Tottenham may be 17th in the Premier League table right now but Ange Postecoglou's side are one game away from Champions League qualification. Unable to qualify for Europe via the league table this season following such a dreadful year in N17, Spurs' potential route into Europe comes in the form of winning the Europa League final.
The north London club are now in Bilbao ahead of Wednesday evening's showdown against Manchester United at San Mames Stadium. The Red Devils themselves have also endured a disastrous league campaign, sitting one place above Spurs in the table heading into this weekend's final game of the Premier League season.
However, one of the sides will be back at the top table of European football come September with the winners of the Europa League final securing a Champions League berth in 2025/26. Whoever triumphs in Wednesday's final will automatically take their place in the 36-team league phase come September rather than having to go through qualifying to reach the main stage of the Champions League.
Liverpool and Arsenal have already qualified for the Champions League via the Premier League table, with the other three places to be confirmed come 6pm on Sunday. Others to have already secured their place in next season's competition include Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, PSG, Napoli, Inter Milan and Atalanta.
The fact that one of Tottenham or Manchester United will qualify for the Champions League despite just hovering above the Premier League relegation zone has proved to be quite the topic of discussion this month. Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger stated that neither team should be allowed to compete in the Champions League even if they win the Europa League.
Those quotes were recently put to Postecoglou and he delivered his own verdict by claiming that "Spurs do crazy things to people".
"Well, I mean that's a debate that's been raging for years, like at least the last eight days," he quipped in his pre-match press conference ahead of the semi-final second leg against Bodo/Glimt. "I've never heard that before, so.. I've said it before, mate, Spurs does crazy things to people. It does, it does.
"You put that club into any sentence or any issue, and invariably they all come out and try and diminish as much as they can. Why wasn't there an issue before and it's an issue now? What's the difference? I don't understand what the difference is.
"Last year, fifth didn't get you into the Champions League, this year it does. What does that mean? There are competition rules and the rules say that the winner goes into [the Champions League] and it's not the first year, and there isn't an asterisk against it that you have to do something else as well. But it's Spurs, mate, they love it. They love it. Oh, they love it, you love it, don't you?"
If Tottenham are to be playing in next season's edition of the Champions League, all connected with the club will discover their eight league phase opponents when the draw is made on Thursday, August 28.