The Guardian

Preamble

From the Cockney Cup Final to the Battle of the Bridge, Chelsea v Tottenham Hotspur is a rivalry that rarely disappoints. The Blues’ last two trips to Spurs have seen them win 4-1 and 4-3, punishing two of the Angiest performances of their rivals’ Postecoglou era.

Tottenham’s permanently embattled manager needs a win, but must try and get it done at a ground where Spurs have won just once in the league since 1990. Having finished three points clear of Chelsea last term, Postecoglou’s side are 15 points adrift as it stands, playing out their games while Enzo Maresca’s team chase a top-five finish.

Despite that, there’s a debate to be had over which of these two coaches is more popular with the fans. Postecoglou remains loved and admired by a significant chunk of Spurs fans, with anger at their plight trained on Daniel Levy. Maresca, meanwhile, appears to be tolerated rather than cherished by Chelsea fans.

In fact, the Italian is only a couple of rungs below his opposite number in the “sack race” betting, with his team drifting from surprise title contenders. Chelsea can go back up to fourth with a win tonight, and shake off the nagging doubt that they lack the extra gear many of their top-five rivals are deploying with the season’s end in sight.

Kick-off is at 8pm. Will anyone actually enjoy it? We’ll find out.

A few months ago I was assaulted on an overground train by a Brentford fan after a home win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The British Transport Police were rapid in their response, unsuccessfully but immediately halting a Victoria line train to find him, before arresting him the next week on his own way to his team’s home match. Over a few months of back and forth updates with the BTP the case was passed to the Crown Prosecution Service.

This Saturday at a sunny pub with my dad, among chatter about Tottenham’s seasons’ woes while an FA Cup tie played out on the TV screens I got an unexpected call from BTP for a final update. The CPS had decided there was not enough evidence to secure a conviction against the individual.

Of course I wasn’t naive enough to think this wasn’t a probable outcome. The train was disgustingly packed and the case officer had already explained the issue with securing usable footage from the train or even the platform. The officer subsequently explained that the footage recorded by the assaulter’s sons as they filmed the incident in bouts of laughter was not looked at because they are not the individuals under arrest. Essentially, the case was never going to go anywhere with the available evidence coming from such a crammed environment.

Despite assuming the outcome, it was still a punch in the gut. I remembered his smug face looking at me as I asked him to stop, fully knowing he held all the power in that moment and that nobody would stop him. With the case now complete, I wonder if the arrest itself was a big enough wake-up call for the individual or if the outcome will empower him to keep up his toxic behaviour with the knowledge that he can essentially “get away with it”.

The second punch in the gut would come a few hours later when I saw a post by Women of the Lane, a group set up to be a community and bridge between the club and women and non-binary fans, revealing their correspondence with the club over Chris Brown’s scheduled appearance at the stadium. I hadn’t even seen the announcement but in finding the event online I was disgusted.

Spurs were forthcoming with their support over the assault on me, opening an encouraging and frank dialogue. They explained their numerous projects and plans that support women at Spurs, including becoming the first club to sign up to the mayor of London’s women’s safety charter, co-launching Women of the Lane, participating in Haringey council’s “Walk For Women” through Tottenham, and ongoing conversations with Transport for London on how to create a safer environment for travelling fans.

The appearance of a man with convictions for violence and who was once subject to a five-year restraining order after his ex-girlfriend alleged he had been abusive, and who has previously been denied entry to the UK due to serious criminal offence, performing at the very home of my and other women’s beloved football club is more than saddening and disappointing. It rocks the very bones of my fanship for the team I’ve followed and adored for most of my life, through thick and thin. The stadium may be a venue with shrewd revenue capabilities for the owners, but at the very heart is still ultimately the home ground for one of the biggest and oldest Premier League clubs.

The email from Spurs reminding me to renew my season ticket is still lingering, unopened in my inbox. Owning a season ticket was once a dream of mine but that is now muddied, inviting a complex conundrum where I want to continue watching and enjoying my club’s football, yet continuously dreading every journey there and back, feeling anxious and tense as match-day approaches and knowing that despite progress, the club is still platforming an abuser such as Chris Brown.

There is no perfect football club, and in a sport tarred with historic sexist, racist and homophobic abuse, navigating shifting attitudes allows some bumps in the road. But with a club like Spurs in 2025, you somehow expect better, and begin to question whether these positive conversations are inherently just lip service. My mind keeps returning to the two teenage boys on the train, laughing and filming as their dad committed assault and verbally abused a woman on public transport. I’m not sure what the future of fanship in the men’s game holds, but with the unapologetic platforming of an abuser and the lack of retribution for those carrying out toxic behaviour, it doesn’t feel very hopeful.

His passport still bears the name “Angelos Postekos”. It was the name legally given to him by his parents, eager for their children to fit into their adopted home, aware that they would face enough obstacles – a different language, a different culture, a different skin tone – without throwing a long name into the bargain.

But he always hated the name Postekos. To him it smelled too much of embarrassment. Of apologising for who you were. Of changing your essence to please others. Of compromise. And so, as soon as he had any say in the matter, he resolved he would be known by the name his father had used, and those who came before him, back in the old country. Before everything changed forever.

And so it is the name of Ange Postecoglou that sits just behind Ruud van Nistelrooy in second place on most oddsmakers’ lists of the next Premier League manager to get the sack. Andoni Iraola at Bournemouth appears to be first choice to replace him. According to reports, there has already been some contact and terms are not expected to be an issue.

The vultures and the pundits have been circling for weeks. Marco Silva at Fulham still has his admirers. Brentford are bracing themselves for an approach for Thomas Frank. Meanwhile Postecoglou continues to prepare his Tottenham team for the visit to Stamford Bridge, a ground where Spurs have won once in 35 years. Everything here seems to be pointing in one direction.

Of all the clubs Postecoglou has faced in his long career, Chelsea are the only one to have beaten him the first three times in a row. There is a kind of circularity here, given it was that first defeat – a 4-1 Chelsea win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in late 2023 – that sealed his legend in English football, while also setting the madcap template for what was to follow.

As it turned out, this would not be Postecoglou’s first experience of constructing an elite footballing outfit from the bare minimum of usable resources. Reduced to nine men by the dismissals of Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie, Spurs continued to defend with a daringly high line, continued to launch waves of startling attack. Chelsea picked them off in the end. It was Postecoglou’s first Premier League defeat. But it also made his name. The name he chose for himself.

Postecoglou was five years old when he stepped off the boat in Melbourne in 1970, too young to understand the complex waves of violence and politics and opportunity that had washed him there. The Postecoglous came from a long line of successful merchants. Dimitris Postecoglou, Ange’s father, owned a furniture business in Athens. Life was comfortable. Life was good.

Then in 1967, a right-wing military junta seized control of the country, imposed a terrifying autocratic regime, liquidated the family business and forced the Postecoglous into exile. And so on to the boat to Australia they stepped, to a land where they would have no money, no language, no job and no roots.

Growing up in suburban Melbourne, Ange would piece together his gilded past in snatched fragments. There was always love and there was always optimism but there was always nostalgia, too, for Europe, the motherland, a certain longing for everything they once had, everything that was taken from them. For the days when the Postecoglou name was taken seriously.

We are, in life, shaped by who we once were. How must it feel being raised in a new world stripped of the glories of the old? How does that define you? Postecoglou’s father is no longer here, but as he later put it: “If I can make a difference and somehow his name continues on, I’m hoping those sacrifices he made were worthwhile.”

Perhaps it helps to make sense of Postecoglou’s career, then, to see it as a kind of honour mission, even a vengeance of sorts, the sacred duty of restoring the Postecoglous to their rightful place. This is why the most reliable way of rattling him is to disrespect those A-League titles, those AFC championships, his fair‑dinkum schtick. It strikes at his greatest insecurity: the fear of being once again a low-status outsider in a big, frightening world.

Even his footballing philosophy, that unshakeable faith in his methods, can be seen through the same prism. The noise is just noise. Individual victories and defeats come and go. What matters is the project as a whole: the art of staying steadfast in a fragile and capricious world. Power can be seized in an instant, and power can be lost just as quickly. All that matters, when the paths of history begin to diverge and the momentum starts to shift, is being on the right side of the break.

Tottenham and Postecoglou have been through hell this season. Injuries upon injuries, fixtures upon fixtures, criticism upon ridicule, defeats upon defeats. Through it all, he has endured: a little prickly at times, a little weary and browbeaten at others, but still essentially faithful. “Surviving tough times can often unite people,” he said in an interview with Australian television last week. “Because there’s nothing down the track which will be anywhere near as bad as what we’ve gone through.”

Postecoglou knows this lesson in football because he knows it from life. The vultures and the pundits are circling. Everything seems to be pointing in one direction. The smart money reckons Postecoglou is toast if he loses. But what if he pulls out a win?

The fixtures ahead are kind. Injured players are coming back. An international break has offered time to work, time to recuperate, time to reset. A coin toss of a quarter-final awaits against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League. Win that, win the next, win the next. It feels outlandish beyond belief. We are reminded that this is the same man who as Socceroos coach once declared his ambition to win the 2018 World Cup.

But everything Postecoglou ever earned in his life had to be built from a clean, clear vision. A significant minority of the fanbase still adores him and a good proportion still sympathise for his plight. The dressing room is still on his side. You draw your greatest strength from your moment of greatest crisis. This is what you have to believe. Because if you don’t, who else will?

Ange Postecoglou has admitted there are some “outstanding candidates” waiting to take over if Tottenham decide to sack him. With Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola and Brentford’s Thomas Frank expected to be in the running if Spurs move in a different direction, Postecoglou finds himself under growing pressure as a defining point in the season approaches.

Although the former Celtic manager’s job is likely to be on the line if his team lose their Europa League quarter-final to Eintracht Frankfurt this month, he said he was relaxed about the speculation over his position. Postecoglou denied having any issue with Mauricio Pochettino’s remarks about wanting to return to Spurs one day and dismissed suggestions that talk over his future was a distraction before Thursday’s trip to Chelsea in the Premier League.

“I know what my responsibilities are and I am sure if the club decide to go in a different direction there are some outstanding candidates for it,” he said. “And you know what, maybe someone will think: ‘Ange Postecoglou is not a bad coach, maybe we’ll take a punt on him.’

“It doesn’t rock my world. It doesn’t consume me. I am here, I am passionate about what we’re doing. I was brought in to change the way the club plays, rejuvenate the squad and bring success. I am focused on that.”

Postecoglou, who said Dejan Kulusevski and Kevin Danso would miss the game, gave short shrift to the idea that Pochettino’s comments about managing Spurs again were disrespectful.

“If he wants to come back one day I hope it happens for him,” Postecoglou said. “We all have dreams and aspirations. You’re suggesting he is trying to put pressure on me? I don’t feel disrespected. I think if you ask Mauricio that question directly, you’d get a pretty clear answer as to what his intent was. I’m more focused on trying to make sure we win tomorrow night.”

Spurs are 14th, lost their Carabao Cup semi-final to Liverpool and went out of the FA Cup in the fourth round. Much rests on whether they can end their 17-year wait for a trophy by winning the Europa League, which would earn qualification for the Champions League.

The Tottenham chair, Daniel Levy, has defended the club’s spending in advance of a planned protest by supporters at Sunday’s meeting with Southampton.

Spurs announced their financial results for the year to 30 June 2024 on Monday, with losses falling from £86.8m to £26.2m despite a 4% decrease in revenue to £528.2m. Match-day income fell from £117.6m to £105.8m owing to Tottenham not being in Europe last season and Levy referenced the “highly challenging season” under Ange Postecoglou this term.

That, and frustration over ­spending by the owner, Enic, has increased discontent among ­supporters, with another protest planned by the fan group Change for Tottenham.

Levy pointed out they had spent more than £700m net on players since opening their ­stadium in 2019 and called on supporters to get behind the team when they face Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarter-finals of the Europa League next Thursday.

“We currently find ourselves in 14th position in the Premier League, navigating what has been a highly challenging season on the pitch,” said Levy. “We are, however, in the quarter-finals of the Europa League. Winning this competition would see welcome silverware and mean ­qualification for the Champions League. We must do everything we can to support the team in these final key stages. Since opening our new stadium in April 2019, we have invested over £700m net in player acquisitions. Recruitment remains a key focus, and we must ensure we make smart purchases within our financial means.

“I often read calls for us to spend more, given we are ranked as the ninth-richest club in the world. However, a closer examination of today’s financial figures reveals that such spending must be sustainable in the long term and within our operating revenues. Our capacity to generate recurring revenues determines our spending power.

“We cannot spend what we do not have and we will not compromise the financial stability of this club – indeed, our off-pitch revenues have significantly supplemented the lower football revenues this year, testament to our diversified income strategy.”

AroundAbout 2,000 fans attended the Change for Tottenham protest before the home fixture with Manchester United on 13 February. There were chants for Levy to leave the club and several banners were held up. Spurs were ninth in Deloitte’s list of the world’s richest clubs and spend 42% of their revenue on wages, the lowest of any team in the top 10.

For most football fans, the name Jack Marshall would be of no significance. But for the Tottenham forward Lenna Gunning-Williams the name is synonymous with the start of a compelling – and unorthodox – journey into the world of professional football.

Unlike most professional players in the modern game, the 20-year-old did not get her first taste of academy football until her mid-teens. Instead, she spent the earliest stages of her career juggling grassroots football with an acting job. Between the ages of 11 and 16 Gunning-Williams played a leading role in the hit CBBC football drama Jamie Johnson. Her character, Jack Marshall, was a young girl vying with the boys while dreaming of going pro – something that resonated with the actor herself. “I feel like we actually kind of relate, being young, growing up in football with boys. Our journeys are similar,” the England Under-23s international says as we sit down at Spurs’ training ground.

Gunning-Williams’s time on Jamie Johnson came with some unforgettable experiences – including a training session with the England players Fran Kirby, Jordan Nobbs and Nikita Parris at St George’s Park. That day in particular remains special to the Tottenham player as six years later she found herself in the exact same spot, only this time as an England international.

“It is funny, the pitch we train on for the under-23s is the pitch in the bit from Jamie Johnson. So that’s the first thing I thought. I was like: ‘Oh, like a full circle moment.’ I don’t really tend to think about Jamie Johnson too often because my focus now is football. But it’s little things like that I’m like: ‘That’s really cool.’ Lenna then would have no idea that Lenna now would be in the under-23s training at St George’s Park.”

The forward’s time on the CBBC show came to an end in the series three finale, although she did return for the odd cameo after that. A career in acting was never something that Gunning-Williams entertained as a teenager despite her success – it was always football. “I knew I couldn’t really act either,” she jokes. “I just got away with it because I was young! If I tried to do that now people would be like: ‘What is she doing?’”

Jack Marshall was taken out of the show at Gunning-Williams’s request, and her exit storyline mirrored what she was striving for in real life. “I got written off Jamie Johnson by going to an academy in London and then I joined Spurs’ Academy,” Gunning-Williams recalls. “It was really weird how they aligned.”

Although she stepped away from CBBC in 2018 to pursue a career in football, Gunning-Williams still gets recognised as her on-screen alter-ego: “Most of the time it literally is like: ‘Jack, oh wait, Lenna.’ A lot of people really do believe that I am real-life Jack Marshall, which is quite cute actually. Because I suppose the people that grew up watching it were around my age, they grew up with me because I was acting as an 11-year-old being 11, so it makes sense. But yeah, it’s crazy how much the new generation have watched it because I thought it fizzled out a bit but I still get recognised for it, which is quite cool.”

Still playing Sunday league football, the forward was scouted by Tottenham in her mid-teens. Back then, the under-16s were still a grassroots team so it wasn’t until the following year that Gunning-Williams experienced academy football for the first time.

In just her second term with the under-21s she was called up to the first team and in November 2022 the dream was finally realised when the London-born player, who grew up not too far from Tottenham’s training ground in Enfield, scored on her first-team debut in a League Cup tie with Coventry.

“I imagined the night before – because I’m very much a visualisation, manifestation type of person – I was like: ‘It would be really cool if I scored a header.’ Scoring on your debut is something that you’ll remember for ever. Then I came on, 85th, 90th minute or something, it was really late. I scored and I was absolutely buzzing! I thought I was offside so I looked to the lino but their flag was down. It was really cool.”

Gunning-Williams’s whirlwind journey from child actor to professional footballer has been nothing short of unique. Following a successful season-long loan with Ipswich last term, where she scored 14 goals in all competitions, the forward has now established herself in the Tottenham first-team squad.

“I’ve really got stuck in with the girls and now I’m starting to make relations with them on the pitch. I trained with Spurs alongside playing matches with Ipswich last season. But being here full-time and my head being fully assigned with Spurs, I think it’s helped building relations and learning new positions. I’m only 20. I’m playing with people who have been in the game a lot longer than I have and I just need to learn from them, watch them and when my opportunities do come, take them.”

So, would Jack Marshall – that girl who dreamed of becoming a top player – be a fan of WSL star Lenna Gunning-Williams? “Wow. You know what I actually do. I feel like Jack would have a Lenna Gunning-Williams poster on the wall.”

It feels like there might be a lot of this between now and the end of the season. The title and relegation are effectively resolved, which means all that remains is the squabble over European qualification with nine teams in the mix for (probably) six places. The result was a strange, threequarter-pace game.

It would be unfair to say both sides were going through the motions but, equally, this wasn’t the most intense game you’ll ever see. It had seemed a phenomenon many thought impossible: a game even Angeball couldn’t make interesting. Tottenham’s defending, though, can conjure goals from anything.

The game had seemed to be drifting to stalemate when Spurs twice failed to clear, and Andreas Pereira reacted sharply to control Adama Traoré’s jab into the box and then shovel the ball on to Rodrigo Muniz, who rolled a neat finish just beyond the scrabble of Guglielmo Vicario. As if that weren’t generous enough, Ben Davies was then muscled off a bouncing ball by Ryan Sessegnon, who whipped a fine finish into the top corner. He rejoined the club from Spurs in the summer.

Fulham had rather more on the line than Spurs and it showed. The win lifted them to eighth, still outside likely European qualification but within three points of a Champions League place. Just as significantly, perhaps, the game served as an audition for Marco Silva if Ange Postecoglou is shuffled out in the summer and if he is interested in taking the job. The two exchanged a notably protracted hug before kick-off, Postecoglou laughing as his right arm waved animatedly. You could only imagine what he was saying: “Don’t take it, mate. It’s an absolute shambles.”

Now 36, Willian made his first start for Fulham since rejoining the club in January. He was typically involved – it’s easy to see why Silva is such a fan – and for much of the first half the game seemed principally to involve Willian snapping at the heels of Djed Spence as the Spurs defender was forced back towards his own goal. There was a scurrying run and a low shot deflected just wide early in the second half and a late long-range effort that also arced past a post, but the highlight, though, was an extravagant volleyed flick with outside of his ankle to Emile Smith Rowe.

Tottenham are not one of those sides chasing Europe through league placing, their potential route to the Champions League lying in the Europa League. That is now very clearly the priority, with the result that their side featured seven changes from the win against AZ Alkmaar on Thursday. Given how many injuries Spurs have suffered this season, how exhausted they have appeared at times, that was an entirely understandable decision: rotation is either necessary or it’s not.

With no James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski or Lucas Bergvall, Tottenham were always going to struggle for creativity. The double change at half-time, Son Heung-min and Bergvall coming on for Brennan Johnson and Yves Bissouma seemed more a reaction to that early flatness than a pre-planned move to spread the minutes around.

It was Bergvall’s 52nd-minute cross that led to Spurs’ first real chance, Dominic Solanke heading just wide. This was the second successive game in which Bissouma was withdrawn at half-time. Given 12 players have played more minutes than him this season and he has only one year left on his contract, it would be little surprise were he to be offloaded in the summer.

Replacing him in Tottenham’s midfield, perhaps, could be Archie Gray, who, on his 13th league start for the club at last was used in his preferred position. The 19-year-old is a player of exceptional talent as he demonstrated by completing more than 90% of his passes and will surely in time make the deep-lying midfield role his own. But his most significant contribution was defensive, hacking the ball clear from inside the six-yard box as Spurs withstood an extended period of Fulham pressure in the minutes leading up to half-time. Otherwise, there was very little for Tottenham to take from the game.

For Fulham, though, the prospect of a return to European competition is very real. Five points now separate fourth from 10th; there might not be much to play for elsewhere but upper mid-table is shaping up to be a real dogfight.

Build it and they will come – but you should be aware that you will be left with significant debt repayments, an element of the story to which Kevin Costner took a characteristically cavalier attitude. Which may be why Field of Dreams was about building a baseball stadium in Iowa for Shoeless Joe Jackson and the ghosts of the 1919 Chicago Black Sox rather than, say, Daniel Levy constructing a football stadium in Haringey for Vincent Janssen and the remnants of the 2019 Tottenham Hotspur team.

In the past week, Manchester United have revealed plans for a new £2bn stadium, capacity 100,000, next to Old Trafford, while Newcastle are reported to be looking to move from St James’ Park to a 65,000-capacity stadium on Leazes Park. Everton will move into a new stadium at Bramley-Moore dock next season. Wrexham are building a 5,500-capacity Kop. New stadiums suddenly are fashionable again after a period in which they came to seem almost an afterthought. That, perhaps, is an unintended consequence of profitability and sustainability rules (PSR).

Most clubs find that moving to a new stadium works out in the long term – at least in terms of attracting fans. Perhaps the biggest single reason for Manchester United’s status as the largest club in England – albeit Manchester City’s revenue is now higher – is that in 1910 they moved into Old Trafford, at the time the biggest and best stadium in the country.

Arsenal’s average attendance these days is a little more than 60,000, while Highbury’s capacity was just 38,000. Tottenham similarly get about 61,000 as opposed to 36,000 at White Hart Lane. There have been times when Sunderland’s Stadium of Light, capacity 48,000, has felt pretty empty, but average attendance is about 40,000 as opposed to 21,000 in the final season at Roker Park, despite being a division lower. Even West Ham, whose fans have a distinctly ambivalent attitude to the London Stadium, have seen attendances climb to 62,000 from 35,000 since leaving Upton Park.

Look at the emptiest grounds in England – MK Dons, Port Vale, Tranmere Rovers, Colchester United and Wigan Athletic – and there tend to be specific issues that have caused the disparity between stadium size and support that go beyond the hubris of building an overly large stadium.

Perhaps it could be argued that Colchester were overambitious in building a stadium with a capacity double their average attendance even when they were in the Championship, but 10,000 hardly seems excessive for somewhere that markets itself as Essex’s largest entertainment venue and has hosted Elton John, Lionel Richie and Olly Murs.

But there is a cost. Arsenal always offered the cautionary tale. It was their misfortune that they made the bold decision to leave Highbury – which, for all its charms, simply wasn’t big enough to allow them to compete with Manchester United – at just the wrong time. It took nine years from beginning the process in 1997 to the first game at the Emirates and, by the time they got there, the financial landscape had changed utterly.

Not only had broadcast revenues increased to reduce the significance of gate receipts and corporate hospitality, but Roman Abramovich had taken over at Chelsea. Just as his money, unchecked by any form of financial fair play (FFP), was transforming the Premier League, Arsenal were having to curtail their spending to meet interest payments on the stadium debt.

The precise moment at which Arsène Wenger’s gifts began to wane can be debated, but Arsenal’s struggles to keep up with Chelsea and United after winning the title in 2003-04, at least initially, were caused in large part by the financial restrictions they were operating under.

That was a not unfamiliar story. Nottingham Forest had taken a similar gamble in 1979-80, beginning work on a new stand that took a decade to pay off and was, in its way, just as responsible for Forest’s failure to build on their two European Cup successes as the falling-out between Brian Clough and his longtime assistant Peter Taylor.

Tottenham’s league form was already in decline when they reached the Champions League final in 2018-19, a season in which, thanks to the cost of their grand new stadium, they didn’t make a single signing.

But FFP regulations mean the sort of splurge undertaken by Abramovich is no longer possible. Domestic television rights have plateaued and while overseas rights continue to climb, the sense is they are nearing their peak. Clubs having to generate their own revenues for PSR purposes have turned to two exigencies: the sale of homegrown talent and revenue generated by the stadium.

Commercially, Tottenham’s new ground has been a huge success. Last year’s financial results show match receipts up to £117m and commercial revenues, which include sponsorship, merchandising, visitor attractions, conferences and events at the stadium, up to £227.7m of a total revenue of £549.6m.

As Spurs have scratched around the lower half of the Premier League this season there has been much sneering at the emphasis given to American football, boxing and concerts, but the problem is less the way revenue is generated than the fact so little of it ends up being spent on players.

For Newcastle, the new stadium would seem to come with few risks. Investment in infrastructure is exempted from PSR calculations, so a new revenue-generating stadium is a way for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to put significant money into the club that would yield a return and be within the regulations. The benefits may take a few years to be felt, but far less time than they would if the stadium were funded by a standard loan.

And that’s where Manchester United must be careful, however powerful the case for moving after two decades of neglecting Old Trafford. They already have interest repayments of about £50m a year, so, even if public funding is secured, it is hard to see how they would not at least be doubling that at a time when money is required for a complete overhaul of the squad.

Build it and they would almost certainly come to a new Old Trafford, but as Tottenham have found, as Arsenal and Forest found in the past, some thought has to be given to what they would be watching once they are there.

James Maddison believes Tottenham are real contenders to win the Europa League and is hoping their victory over AZ Alkmaar can be the catalyst for Ange Postecoglou’s side to make it a “special season”.

Spurs overturned a 1-0 deficit from the first leg with a stirring 3-1 home victory over the Dutch side on Thursday to set up a quarter-final against Eintracht Frankfurt next month. Maddison was instrumental in the move that created Wilson Odobert’s winning goal, having earlier scored his 11th of the season to make it 2-0.

It meant Tottenham, who had not reached the last eight of the Europa League since 2013, have an opportunity to win a first trophy since 2008 and Maddison said they can go all the way. “It would be naive to say no. I could give you a cliche answer and say we’re focused on the next game, but it has to be there, there has to be that drive.

“The quarter-final is the next stage and we’ll focus on that, but the gaffer always talks about having a special season and this is one way we can have a special season. There are lots of good teams in it, but we’re a good team, so the belief is definitely there.”

Maddison was not called up by Thomas Tuchel for his first England squad but Dominic Solanke was included and he provided the assists for Odobert’s first Spurs goals. The Frenchman’s tie-clinching goal capped a flowing move when all but two Spurs players touched the ball and Maddison revealed they had been working on this kind of move.

“Credit to the gaffer and the coaches, we work on the overlaps and the winger being in at the back stick,” he said. “How many times have you see Brennan Johnson score that goal at the back stick and today it was Wilson.”

Ange Postecoglou can breathe again. The Spurs manager had been hoping that someone would step up to save their season and his salvation arrived in the shape of Wilson Odobert, with a little bit of help from James Maddison.

When the England midfielder made it 2-0 early in the second half to add to Odobert’s well-taken first goal for the club, it looked like Postecoglou’s side were cruising to a last-eight showdown with Eintracht Frankfurt. This being Tottenham, however, things are never that simple and a mistake from Odobert allowed Peer Koopmeiners to level the scores on aggregate with 20 minutes to play to leave the home crowd fearing the worst. But Odobert kept Postecoglou’s hopes of ending the season with some silverware alive – and perhaps even saved his job – when the Frenchman swept home at the end of a flowing move instigated by Maddison to send Spurs into the quarter-finals of the Europa League for the first time since 2013.

“We made it more nervy than we needed to,” admitted Postecoglou. “It was a big night for us and I couldn’t be happier with the way the players handled it. We looked strong, we looked dominant and threatening in the final third – all the things we want to be.”

Postecoglou had promised to provide the home supporters with “something to get behind” in his programme notes after his side’s disappointing display in last week’s first-leg defeat in the Netherlands. They duly responded with a much-improved performance that was typified by the captain Son Heung-min, who was embraced by a bear hug from his manager at the full-time whistle in joyous scenes. Many have questioned whether Son, at 32, can still deliver on the biggest stage after a difficult season but he was instrumental in Odobert’s winner having covered every blade of grass for the cause.

Lucas Bergvall – tasked with playing the holding role in midfield ahead of Yves Bissouma after Rodrigo Bentancur’s suspension – also impressed before he was taken off with a suspected injury five minutes from full time. But the return of Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven – who hadn’t started a game together since 8 December against Chelsea when both picked up injuries that have severely disrupted Tottenham’s season – at last gave Postecoglou the security he has been missing at the back. It was no coincidence that they conceded minutes after Van de Ven was replaced by Archie Gray on the hour mark in what looked like a pre-planned move. “That disrupted us a bit,” admitted Postecoglou.

Ajax’s elimination against Eintracht earlier in the evening meant that AZ were the last Dutch side left in European competition when the game kicked off, although they had never won an away match against English opposition in 10 previous attempts. They defended well for more than 25 minutes but that all changed when Wouter Goes found himself under pressure from Son on the edge of his own area. Son’s block ricocheted into Dominic Solanke’s path and he showed great awareness to tee up Odobert for a curling finish that belied the fact that his last goal came for Burnley in a 4-1 victory over Luton in August. Postecoglou pumped his fist in celebration in a rare show of emotion.

AZ were finding it much more difficult to penetrate the Tottenham defence than in the first leg but there was a reminder of the hosts’ tendency to shoot themselves in the foot when they gifted possession to Zico Buurmeester on the edge of their area and he dragged his shot wide of Guglielmo Vicario’s post.

The Tottenham goalkeeper had another lucky escape at the start of the second half when he had to perform a Cruyff turn inside his own area to elude Troy Parrott after taking too long on the ball. But the home crowd’s nerves turned to delight when Pedro Porro won possession to feed Son and he exchanged passes with Maddison, who finished with aplomb. This time, Postecoglou raised two arms in the air to celebrate, although his heart must have been in his mouth when Romero blocked Parrott’s goalbound shot moments later.

It was Van de Ven’s turn to be the saviour next after Romero gave the ball to AZ from a free-kick, the Dutchman keeping pace with Ernest Poku to divert his shot for a corner. But disaster struck within three minutes after he had departed when Odobert appeared to have won back possession, only to divert the ball into the path of Koopmeiners via a touch from Bergvall and the AZ midfielder could barely believe his luck as he slammed the ball past Vicario.

Suddenly the visitors looked like they believed it could be their night, although Maddison and Odobert had other ideas. A last-ditch goalline clearance from Bissouma in injury-time drew one of the biggest roars of the evening as a relieved Postecoglou can start planning for their next challenge.