Micky van de Ven had a pretty good day yesterday. Starting at right back (!) for Netherlands in a World Cup qualifier, Micky scored a second half goal in injury time and also had an assist in a 8-0 drubbing of Malta in Groningen.
Afterwards, of course, Dutch sports outlet Voetbalzone asked Van de Ven about his club football, specifically the recent sacking of Ange Postecoglou and what he felt about that. Micky, being media trained, was pretty neutral about it, but did call the decision “strange” in lieu of Spurs winning the Europa League trophy.
What? You don’t speak Dutch? Well, fine, here’s a translation.
“[Postecoglou’s firing] was ultimately a decision made by the club. As players, we don’t really have much say in that. Of course, he was the first manager in a long time to actually win a trophy and bring success to Spurs. So if you look at it that way, it’s obviously a strange decision.
“It’s a club decision that we don’t have much influence over, so we’ll just have to see what happens next. We’re seeing rumors, of course, about the Brentford manager [Thomas Frank] possibly taking over. So yeah—again, it’s the club’s call, and we’ll have to wait and see.
“I think a lot of players had a good relationship with [Postecoglou]. And like I said, he was the first coach in a while to bring success to Spurs. That shows he definitely had quality—no question about it. So from that perspective, yeah, it’s strange that he was sacked.
“But of course, what we showed in the league was just not good enough. And that can’t all be blamed on the manager—there were definitely other factors at play.”
That’s a pretty solid answer from Micky. Since Ange was let go we’ve been hearing mostly unsourced and dubious reports of Tottenham player anger, with some breathlessly suggesting there might be a player revolt of some sort after Thomas Frank’s appointment. I don’t get that sense from Van de Ven’s answer here — it’s a pretty even handed response to a pretty obvious question.
Footballers know the drill. They are signed to a club to play for that club, and they don’t get a lot of input (rightfully so) as to who the club selects to lead them. It can make for uncomfortable situations at times, especially when the manager you signed to play for is fired, but they’re all professionals. This shouldn’t be new to any of them.
Is Van de Ven wrong that sacking Postecoglou is a little “strange”? Not at all! It’s a sentiment shared by many, many Tottenham fans based on the reaction on social media. But I don’t get the sense that he’s ready to down tools over this. Or at least he’s not going to say that in the media.