Let the briefing begin! One day after Tottenham Hotspur surrendered a 2-0 lead to fall to Chelsea 3-4 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Matt Law has a piece in the Telegraph that says embattled manager Ange Postecoglou is in no danger of being sacked anytime soon.
The piece states that the Spurs brass, including Daniel Levy, continues to support Postecoglou and the rebuild he is currently managing, with the club not planning to “hit the panic button” over the recent string of poor results. There is recognition that the team’s struggles are in large part due to a confluence of a string of recent injuries in key areas and the fixture congestion during the busy festive period, and that he will be given time and backing. The article also suggests that the club is already starting to formulate a plan to reinforce the squad during the January window.
So what’s this? An article in the Telegraph about Tottenham Hotspur after a Chelsea match written by Matt Law that isn’t weirdly negative or back-handedly positive? Are we in the upside down? Honestly, I’ve been expecting the club to indirectly address what’s happening at the club. The silence about Postecoglou’s situation from the club has been a bit deafening, but this is about the time when you’d expect beat reporters like Law to put out pieces like this based on background information expressing support for the manager and the ongoing project.
And there’s more — Sami Mokbel has essentially the same piece at the Daily Mail, indicating that the briefing is now in full effect. Jack Pitt-Brooke also has an opinion piece in The Athletic that also is a pretty robust and full-throated support of Postecoglou and his situation, noting in particular that the Tottenham players are still fully behind Big Ange and his system, in stark contrast to the end of the Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte tenures. It’s an opinion piece and not a news brief, but it’s notable in that Pitt-Brooke also has club contacts.
So yeah, I’m pretty glad to see this. The club is finally briefing the press that it has no plans — at least for now — to make a stupid and ill-formed decision based on recent struggles, which, it should be noted, is the exact thing they’ve done over and over again for the past 20 years without a whole lot of success. The briefing also makes me feel better about Tottenham’s new front office structure and that, perhaps this time, they are taking a more pragmatic and long-term view towards building a team and an overall philosophy than they have in past years.
This should hopefully at least begin to calm the nerves of a jittery fanbase that has been lurching between vibe extremes with every match. Lord knows we could use the digital Xanax.