the 41 years since about whether this is exactly what was said, or if something along those lines was put to him by a journalist and he nodded his approval or picked it up and ran with it and the headlines made an impact. Either way, he is prepared to own it. 'That's how I felt,' says Burkinshaw, on an afternoon of reminiscence with his former captain Steve Perryman in the aptly named White Hart Inn, in deepest Somerset. 'There used to be a football club over there.' Spurs were two up at the halfway stage of the UEFA Cup quarter-final when a knock on his door in the team hotel on the afternoon of the second leg of the tie against Austria Vienna informed Burkinshaw he would be required to leave at the end of the season. When he asked if there might have been a better time to let him know, he was told there was no such thing as a good time. 'I was forced out,' recalls Burkinshaw, 89. 'They didn't want me there. I was too strong for them. The way I ran the club was to push the directors aside and say, "Look, we'll talk once a month but I'm going to be doing everything". They couldn't stand it. They wanted to be doing it when they'd no bloody idea how to do it. 'I knew if I carried on looking after the players without interference then we'd be a lot more successful. But they wouldn't accept that. That's why they got rid of me. We weren't doing too badly.' 'They' were Irving Scholar and Paul Bobroff. New investors on to the board, who became majority owners and made Spurs the first club to float on the London Stock Exchange. Scholar stepped into the role of chairman and was one of the prime movers in the formation of the Premier League. These were changing times in football, anathema for someone like Burkinshaw, a no-frills Yorkshireman, who worked the pits, moved from non-League Denaby United to Liverpool and spent most of his playing career with Workington and Scunthorpe. As a manager, although their tenures were separated by Terry Neill, he turned out to be a natural successor to Bill Nicholson, legendary manager of the Spurs Double winners in 1960-61 and much more, and another no-frills Yorkshireman who features regularly in the conversation inside the White Hart. 'From the boot room to the boardroom, Keith decided what went on, just like Bill Nick,' says Perryman, 73, the club's record appearance maker with 866 games who spent seven years under Nicholson and never calls him anything other than 'Bill Nick'. 'You need somebody to set the tone. Players need to know who is setting the tone. 'Now, with more levels, who is making decisions? At Tottenham, who signed Tanguy Ndombele? No one is putting their hand up. In Bill Nick's day there was no way of spreading the was the man just as Keith was the man.' Tottenham go into Wednesday's Europa League final against Manchester United searching for their first European title since 1984. The future of Ange Postecoglou is uncertain. The Spurs boss could follow in the footsteps of Burkinshaw, ousted with his hands on the same trophy. And it is not the only parallel at play. That campaign, like this, saw Tottenham hit by injuries and grateful to see a crop of youngsters, fringe players and unsung heroes seizing their chances. Glenn Hoddle, Garth Crooks and Ray Clemence had all been injured. Ossie Ardiles made the bench for the second leg (the final was over two legs in those days). 'We had a load of kids out there,' says Burkinshaw. Teenager Micky Hazard was the hero of the semi-final against Hajduk Split. Centre halves Paul Miller and Graham Roberts scored the goals in the final against Anderlecht. Tony Parks was the hero of a penalty shootout. 'It's the overriding thing about that victory, the people who came in and the way they carried it through,' agrees Perryman, ruled out of the second leg of the final after a yellow card in Brussels. 'The ball came, and I wedged it into the floor (with my studs up). The referee couldn't wait to get his card out and the Anderlecht players were running around like idiots, like they'd won the cup. I remember thinking, "Why are you doing that? I'm not that good". A few of them apologised after the second game.' Anderlecht were later found to have bribed the referee against Nottingham Forest in their semi-final and, although it was a different referee in the final, it created doubts. 'When it was proven they bunged the referee against Forest — which may have done us a favour by the way — I thought maybe there was something going on with that yellow card. And maybe that was a bit of karma when we beat them.' Perryman took a seat in the dug-out for the second leg at White Hart Lane and saw Anderlecht go ahead before Roberts scrambled a late equaliser and drama unfolded into penalties. 'We'd practised a little bit and handled it not too bad,' says Burkinshaw, who was among the first coaches in the country to embrace sports psychology, at the behest of physio Mike Varney. Morten Olsen missed Anderlecht's first and Danny Thomas stepped up with the chance to win it with Tottenham's fifth. His kick was saved and, as he made his way back to his team-mates, the Spurs crowd rose up and chanted his name. 'It was a very special night and an example of the whole club pulling in the same direction,' says Perryman. Another penalty taker was not required, however, as Parks saved from Arnor Gudjohnsen and Spurs, the first British club to win in Europe, had their third European trophy. This was Perryman's third UEFA Cup final. The first two came under Nicholson, a win and a defeat. Victory came in 1972 against Wolves, a final secured with the help of two Perryman goals in a semi-final against AC Milan, after which he found himself the last person in the dressing room, feeling on top of the world when the club doctor walked in. 'He doesn't look at me, goes over to wash his hands, dries his hands, adjusts his tie and says to the mirror, "Bill Nicholson is an absolute genius". There's no one else in that room, he must be talking to me, so I said, "Why's that doc?" and he said, "because he nearly left you out tonight". 'Bill Nick was no flannel, no spin, no mind games, but I do wonder if, on that night, the doctor was sent in to bring me down off the ceiling.' Defeat two years later in a final against Feyenoord as Tottenham fans rioted in Rotterdam marked the beginning of the end for Nicholson. 'Some people think that finished Bill Nick,' says Perryman. 'That this great game he loved and put his life into had turned into this monster with people fighting. He didn't come into the dressing room at half-time, he was on the microphone appealing to the supporters trying to stop what was happening.' Nicholson quit four months later. It was Burkinshaw who brought him back to the club from West Ham where he was scouting and made him a consultant. They became close. After every home game, he would call in at the Nicholson's family home, near White Hart Lane. 'He had an influence on me,' says Burkinshaw. 'I was there at Wembley when they won the Double and I thought, "Christ, if I can have a team playing like that, that's what I want". I knew then that was the way I wanted to play. A passing game. In those days, it could be physical.' Tottenham went down in Burkinshaw's first season in charge. 'The spectators wanted me away when I was first there,' he admits, but he hung on to the job and they bounced straight back up, beating Bristol Rovers 9-0 along the way, a game when Nicholson was back in charge. 'My mother died the day before,' says Burkinshaw. 'I was up in Yorkshire, sat on my own in the middle of the hills. I didn't want to talk to anybody when that match was being played.' Once back in the top flight, Spurs set about reinforcing with ambitious signings like Ardiles and Ricky Villa from Argentina in 1978 and Steve Archibald and Crooks two years later, integrating with homegrown stars such as Perryman, Hoddle and Chris Hughton. In 1981-82, Tottenham went hard at everything. They won the FA Cup, lost the League Cup final to Liverpool in extra time, reached the last four of the European Cup Winners' Cup, losing to eventual winners Barcelona and finished fourth in the league, above Arsenal on goal difference. 'We had a fair side, and I was always pretty confident we were going to win something,' says Burkinshaw. 'I often think about if we'd had somebody there backing me rather than being against me, where could we have finished up because we had some bloody good players.' The UEFA Cup winners of 1984 were brought back together to mark the 40th anniversary, last year, a reunion organised by Spurs at their training ground. 'Brooksy has since departed,' notes Perryman with sadness. Garry Brooke, who featured in early rounds of the campaign, died in January at the age of 64. Burkinshaw has met Postecoglou. 'Seems like a decent fella,' he says, and has been a guest at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The decades have eased the bitterness of his exit, and he will be wishing his old club well in Bilbao. 'We haven't won anything for a while so to do that is terrific if it happens and the manager should be kept on and hopefully will be a success in the future.'
ABC News
19-05-2025
- Sport
- ABC News
Ange Postecoglou should stay if he wins Europa League, says Tottenham legend
The last time Tottenham Hotspur won a European trophy it proved to be manager Keith Burkinshaw's last game in charge, and as the club arrives in Bilbao for Thursday's (AEST) Europa League final against Manchester United, history could be repeating itself. Burkinshaw is regarded as one of the club's greatest managers, taking the north London club to back-to-back FA Cup triumphs and then the 1984 UEFA Cup after a memorable two-legged final decided on penalties at White Hart Lane. Shortly after that epic night, Burkinshaw parted company with Spurs over disagreements with the board and as local legend would have it, his parting words as he walked away were, "There used to be a football club over there". Forty-one years and countless managers later, Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou faces a game that could well be his last — win or lose against United in northern Spain. Tottenham has suffered its worst ever Premier League season with 21 defeats, the same number Burkinshaw's side lost in 1976-77 when they were relegated to the old second division. Burkinshaw survived, led the club back after one season and blazed an audacious trail by signing Argentina World Cup winners Osvaldo Ardiles and Ricky Villa for the club. While 17th-placed Tottenham has avoided relegation, Postecoglou's demeanour as the Premier League losses racked up has been that of a man who knows his time might be up. Former Tottenham great Micky Hazard, part of the 1981-82 FA Cup final team and who famously lost a contact lens in the mud after scoring in the 1983-84 UEFA Cup semifinal win against Hajduk Split, says Burkinshaw's departure cost the club the chance of winning more silverware. He strongly believes Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy should stick with Postecoglou if the Australian delivers the Europa League and ends a 17-year trophy drought on Wednesday. "I think it's important that they get out of that cycle, win or bust, win or bust, win or bust," the 65-year-old Hazard said. "Look through history and you look at Alex Ferguson. He took five or six years to win things with Manchester United and then he won things non-stop. "Success — it's not overnight, and the longer it takes to get it, the more solid the foundation is. "Alex Ferguson built on his first five years of not winning a trophy by winning everything for the next 20 years. "When Keith [Burkinshaw] was allowed to resign I thought it was a big, big loss. I didn't agree with it. "Will Ange stay? I'm of the belief that winning a trophy is the most amazing thing in football. I always say that if someone wins a trophy they have earned the right to have another crack. "Would it be right to get rid of someone that changed the mentality and got the club over the line?" Hazard says Tottenham must play without fear against United and said despite missing several key players because of injury, there can be no excuses. "Injuries are part and parcel of football," he said. "In 1984 we were without [Glenn] Hoddle, Ardiles, [Steve] Perryman, [Ray] Clemence and [Garth] Crooks and we went and won it. "Look for excuses and you find excuses. It's an opportunity for players coming in to go and win a European final. "Winning a cup final means playing with no fear, being brave. You don't just turn up in a final and it all goes your way. Nobody's going to give you this, you have to earn it." Reuters
