The New York Times

Ange Postecoglou has accused people of putting a negative spin on Tottenham Hotspur’s achievements and “turning gold into c***”.

In second-half stoppage time of Sunday’s 3-1 win over Southampton, Brennan Johnson, who had scored Spurs’ opening two goals, earned a penalty, which Mathys Tel converted. Johnson looked disappointed on the pitch and had to be consoled by Cristian Romero, Pedro Porro and Archie Gray. The Wales international admitted afterwards that he wanted to take the penalty to complete his hat-trick.

Postecoglou was asked about the incident before the first leg of Spurs’ Europa League quarter-final tie against Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday and said “we’re in that position that the good stuff we may do is going to be turned into a glass half full rhetoric”

“It’s incredible, it’s just literally turning gold into c*** when it’s Tottenham,” the Australian added. “If we’re 2-1 up tomorrow night and get a penalty in the last minute, I want the best penalty taker to take it.

“I mean the one slight against this club is apparently it hasn’t been a winner. Well the winner’s mentality in the last minute of the game is to score a goal. We scored a goal and yet somehow, in this ultimate universe where everything Tottenham does is wrong, that’s come out as a negative.

“From my point of view, I was delighted because as I said if that’s tomorrow night and we get a penalty in the last minute and get a third goal which could be really decisive, I’m really pleased with the way the players handled it.”

Johnson was also asked about the penalty during Wednesday’s press conference and said as an attacking player he naturally wanted to take it, but once the decision was made he backed Tel to score.

“All of us attacking players, if there’s a chance to score from 12 yards without it being contested, all of us would want to take it,” Johnson said. “Once the decision had been made it’s not really my nature to argue or have a fight about who takes a penalty.

“I’ve been in that situation before, where people are really reluctant to let someone else have a penalty and it can put you off. So once the ball was with Mathys I just wanted to get on the edge of the box and support him. He put it away and he’s a quality player as well so it’s not like I’m doubting his quality. As soon as the ball was put in his hands I backed him to score.”

Spurs have struggled in the Premier League this season and have lost more than half of their games, leaving them 14th in the Premier League.

Postecoglou was in a fiery mood in his press conference on Wednesday. He directly referenced an article published by tabloid newspaper the Mirror about his future and said that “the general sentiment of people” is that “even if we win (the Europa League), I’m gone anyway.”

The 59-year-old then said that he remains focused on delivering success to Spurs “irrespective of whatever noise there is or what there may or may not be in the future.”

“I don’t see that that should diminish my burning ambition, my desire and my determination to make that happen,” Postecoglou said. “Anything you achieve in life usually comes with a struggle. Certainly everything I have achieved in my life has come with a struggle from a professional perspective. This is just another struggle, but never through this struggle have I lost the will to fight for what I think is the right thing to do and I’ll continue to do that.”

Spurs reached the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup but were knocked out by Liverpool after being beaten 4-0 in the second leg at Anfield. They were eliminated by Aston Villa in the fourth round of the FA Cup which means their only chance of winning silverware this season, and qualifying for the Champions League, is by winning the Europa League.

They face Eintracht Frankfurt at home in the first leg before a trip to Germany next Thursday (April 17). In between the two European fixtures, Postecoglou’s side play Wolverhampton Wanderers in the league.

(Marc Atkins/Getty Images)

The premise of hit TV series Severance is that a corporation can insert a chip into employees’ brains which means that when they step into the workplace, they instantly forget everything that they knew in the outside world.

Over the course of the show, it becomes clear that you are not merely ‘severed’ from your memories by this process, but from your original self. You become an entirely different person with a different personality. Your ‘outtie’ in the real world and your ‘innie’ in the office may have very little in common. Other than that, they share the same physical body.

The question, as we approach the quarter-finals of the Europa League this week, is whether the same thing can be true for Tottenham Hotspur. Is it possible for one team to be so bad in the Premier League but to step into the Europa League and suddenly become a completely different side? Can a fanbase forget everything they knew about the season so far and come into this week with the optimism of not knowing?

And is there any reason, outside of the world of science fiction, to be hopeful about Eintracht Frankfurt over two legs?

Thursday night could be the biggest game of Spurs’ season, and arguably their biggest game of this decade. The only trophy they have come close to in recent years is the Carabao Cup, reaching the 2021 final and twice losing a semi-final since then. But they have done nothing in the FA Cup of late and nothing in Europe since the 2019 Champions League final.

This campaign is a chance to change that. If they can just get past Frankfurt, their season will at the least be kept alive into May. It will be Lazio or Bodo/Glimt in the semis. They will be so close to the final in Bilbao they will be able to smell the pintxos.

Under normal circumstances, you might expect a sense of feverish anticipation heading into Thursday. But this has not been a normal Tottenham season. In fact, it has been their worst league season for decades. With seven games left, they are 14th in the league table. The last time they finished lower than that was 1993-94. They have lost 16 from 31 league games.

The last time they lost more than half of their league game was 1934-35, when they finished bottom, were relegated, and did not return to the top flight until 1950. Daniel Levy was being gentle last week when he called this season “highly challenging”.

So if Spurs show up on Thursday and simply play like they have done in the Premier League, it is difficult to imagine how they might be able to beat Frankfurt. Dino Toppmoller’s team are currently third in the Bundesliga and well on course for Champions League qualification for next season. They are an efficient counter-attacking side, perfectly calibrated to take advantage of the flaws in Tottenham’s game.

If you have watched Spurs in recent months, you will be familiar with those issues. They struggle to control and manage the game. They give the ball away cheaply when they have too many players committed upfield. The midfield offers little resistance to opposition counter-attacks. They lack cohesion without the ball and confidence with it.

Of course, most of these problems are downstream from the brutal injury crisis they suffered, and the issues it exposed with the squad. But they were glaringly evident in the recent league defeats by Chelsea, Fulham and Manchester City, and in the first hour against Bournemouth. The only league games Spurs have won in the last two months were against Southampton, Ipswich Town and Manchester United. Even the performance level they showed against the now relegated Southampton on Sunday will not be enough against Frankfurt.

But what if the Spurs team that emerged out of the tunnel on Thursday night was somehow transformed from the one that we have seen recently? What if the same physical bodies can somehow become a different team?

This is not an unprecedented phenomenon in European football. There are plenty of examples of teams who were unremarkable in domestic competition, but who became something else when they stepped out to play in Europe.

Like Liverpool winning the 2005 Champions League despite finishing fifth in the Premier League, separated from Bolton Wanderers by only goal difference. Or Roberto Di Matteo’s Chelsea, sixth in the Premier League in 2011-12 but unrecognisable in Europe, knocking out Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona in the semis and then beating Jupp Heynckes’ Bayern Munich in the final at the Allianz Arena itself.

There is another example even closer to home. By the halfway point of the 2018-19 season, it was clear that Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham cycle was nearing its end. After failing to move on established players or bring in anyone new in summer 2018, the team had gone stale. They could not summon the old energy. They did not win an away league game after January.

But when the Champions League anthem played, Spurs were separated from their domestic selves and now capable of remarkable feats. They nicked a point in the Nou Camp to qualify from the group, they demolished Borussia Dortmund, they beat a peak-era Manchester City on away goals and then they produced one of the greatest comebacks in history to beat Ajax. And they had to play the second leg against City and both legs against Ajax without Harry Kane. They needed big contributions from Fernando Llorente, Moussa Sissoko and a hobbling Victor Wanyama to get them to Madrid.

It was all so thrillingly unlikely that you might as well ascribe it to science fiction, the tiring domestic team turning into the heroic European side who never knew when they were beaten.

And if the Tottenham team of six years ago could become different on European nights, then why can’t this one? All season, this group has been consistent in its desperation to make history and win a trophy for Spurs. They have saved most of their best performances for the cups, forgetting their miserable league form, knocking both Manchester teams out of the Carabao Cup, and beating Liverpool in the first leg of the semi-final. They finished an impressive fourth out of 36 in the Europa League league phase.

And while Spurs were indeed awful in the last-16 first leg against AZ, the only time in recent months they have played anything even remotely resembling ‘Angeball’ was the second leg. With their season on the line, they found the physical level to power past AZ and into the quarters.

On Thursday, Spurs have to do the same thing again: step out of the tunnel, wait for the Europa League anthem to play and become a different team. The side we see most weeks in the Premier League barely has a chance against Eintracht Frankfurt. But if Tottenham can sever themselves from that losing side, leave those bad memories and bad habits behind, and become something else, then maybe that version can finish this season well after all.

(Top photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

It was a pass an ordinary Premier League centre-back would not attempt.

Having received the ball on the edge of his area, Cristian Romero had two conservative options: a square knock to Rodrigo Bentancur, or a 10-yard ball upfield to Lucas Bergvall.

But, for better or worse, nothing about Romero’s game is conservative. Rather than either of the above, he fired a 20-yard pass to James Maddison, who controlled the pass with his left foot before spreading it out with his right to Son Heung-min. The South Korean delayed and played Djed Spence in on the overlap, who cut a cross back into Brennan Johnson to drill a shot into the top corner. It was a shining example of the football Tottenham Hotspur have been capable of under Ange Postecoglou, but have not delivered on enough this season.

“It was a goal we’ve done a number of times, but we haven’t done consistently,” Postecoglou said in his post-match press conference after Spurs beat Southampton 3-1 on Sunday. “In the first half, I think we had many of those moments. With Cristian back there and Ben (Davies) and when Micky (van de Ven) plays, we’ve got centre-backs who are comfortable on the ball, can find the right pass and give us some really good solutions.

“It’s about making sure the guys further up find the right spaces. I thought in the first half, we did that a lot. It was an excellent team goal from start to finish.”

Romero is one half of a foundational centre-back partnership, the bedrock that determines whether Spurs flourish or flounder. Van de Ven’s pace allows Tottenham to be aggressive in planting their flag in the opposition half. Equally, without Romero, they do not have the incisive passing quality from defence to break lines and use their territory effectively. In the absence of that alchemy, “the guys further up the pitch” have often looked lost.

As it turned out, Postecoglou did not need the Dutch half of the duo, with Southampton offering little attacking threat. After all, they are in danger of becoming the worst Premier League side in history, and Sunday’s defeat confirmed their relegation to the Championship in record time. Spurs have not piled misery on many of the league’s bottom dwellers — losing to strong relegation candidates Ipswich Town and Leicester City at home — but they have scored eight against Southampton, with just one in response.

Which is precisely why any positive from this game cannot be drawn without a caveat.

Romero’s pass was excellent, and it’s an encouraging sign that the first link in the attacking chain is coming together before the Europa League quarter-final first leg against Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday. Against Bournemouth, his first start in the league after missing three months with a hamstring injury, he attempted that kind of game-breaking pass in the first minute, and it almost immediately led to an opposition goal. In this case, it led to one of Spurs’ best goals of the season.

It was against little resistance from Southampton, but the trio of Maddison, Bergvall and Bentancur produced arguably Tottenham’s best midfield performance of the year in the league at a critical juncture of the season, particularly in the first half. After being substituted against Chelsea, with Postecoglou describing his performance at Stamford Bridge as “leggy”, Bergvall was a dominant physical force out of possession and cultured and comfortable with the ball.

Maddison played a vital role in both goals, assisting the second, and Bentancur was accomplished in possession, completing 26 of his 28 passes (93 per cent), though the opposition did not make it difficult (again, that caveat). Spurs’ performance faded in the second half, with Postecoglou suggesting the team became “way too passive without the ball” and “really sloppy” with it. Still, it is a step in the right direction for the creativity hub ahead of Frankfurt.

While Dominic Solanke was denied a long-awaited goal by Southampton goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, who made several excellent saves, Mathys Tel opened his Premier League account from the penalty spot in injury time — kindly gifted to him by the penalty-winner Johnson, who was on a hat-trick. The explosion of emotion after the ball hit the back of the net demonstrated how much he needed it.

Yet, these positive lights only pierce the grey cloud looming over the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Before the game, a crowd marched towards the stadium, protesting against chairman Daniel Levy and ENIC Group, an investment company owned by the family trust of Joe Lewis, which owns a controlling stake in the club. Messages of “Time for change” and “Built a business, killed a football club” and chants directed at the chairman inside the stadium reflect a bubbling frustration that might be tempered only by the Europa League trophy.

For Postecoglou, it’s a reflection on his state of limbo at Tottenham that a comfortable 3-1 win comes with caveats. Spurs avoided the ignominy of becoming the only club to lose to all three set-to-be-relegated sides at home.

There is little glory in beating a side whose open ambition is to avoid becoming the worst team in the league’s history. But, before the meeting with Frankfurt on Thursday, it’s what was needed.

(Top photo: Marc Atkins/Getty Images)

With pressure mounting on Ange Postecoglou, the Tottenham Hotspur head coach will have been relieved with three points over Southampton, a result that relegated the visiting side.

There was a risk that facing the Premier League’s bottom side, who only have 10 points this season, could have caused an embarrassing afternoon for Spurs, as Leicester City did when they won here in January. And while two goals from Brennan Johnson and a first Premier League goal for Mathys Tel sealed victory, conceding late and struggling to kill the game off in the second half will have done little to appease those disappointed with Postecoglou’s side.

There was a pre-match protest outside the ground against the ownership, as well as chants within the stadium, as anger at how the club is run continues. Following the defeat to Chelsea and this victory, Spurs can now plan for Frankfurt in the Europa League quarter-final first leg on Thursday with Lucas Bergvall and Johnson performing well.

Here, Elias Burke and George Caulkin break down the action from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

How did Spurs fans react to Levy and Postecoglou?

Tottenham remain a club at unease with itself.

Barely 20 seconds had passed before the South Stand began a chant of “We want (Daniel) Levy out.” Not for the first time this season, there had been a demonstration by hundreds of supporters down the Seven Sisters Road where a banner was held up which read, “Built a business, killed a football club.” It was also displayed inside the stadium before kick-off and again at half-time.

With Postecoglou denying suggestions he had goaded fans who had sung, “You don’t know what you’re doing” at him during Thursday’s 1-0 defeat to Chelsea — he had cupped an ear with his hand — the feeling remains that Spurs are teetering on a precipice. Whether they topple or pull back will probably be determined by their Europa League quarter-final against Eintracht Frankfurt.

In that context, victory over Southampton — who have only won once in the Premier League since early November — proved very little. Against hapless opponents, whose relegation was confirmed, they were far too strong, but at least it provides them with some precious momentum.

No dissent was aimed at Postecoglou and there was none in return. Why would there be? When the first goal went in, the head coach called over James Maddison to give him instructions. The second brought smiles and high-fives with his coaching staff.

George Caulkin

A five-minute VAR check?

Lucas Bergvall thought he had scored his first Premier League goal in the first half… before VAR intervened.

Not that Postecoglou needed any more convincing that VAR is negatively affecting the flow of football matches, but a five-minute-and-25-second wait, according to Opta, between Bergvall volleying into the back of the net and referee Michael Salisbury restarting the game won’t help in easing his frustration.

During the wait, Postecoglou strolled around his technical area and signalled to his coaching staff, making fun of the delay. While Spurs and Southampton fans collaborated in a rendition of “f*** VAR” and boos rang around the stadium, the 59-year-old shrugged his shoulders and pretended to play rock, paper, scissors, suggesting a randomness to the procedure.

Postecoglou spoke against VAR in the post-match conference after the Chelsea defeat, where that night’s video assistant referee, Jarred Gillet, recommended referee Craig Pawson check the pitchside monitor before disallowing Pape Matar Sarr’s second-half goal after a lengthy check.

In this case, the goal was chalked off as Cristian Romero was found to be offside before heading the ball down to Bergvall in the box.

Elias Burke

What did Spurs learn before Frankfurt tie?

As European quarter-final tune-ups go, this was about as straightforward as it gets for Tottenham.

Postecoglou made three changes from the side that were beaten 1-0 by Chelsea on Thursday, with building momentum for the season-defining tie against Frankfurt a key consideration. Johnson, who came in for Wilson Odobert, has struggled to make an impact since scoring twice against Ipswich Town in February but made a strong case for selection on Thursday. He scored his 10th and 11th league goals of the season in the first half, the first after a sweeping “Ange-ball” style passage started by an incisive pass from Romero.

Postecoglou will also be encouraged by the performance of Bergvall, who was taken off at the hour mark against Chelsea, with the head coach citing a lack of physicality after leaving international duty early with illness.

Against Southampton, the Swede was dominant, driving through the midfield and reacting quickly to loose balls.

While Southampton offered little resistance, there was a creativity in midfield that has often been absent in recent weeks. Maddison, who was poor in the first leg against AZ before propelling Spurs to victory with a goal in the second, was instrumental in both goals today.

It’s unlikely Frankfurt will roll over as easily, but if a lack of confidence was an issue ahead of that match, this should at least be a welcome boost on that front.

Elias Burke

What did Postecoglou say?

Speaking after the match, Postecoglou said: “I was really happy with the first half. I thought first half we were really disciplined, well organised, we limited them to one chance. I thought every time we went forward we looked dangerous. We were threatening, probably as threatening as we’ve looked for quite a while — really fluent. Obviously scored two goals, one got disallowed. Aaron (Ramsdale) pulled off two good saves. Really pleased.

“Second half, not so much. I thought we became way too passive without the ball. We allowed Southampton to get a little bit of a rhythm, and then really sloppy with the ball. The substitutions that we made didn’t really make the impact I wanted to. That allows them to get a goal. So that was disappointing, something we need to improve on. But overall, I think the important thing is that we got the win and three goals. Everyone got through unscathed and ready for a big night on Thursday.”

What next for Spurs?

Thursday, April 10: Eintracht Frankfurt (Home), Europa League quarter-final first leg, 8pm UK, 3pm ET

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(Top photo: Marc Atkins/Getty Images)

Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-0 loss against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Thursday didn’t surprise many, but it added to a miserable season for Ange Postecoglou’s side.

They sit 14th in the Premier League table, 10 points off the top half and 17 points behind Manchester City in fifth. For much of the season, Tottenham’s injury crisis was used to justify their poor league form, but even with many key players back, Postecoglou has still struggled to get a tune out of his side.

On the latest episode of The View From The Lane, Danny Kelly, Jay Harris and Jack Pitt-Brooke discussed whether Tottenham are simply just a below-par team this season.

A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on The View from the Lane feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Danny: Jack, let me pull the pin out of the hand grenade and pass it over to you. There are statistics you can produce here, or you can talk about the eye test. Are we just deluding ourselves? Are we just watching a rotten football team?

Jack: This is just a bad team that has occasionally had good days. It doesn’t hold water anymore to say they’re a good but flawed team. Good but flawed teams don’t lose 16 out of 30 league games. They’re a bad side who are capable of having very good days.

A lot of what we saw against Chelsea, we saw away to Fulham, we saw in the first half against Bournemouth, we saw away to AZ, and also in the home game against Man City. They’ve lost a lot of their intensity without the ball. They didn’t make things difficult at all for Chelsea. It was incredible how many times Chelsea could knock the ball forward, then, all of a sudden, Cole Palmer or Nicolas Jackson would have a ridiculous amount of space to run straight through the middle of the pitch. There was no resistance at all from Tottenham.

It was so easy for Jadon Sancho to get one-on-one against Djed Spence, who was having to backpedal all the time just to stay afloat. Then, when Spurs got the ball, they had no idea what to do with it. There were no patterns. They didn’t use Dominic Solanke properly. They never released Son Heung-min or Wilson Odobert into good positions. Occasionally, Destiny Udogie or Spence would run forward with the ball, but then it would all stop and they would knock the ball out of play. It felt like it took about 40 minutes for James Maddison or Son to touch the ball.

It was really bad. And bad in a way that was generally familiar with what we’ve seen this season. This is not a team that’s going anywhere.

Danny: Jay, I thought your head was going to fall off you were nodding so vigorously there…

Jay: There are a couple of things I wanted to highlight.

Like Jack said, this is just not a particularly good football team. The injury crisis became a convenient excuse for a team already playing quite badly. But you hoped to be proven wrong and that when players came back, we would see the shoots of progress.

Looking at the last month or so, when those players have been back, nothing’s really changed. They’re still performing just as miserably as they were before.

The other element is that the team did lose a bit of their composure and discipline against Chelsea. Sergio Romero getting booked for going up to Levi Colwill is just so silly. All because he and Colwill were tussling with each other at a corner 20 minutes before. You don’t need to get involved. All that does is whip up the crowd at Stamford Bridge even more and adds to the intensity. That’s when you need Son, Guglielmo Vicario, Maddison and the other leaders to calm the team down, remain composed, and ignore all that nonsense.

They just allowed themselves to get wound up. Even Pedro Porro, when he screamed at the linesman, it was so unnecessary. You could really see signs of the tension that these players are feeling.

You can listen to full episodes of The View from the Lane free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

(Top photo: Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

In the wake of Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-0 defeat to Chelsea on Thursday, Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp did not hold back in his assessment of his former club and their head coach.

“If they weren’t still in Europe, I don’t think he’d still be the manager,” Redknapp said on Sky Sports’ post-match broadcast. “They’ve been that poor. He knows the price of the ticket. You don’t lose 16 games at a club like Tottenham. Yes, they’ve had injuries, but that’s not good enough.

“He’s got to win the (Europa League). If they win the cup, they’re creating history. If they don’t win it, they will be history. It’s all or nothing for Ange Postecoglou. They are capable because they’ve got the players to do it, but they need the spirit.”

That sentiment was echoed by fellow former Spurs player Jamie O’Hara, who said, “There’s no men, there are no leaders, it’s just they’re out there, they’re playing for themselves, and the manager looks lost on the sideline,” in reaction to the result and performance. Incidentally, it was in response to a jibe by Chelsea fan Jason Cundy, his co-host on TalkSport’s The Sports Bar radio show, who made 28 league appearances for Spurs in the 1990s.

Chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing” from the travelling support after Postecoglou replaced Lucas Bergvall with Pape Matar Sarr reflect the frustration bubbling around the club, with very little relief for a head coach who is presiding over a historically poor Premier League season.

Still, the 59-year-old suggests he should have more help in calming the hostility.

“I think a lot of it is how the club is viewed externally,” Postecoglou said in his pre-match press conference on Friday. “It seems like every fight, like I said, ends up being an internal fight for this club. There’s never any defending of the club or the club defending itself, it seems to me, which makes it even more difficult. Because whenever the club goes through tough moments, it’s how you react to them.

“(The club could defend itself) by being more vocal. I think you hear enough from me. You probably hear too much from me, to be honest. I think it doesn’t have to be just from people at the club. I hear plenty of people talking and defending other clubs, but it seems like with Tottenham, wherever there’s a sore, there’s a little pile-on to stick a finger in that sore. Then we kind of accept our fate.“

Postecoglou may have a point. Certainly, among the most prominent broadcasters in the United Kingdom, there aren’t many pundits who have played for Spurs or hold friendly sentiments towards the club.

It wouldn’t take long to reel off a list of Manchester United, Arsenal, or Liverpool legends who are frequently featured on British television screens, often reflecting on trophies won and success at those clubs. The Spurs angle, however, is often thrown to ex-players better known for spells elsewhere, such as Redknapp or less recognisable faces.

The issue runs deep. Boyhood fan Roy Keane’s most famous Spurs-related quote was remembering former United manager Alex Ferguson dismissing the club ahead of a match, saying, “Lads, it’s Tottenham.”

Finding those Spurs voices is part of the problem. Many players who enjoyed success at White Hart Lane under Mauricio Pochettino are still playing, and those who have retired, such as Mousa Dembele, are unlikely to become regular pundits on British television. Excluding Gareth Bale, the likes of Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, and Robbie Keane are the most high-profile players of Harry Redknapp’s era who fit the bill. Currently, Keane is the head coach of Ferencvaros in Hungary, Defoe is pursuing a career in coaching, and Crouch is more closely associated with Liverpool, with whom he reached the Champions League final.

Still, the central reason ex-Spurs players do not seem to dominate the British media discourse is simple: they didn’t win enough. Take the Sky Sports Overlap crew, for instance. Keane won 12 major trophies at Old Trafford, Gary Neville lifted 17. Ian Wright won the Premier League. Jamie Carragher won the Champions League. In addition to their skill and experience in front of a camera, they are respected for what they have won as players.

Outside of those three clubs, there’s a general underrepresentation across the league. Newcastle are fortunate that Alan Shearer, the Premier League’s record goalscorer and former England captain, just so happens to be a boyhood fan and club legend. Now Frank Lampard is back in management, the most active Chelsea-affiliated pundit is… Joe Cole? Even four-time defending league champions Manchester City lack comparative representation to Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United, who dominate the discourse.

It’s not their job to defend the club, either. The strong United cohort, almost entirely comprised of dominant sides under Ferguson, has not shied away from criticising the club, players and managers when results have been poor. Even with Liverpool running away with the league title, Carragher has been forthright with his opinions on how Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold have dealt with their contract discussions, prompting criticism from supporters and creating awkward moments with the players on broadcasts. Had Liverpool lost 16 league matches this season, Carragher would inevitably come down hard on Arne Slot, too. It is no surprise, then, that Glenn Hoddle, one of Spurs’ greatest-ever players, is occasionally critical of his former club on commentary.

Rewind to the start of last season and Postecoglou was fast becoming a darling of the British media. His direct and succinct communication style endeared him to Premier League fans, bringing fresh air to how managers interacted with media members. The football was great, too, with fans and pundits praising his attacking philosophy after Antonio Conte and Nuno Espirito Santo.

Crucially, though, Spurs were winning. Now, they’re 14th after 30 games, level on points with Everton and Wolves in 15th and 16th, having lost more than half of their games. Regardless of who is in the studio or the gantry, that form is difficult to defend.

(Top photo: Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)

You can pinpoint the exact moment when Ange Postecoglou’s relationship with the Tottenham Hotspur fans was left hanging by a thread.

There were 21 minutes left on the clock at Stamford Bridge and Spurs were 1-0 down to Chelsea. Pape Matar Sarr had just hammered in an apparent equaliser from 25 yards. The home fans were furious, the Chelsea players complaining to Craig Pawson about a foul on Moises Caicedo. The away end exploded in gleeful delight.

But Postecoglou looked like he had a point he desperately wanted to make, one that he could not keep to himself. He turned to stare to the away end, 50 yards to his left. He held his right hand up to his right ear, as shown in the image above. And just to make himself clear, he waved down to the Spurs fans who were still celebrating, before returning his hands to his coat pockets and continuing to face the fans. Just two little gestures, all over in a matter of seconds. Even Sarr’s goal was disallowed in the end too. But this still felt like a moment where the ripples will be felt for some time.

So what explains this strange little sequence by the side of the pitch?

It looked, from the press box a few yards away, as if Postecoglou was riding an emotional surge of release and vindication, the buzz that comes with being doubted, scorned, and then proven right.

Just five minutes before, Postecoglou had sent on Sarr for Lucas Bergvall, desperately trying to reignite Spurs in yet another game that they had not shown up for. The away end hated that decision, feeling that Bergvall was one of the few Spurs players to play with any energy, commitment and an idea of how to move the ball forward. They sang, “You don’t know what you’re doing!” at Postecoglou, one of the most open displays of mutiny from the fans to the manager during his tenure.

On this interpretation, Postecoglou’s gesture was his chance to have a go back, a way to chide or mock the fans for having the gall to doubt him, to remind them that there is a reason why he is the manager and they are not. It left Postecoglou looking remarkably prickly and thin-skinned, if in a moment of triumph he had chosen to belittle his own supporters, rather than rallying behind their shared goals.

Postecoglou insisted afterwards that he was doing exactly that, rejecting any suggestion he had been putting down the fans. “It’s incredible how things get interpreted,” he said. “We’d just scored, I just wanted to hear them cheer. I thought it was a cracking goal. I was just hoping we could get some excitement.” Postecoglou made a similar argument in a strikingly tetchy post-match interview with Sky Sports, where he said that he turned to face the away end “to see them smile”.

Some Spurs fans may buy that. They may accept Postecoglou’s argument that he is impervious to the criticism of the crowd. “It just doesn’t affect me”, he insisted. “If that’s what the fans feel, they’ve got every right to express it.”

But does this idea of Postecoglou as thick-skinned and impervious to noise sit with the reality that we have seen over the last two seasons? He has reacted to criticism from the stands enough times, at home and away games, for people to assume that some of this noise does get through. Why would someone who ignores criticism react to it as often as he does?

If Postecoglou’s only intention was to get the crowd to cheer, well, there are other gestures that encourage that, rather than the ones he used.

And if Postecoglou did not see his celebration as a dig at the fans, but rather a way to encourage them positively, why did he stand alone in the middle of the pitch afterwards, rather than going over to applaud the away end? Especially when his players who did go over to the fans were bearing the brunt of their frustration?

Ultimately, we cannot know exactly what was going on inside Postecoglou’s head at 9.30pm on Thursday night when this all happened.

But Spurs fans watching Postecoglou’s interviews and reading his words will ask themselves whether they believe him any more. And many will conclude that he is no longer granted the benefit of the doubt. Not after a season in which they have lost 16 out of 30 league games. A lot can get brushed under the carpet when it feels like the team is on the up. The dispute with Spurs fans after the Manchester City home game last season is a case in point. Whether you agreed with Postecoglou or not last May, he was making those comments from a position of strength. But that credit has been drawn down to zero.

Every defeat this season has chipped away at those bonds between Postecoglou and his fans. The situation is now so delicate and tenuous that any manager with an interest in self-preservation would surely be trying to keep the fans onside. This feels like a moment for constructive politics, for saying the right things, for trying to preserve just enough goodwill to light up the stadium next Thursday for the first leg of the Europa League quarter-final against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Instead, Postecoglou was left having to try to explain his gesture, insisting that it was not meant to belittle the travelling fans. It was a bizarre situation for a manager to end up in. Especially as Spurs now have two home games and Postecoglou must know that he needs the crowd behind him to stay in the job. If the home crowd truly turns on him, they can make his future impossible.

In his press conference, Postecoglou asked whether he had risked alienating his fans with the apparent ear-cup. “I am at such a disconnect with the world these days,” he shrugged, “that, who knows, maybe you’re right.”

(Top photo: Robin Jones/Getty Images)

Twenty-seven months down, just under three months to go.

The clock on Fabio Paratici’s 30-month ban from football activity is slowly ticking towards zero. In July, he will be free to emerge from the shadows and step back into the light.

While Paratici’s ban does not stop him from working in the football industry, owing to a successful appeal of the extent of the ban two years ago, he has been consigned to work as a consultant and adviser since he was forced to resign from his post at Tottenham Hotspur in April 2023.

Only on June 30, when the ban finally expires, will he be able to return to the type of work through which he made his name: as a high-profile public-facing club executive. Like the work he did at Juventus, where from 2010 to 2021 he oversaw one of the most successful eras in their history, as the Turin club won nine Serie A titles in a row and reached the final of the Champions League twice.

Or the work at Tottenham, where Paratici was handed the keys to the club as managing director of football in June 2021. In less than two years officially working for Tottenham, Paratici started to bring in a new generation of players, many of them recruited for great prices. He formed a good working relationship with Antonio Conte, and Spurs’ fourth-placed finish in 2021-22 felt like the start of a thrilling new era.

In reality, both Paratici and Conte had left within one year. And Spurs have never finished that high again since. Spurs fans could be forgiven for already getting nostalgic about it.

Of course, we have to stare directly at the fact that he was banned for the plusvalenza scandal from his time at Juventus, related to the inflation of transfer fees for accounting purposes. Some will see this as a stain on his reputation, others will shrug their shoulders and say that football has never been an especially moral place, and that worse things are happening out there than accounting indiscretions. Some will say that once he has served his time, it is only right that he should be able to return to work.

This is what clubs will be weighing up if they consider a move for Paratici, 52, this summer. You can easily sketch out the upside to bringing him back into official employment. Here is a job candidate who comes with years of winning experience, a good track record in Italy and England, and a brimming contacts book. Beyond that, he has a natural charisma and name-recognition that some clubs will want to be associated with.

On the other hand, the baggage is unavoidable, as are the questions that will come with that. Some clubs now prefer to do their transfer business in a more discreet, analytical and thorough fashion, rather than leaning on contacts and gut feel for a player. Perhaps Paratici is the last great sporting director of the previous era, rather than at the cutting edge of the next one.

But these questions, or questions like them, will also be occupying minds at Milan right now. The Serie A side are currently enduring their worst season for 10 years, stuck in mid-table. Paulo Fonseca, appointed last summer, only lasted 17 league games before being replaced by Sergio Conceicao. They feel like a club in need of some boardroom football experience, even with Zlatan Ibrahimovic in his own senior role at the club.

For a club trying to re-establish winning credibility, winning charisma after a difficult few years, Paratici could be perfect. He knows what it takes to win in Serie A. He has contacts to help bring in better players. And he has that energy that can lift everyone in the building.

When Tottenham recruited him in 2021, it was in the hope that he could bring ‘Juventus standards’ to Spurs. And, in a sense, he did, along with a former Juventus manager in Conte and former Juventus players in Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski. It did not end with Spurs getting Juventus results for more than a few months, but it may still have been an idea worth pursuing.

So the attraction to Milan is obvious. The question is whether Paratici would want to give up his current life to return to permanent Serie A work. Yes, he would get a job title out of it and might find that working for a new big club could lessen the association between him and the plusvalenza scandal. But Italy is a difficult place to work: more public than England, more political. Paratici has divided his time between Turin and London in recent years. He might find that he still wants to keep working in his adopted home.

Because Paratici has continued to be a trusted advisor to Levy in the last two years since his resignation. He is still often seen at Tottenham games, celebrating goals and posing for selfies with fans. None of which he is prohibited from given the reduced scope of his ban. And even though technical director Johan Lange has been in charge of recruitment since he arrived in late 2023, Paratici is still a hugely trusted voice.

This season’s team is still full of players Paratici either signed as managing director of football (Kulusevski, Cristian Romero, Bentancur, Pape Matar Sarr, Destiny Udogie, Pedro Porro), or whom he advised on signing post-resignation (James Maddison, Micky van de Ven, Guglielmo Vicario, Radu Dragusin). Put it all together — the two years as an executive and another two as a consultant — and Paratici has been one of the most influential off-field figures in Spurs’ recent history. Far more so than many of their recent managers.

This is still a team and a club with a marked Paratici imprint on it. There are people at Spurs who miss his winning mentality behind the scenes, his charisma and his political skill. Levy still highly values his advice and respects the fact he has signed some fantastic players for Spurs without breaking the bank. As it stands, if Spurs do indeed make a managerial change this summer and replace Postecoglou, then it is inconceivable that Levy would do so without consulting Paratici on what to do next.

But if this is another transitional summer for Spurs, there is one dramatic card that Levy could yet play: the full Paratici restoration. If they wanted a high-profile, eye-catching move, then it might even make sense.

Right now, the word from the club is that nothing is happening in that regard. Tottenham of course have Lange and chief football officer Scott Munn in position. And with Paratici still banned until July, there is certainly no rush to do anything. Especially when Paratici is an influential figure already.

But from this summer, Paratici will be free to re-enter the job market again. And it will not just be Tottenham and Milan who take note.

(Top photo: Jack Thomas/Getty Images)

Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur face off tonight for the second time this Premier League season.

It is one of the standout games from this round of top-flight fixtures, given it is another edition of one of the most vociferous rivalries in the English game. And both sides have plenty to play for at Stamford Bridge, whether to achieve their goals this season or just for the sake of pride.

Here, The Athletic’s Chelsea correspondent Liam Twomey and Tottenham Hotspur correspondent Jay Harris discuss the upcoming match.

What has changed since the last time the teams met in early December?

Liam Twomey: Chelsea’s impressive 4-3 comeback win over Tottenham on December 8 moved them to within four points of Premier League leaders Liverpool, sparking a lively debate about their burgeoning title credentials. Enzo Maresca was notably keen to stress his young team was not ready to battle for top spot, and events in the four months since have proven him grimly correct.

If the Premier League had begun on December 9, Chelsea would be 14th. They have won just five of 14 league matches since beating Spurs, garnering 18 points — only four more than Ange Postecoglou’s team. They also have a slightly negative goal difference over that span (18 scored, 19 conceded), which underlines the attacking problems that have undermined them.

Injuries to Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke have removed two of the most dangerous receivers of incisive passes from talisman Cole Palmer. Palmer has also seen his own goal production dry up completely since scoring in back-to-back Premier League games against Crystal Palace and Bournemouth in January.

Chelsea are still fourth (at the time of this conversation), just about on track for Champions League qualification, with key players including Jackson and Madueke nearing returns. But they urgently need a lift to re-establish some positive momentum for a challenging run-in, and beating Spurs again would do just that.

Jay Harris: Tottenham were sent into a downward spiral after losing at home to Chelsea for the second season in a row. Postecoglou’s first-choice centre-back partnership Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven returned from injury in that chaotic game on December 8 but suffered setbacks and have only started together once since then.

Spurs won their next game against Southampton but then went on a seven-game winless run which included damaging defeats by Everton and Leicester City. They reached the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup but were thrashed by Liverpool at Anfield in the second leg.

Postecoglou has had to juggle a threadbare squad and has been forced to name lots of academy players on the bench. Just when it seemed like the situation was improving with the return of Wilson Odobert, Dominic Solanke and Destiny Udogie, Kevin Danso and Dejan Kulusevski picked up injuries.

Tottenham are low on confidence and there is serious doubt over Postecoglou’s long-term future. The only spark of optimism is the possibility of winning the Europa League.

There’s discontent at both clubs currently, but which one is having the better season?

Twomey: For all of the problems Chelsea are dealing with, no one at Stamford Bridge or Cobham would swap places with Tottenham. Maresca’s team is depleted and clearly flawed, but remains well positioned to earn a return to the Champions League in 2025-26 — by some distance the most important objective for this season.

The return in the domestic cups has been disappointing given Chelsea’s history, and Maresca provoked the ire of many fans after a limp FA Cup exit away at Brighton & Hove Albion last month by citing as a “positive” the fact that his players could focus fully on the Premier League and Conference League.

But there is still a very good chance that the Italian will end his first season as head coach with a trophy; Chelsea are overwhelming favourites to win the UEFA Conference League and as long as that success goes hand-in-hand with Champions League qualification, 2024-25 will go down as an unequivocal step forward.

Harris: Despite losing three of their last five league games, Chelsea are fourth in the table (at the time of this conversation) and have a good chance of qualifying for the Champions League.

Spurs have lost over half of their top-flight matches this season and are only above Everton on goal difference but none of the supporters will care if they win the Europa League. However, if Postecoglou fails to deliver success in that competition then this will go down as potentially the worst season in Spurs’ modern history.

Tottenham’s chairman Daniel Levy summed it up best, in a statement accompanying their annual financial results, by describing it as a “highly challenging season”.

How do both sets of fans feel about the head coach?

Twomey: Maresca’s approval rating among supporters has plummeted alongside Chelsea’s form since early December.

Part of it is results and part of it is performances; a view has taken hold within a large swathe of the fanbase, reinforced by some of the Italian’s public comments, that the team’s early form in 2024-25 was powered by the chaotic, transitional muscle memory forged during Mauricio Pochettino’s brief tenure and that the more the slower, possession-focused principles of Marescaball have taken hold, the more predictable and less effective Chelsea have become.

That theory does not make much allowance for how the loss of several key players to injury (not just Jackson and Madueke but also Romeo Lavia and Wesley Fofana) have upended the balance that Maresca was attempting to establish — but the fact that so few are prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt is indicative of broader disillusionment with the club’s direction.

The act of criticising Maresca has become a more convenient shorthand for expressing opposition to the overall strategy deployed by majority owners Clearlake Capital.

Harris: It feels like the tide is beginning to turn with Postecoglou. The majority of the fanbase backed the Australian throughout a miserable winter when Spurs were ravaged by injuries but performances have not improved since key players have returned and difficult questions are being asked.

Spurs were not thrilling at the beginning of the campaign when they had a healthy squad and it is not unreasonable to ask if the injury crisis became a convenient excuse for a team which was already declining.

And what about the players?

Twomey: Many supporters recognise that Chelsea’s unprecedented transfer spending under Clearlake and Todd Boehly has assembled a very talented core of young players, led by the consistently excellent Moises Caicedo and the peerless Palmer, adored at Stamford Bridge. Marc Cucurella is also emerging as something of a cult hero, for his personality and his play.

But many others have so far failed to convince a majority of fans, and on Chelsea’s bad days — which have outnumbered the good ones in the last four months — the shortcomings of this team and the holes in this squad are glaring, particularly in both boxes.

Robert Sanchez lost the trust of Stamford Bridge to be the team’s starting goalkeeper long ago and has been booed and jeered at times. Jackson is respected for his work ethic and all-round contribution but his erratic finishing is a source of deep frustration, made even more fraught by the lack of credible No 9 alternatives available to Maresca.

Harris: There is a core group of players that Spurs should build around for the next five years which includes Solanke, Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, Djed Spence, Micky van de Ven, Guglielmo Vicario and a few others.

This summer feels like the right time to sell underperforming or injury-prone players who have been given multiple chances including Yves Bissouma and Richarlison. Romero is the vice-captain but he has two years left on his contract and has been linked with a move to Atletico Madrid. Would it be worth cashing in on the World Cup winner whose availability record has been patchy for Spurs anyways?

Tottenham triggered a one-year contract extension in Son Heung-min’s contract but his long-term future needs to be resolved too.

If you could take one thing from the other club, what would it be?

Twomey: Tottenham’s stadium! Chelsea Pitch Owners would never sign off on relocating to north London but within Chelsea there is plenty of grudging admiration for Daniel Levy’s success in delivering what some regard as the finest, most modern club arena in Europe.

Stamford Bridge is an iconic home boasting 120 years of history, but the question of what to do about its limited capacity is the defining one hanging over Chelsea’s future. Whether it be on the same site or at Earls Court, they need their own version of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium sooner rather than later.

Harris: Tottenham would love to have Chelsea’s strength in depth and the ability to completely change their starting XI for different competitions. You could make a strong argument that Spurs’ failure to replace fringe players who left last summer, including Oliver Skipp, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Emerson Royal, contributed to their injury crisis over winter. Key players were barely afforded any rest until their bodies broke down.

If I had to pick a particular player, then I would go for Caicedo. He would offer the defence the protection it desperately craves and could nurture Gray in the No 6 role.

What worries you about the other team ahead of the game?

Twomey: Tottenham’s league position means they will come to Stamford Bridge with very little to lose, and some of their best wins under Postecoglou have come away from home.

Harris: Jackson, Madueke and Palmer being reunited sounds like a recipe for disaster for Spurs.

And what should the other team be worried about?

Twomey: Chelsea showed in the December meeting that they are not cowed by Spurs in the manner they sometimes give the impression of being by other ‘Big Six’ opponents. Maresca also has plenty of attackers (as long as they are fit) who can exploit Postecoglou’s high line.

Harris: Tottenham have demonstrated on multiple occasions this season that they can turn up and win important games. They have beaten Manchester City twice, Manchester United three times and earned an impressive 1-0 Carabao Cup victory over Liverpool in January.

When everything falls into the right place, Spurs can still cause opponents a lot of problems.

What’s a realistic aim now for the rest of the season?

Twomey: Chelsea have one of the tougher Premier League run-ins on paper, but finishing well enough to secure Champions League qualification is well within the capabilities of this group. It would also be a huge shock and disappointment if they do not win the Conference League.

Harris: Tottenham have lost half of their games in the top flight this season and Postecoglou needs to change that alarming statistic. The main goal though is to lift the Europa League trophy in Bilbao on May 21. Anything less and the chances of Postecoglou sticking around for next season will be slim.

How big is Thursday night’s game relative to the usual clashes between these teams?

Twomey: We are nowhere near the stakes of the infamous Battle of the Bridge, and Tottenham’s lowly league position means only one of these teams can meaningfully affect their Premier League destiny. But this is a big game for Chelsea and perhaps even more so for Maresca, who needs to boost his popularity with supporters. Few things go further towards achieving that end than beating Spurs.

Harris: It is not on the same scale as December’s match when both teams were directly competing with each other towards the top of the table. Tottenham need to win on Thursday to give themselves a confidence boost ahead of the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final against Eintracht Frankfurt next week.

What’s your prediction?

Twomey: Expect a feisty London derby with shades of real animosity, particularly after the way Chelsea humiliated Spurs in December. As long as Maresca’s team have Jackson back and bring the appropriate level of intensity, they should have enough quality to squeeze out a win.

Harris: It will be another erratic encounter where Chelsea look to exploit the space behind Tottenham’s back four through their rapid wingers Madueke and Pedro Neto. If Tottenham are at full strength with Kulusevski and Van de Ven both available, then I can see them coming away with a positive result.

(Top photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Callum Olusesi has signed a new four-year contract with Tottenham Hotspur.

The central midfielder, who only turned 18 last month, made his first-team debut for Spurs earlier this year from the bench in their 3-2 victory over Hoffenheim in the Europa League. He has been an unused substitute on 12 occasions in the Premier League too.

Olusesi helped Spurs win both the Under-17 and Under-18 Premier League Cup in the 2022-23 campaign and made several appearances for the Under-21s last season as they won the Premier League 2 title.

Olusesi is close friends with Mikey Moore and they have progressed through Tottenham’s academy together. They have regularly trained with Ange Postecoglou’s first-team squad and both represented England at last summer’s Under-17 European Championship.

Moore, who does not turn 18 until August, has made 16 appearances under Postecoglou this season but missed two months of action due to a virus.

‘Spurs give young players hope there is a first-team pathway’

Tottenham’s 3-0 victory over Elfsborg in the Europa League in January should give young players in their academy, including Olusesi, confidence that there is a clear pathway into the first-team.

Damola Ajayi scored on his debut while other academy graduates Moore and Dane Scarlett found the back of the net too. Postecoglou has consistently given young players opportunities across his two seasons in charge including Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray.

Spurs have signed highly-rated young players from other clubs including Yang-Min Hyeok and Luka Vuskovic. They are collecting some of the best upcoming talent from around the world but, crucially, keep promoting players they have developed internally too.

With a new deal which runs until 2029, Olusesi will hope to follow the path Moore and Will Lankshear have made by stepping up into senior football permanently.

(Alex Grimm/Getty Images)