Ange Postecoglou has revealed he will never rewatch Tottenham's Europa League final triumph over Manchester United. Brennan Johnson's first-half goal in Bilbao ensured it was a night to remember for the Lilywhites as they brought an end to their 17-year trophy wait.
Tottenham fans will have undoubtedly watched Johnson's goal back countless times since Wednesday evening, with the incredible victory parade likely to be put on repeat quite a few times over the coming months. For Postecoglou, however, he is not someone who will do that as he would prefer to have his memories of the night rather than watch the game back and take the enjoyment out of it by picking apart his team's performance.
"No, I've always done that my sort of whole career. Unless I get drawn into it when people start talking to me about it, I don't think about it a lot," he said when he asked if he's had time to reflect on his journey over the past couple of days. "When I get to the end of my career I'll have more time to understand how I ended up in this place from where I started.
"I tend to leave the moments in perfect periods of time. I'll never rewatch Bilbao. I've never really rewatched any significant game I've won in my career because if I do I'll start picking holes into the performance and I don't want to do that.
"It's the perfect memory for me. I don't care if people say we didn't play well. It doesn't bother me. For me, that night will stay in my memory forever as a perfect night. Then I kind of leave that in it's rightful place and move on to what the next thing is.
"At some point, if you chart the course of my last sort of 26 years and beyond from where I started, it's fair to say it's a pretty rare journey I have been on and I feel pretty lucky to have been on it."
Johnson is a player who has been on his own journey. From receiving abuse from supporters earlier in the season, the ex-Nottingham Forest ace wrote his name into the history books with the winning goal in the Europa League final.
"Brennan is kind of indicative of what I’ve been trying to build here," said Postecoglou. "It’s about people of character, people of resilience and he hasn’t had it easy.
"It’s been surprising to me because his contribution has been significant since we signed him. You stack up his record since he’s been here to any other winger apart from Mo [Salah], who is a freak, and Brennan’s stands up. Goals and assists, that is what you need from attacking players and not just in any game, but the big games as well.
"It’s a credit to him and again, fair to say he’s one of the ones who has enjoyed himself in the last couple of days, but rightly so. And I’m hoping him doing that on such a big stage, he comes back next year as a mentality monster of I know what it takes to win, this is what I want again and that feeds onto everyone else. That is what you hope Wednesday night creates. That all these guys have got a taste of it now and want more of it."
Postecoglou admitted in his post-match press conference that he will go on holiday with his family on Monday, a matter of hours after Tottenham's final game of the season against Brighton & Hove Albion. So what exactly does a Postecoglou holiday look like?
"Just family time and finding some quiet spot. Yeah, that’s got some water and a sun lounger and not too much movement, that will do me," he revealed. "Just mainly family time and like I said, time to reflect, not just for myself, but, you know, for my wife, for my kids. Just pretty chilled and laid back.
"It's one of those things where you probably don't realise till you're stopped how tired you are, you know, physically and emotionally and I'm sure that'll hit me Monday morning."
A holiday departure on Monday maybe doesn't leave a lot of times for talks with the club but Postecoglou will be able to relax even if his long-term future still remains up in the air.
"Don't worry about that. I'm good at relaxing mate," said the boss. "Come Monday, I won't have a care in the world. I won't have a care in the world.
"But, I assume I'll have an indication at some point. Only because, you know, there's some serious planning to do more than anything else. I won't have any problem switching off."
Following a season of ups and downs in north London, Postecoglou and his coaching staff have learnt a number of lessons across the 2024/25 campaign. A different approach looks in order come the start of pre-season, including bringing in some experienced players to supplement a very youthful squad.
“Yeah look you learn from every season," admitted the Australian. "I think looking back at our pre-season last year, I don’t think it was ideal and there were certain things we needed to do differently and certainly needed to design differently for the coming year.
"How we get our guys ready for what is going to be the biggest challenge of Premier League and Champions League football, we know it is a massive challenge, so how do we prepare our players? I think our players will be better equipped.
"You know we started the season and people forget we signed Dom, who has been unbelievable for us but then we signed three teenagers. They weren’t ready for what was ahead. They’ve been unbelievable, obviously Wilson has missed a lot of the season but Lucas and Archie have been unbelievable.
"We signed three teenagers but next year they are not going to be teenagers, they are more than ready and will be in a better space straight away. That is the other lesson learned, that we can’t and I don’t think anyway, that would be my direction that you need to now bring in some experience for this group in terms of our recruiting.
"So, you learn lessons from that and I’ve said all along, I have still felt there has been growth this year and we’ll be much better placed at the beginning of next year to tackle what is ahead than we were at the start of this one."
The scenes from Tottenham's victory parade will forever be etched into the memory of Postecoglou, his coaching staff, playing squad and all connected with the club. Postecoglou knows he is in charge of a "massive club" but now he wants to "make it bigger than ever".
“Yeah, look I was overwhelmed by the sea of people and every demographic you can think of. There were grown men crying, women, girls and boys just so ecstatic that you feel irrespective of what is happening in their lives at the moment, they were all just so joyous," he said.
"When you see the sheer magnitude of the numbers, you realise it is a massive club. I had a sense of that before I joined but I guess even for the club itself, it reaffirms that missing piece of success and what it can do to galvanise a supporter base and really show the size of the club. It’s fair to say it is a massive club and the opportunity now is to make it bigger than ever."
Next season's Champions League final will take place at the Puskas Arena in Budapest. Given Postecoglou's close connection with the Hungarian great, the boss is happy for Tottenham to dream of another European final.
“Yeah, dream on. Why not, why not," he admitted. "That is the beauty of football, you’ve got to dream.”