Sport | Football
Tottenham: Ange Postecoglou promises best is yet to come as delirious Spurs delight in Europa League glory
The Australian has won over the supporters, but his position remains in jeopardy
man of the hour: ange postecoglou
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They descended on north London in their thousands, Tottenham supporters of all ages and backgrounds, decked in replica shirts and clutching beers, flags and babies, determined to make it a party.
Spurs were expecting 150,000 fans for their Europa League trophy parade but it was impossible to say how many showed up, with people lining the route of the open-top bus from Edmonton Green to the stadium from early in the day, and more arriving in steady streams down the High Road long into the evening.
"Words can't describe it, it's so loud," said midfielder Archie Gray. "I want to describe it without swearing but it's difficult. It's unbelievable."
Around the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, fans clawed to gain any vantage point.
They clambered onto the roofs lining the High Road, with a ladder erected just behind the Harry Kane mural to help supporters scale the houses. Every bus stop, wall, barrier or climbable object was manned.
Fans watch the parade from High Road rooftops
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The energy had a frenetic quality, not unlike the feel in London ahead of Euro 2020 Final, which coincided with the end of lockdown restrictions, only without the nasty edge.
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For many supporters, it must have felt like a release of at least 17 years of frustration since Spurs' last piece of silverware.
The younger fans there will never have seen the club win a trophy and even middle-aged supporters will struggle to remember their last triumph in Europe, the 1984 UEFA Cup under manager Keith Burkinshaw.
From early afternoon, there was music and entertainment around the ground.
Match-day host Paul Coyte interviewed a series of familiar club legends on stage, from Sandro Raniere to Micky Hazard, and there was a return of the anthem of last season, 'Loving Big Ange instead' to the tune of Robbie Williams' Angels.
Feelings towards Ange Postecoglou, the head coach who delivered the club's first European trophy in 41 years, had definitively turned. Postecoglou's name has not been chanted by supporters at matches for months but the Australian was repeatedly serenaded, including to the beat of White Stripes' Seven Nation Army.
As the bus neared the stadium and euphoria set in, one supporter said: "It felt like Ange was looking down and smiling at everyone individually."
"It felt like Ange was looking down and smiling at everyone individually."
Action Images via Reuters
At 17.30pm, the bus had set off on its slow way down the High Road, the players looking bleary-eyed and delirious, wearing dark shades and still swigging from beers. Heung-min Son, the club captain, was visibly worse for wear and spoke with a croak when he tried to put his emotions into words.
"Look at this. An amazing feeling. I will never forget this moment," Son said, who had dropped two f-bombs on stage by the end of the night. "The last two days have gone so fast. I feel like I've slept five hours but it's already Friday."
Son was the biggest draw for some supporters in the throng, including two South Korean women who had watched Wednesday's 1-0 win over Manchester United in their homeland but travelled to London specifically for the parade.
One said of Son: "He's a national hero. We're so proud of him."
James Maddison, who was injured for the final, was unsurprisingly the ringleader of the celebrations, declaring himself ‘CEO of organising the afterparty’.
"I love this club, man. It's the best decision I ever made, joining this club," said the midfielder.
countless fans lined the high road
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Spurs' final game of the league season, at home to Brighton on Sunday, could not have been further from anyone's mind and there was no sense that the parade was a final hurrah for the players before a sober return to business in the morning.
"He's like my best mate at the club, Brennan," Maddison said of Wednesday's match-winner Brennan Johnson, who turned 24 on the day. "It's his birthday today, and let me tell you we are going to celebrate."
There was poignancy too; Matt Wells, Postecoglou's assistant, revealed he had found a photograph of Spurs' 1961 title parade with his grandfather, Cliff Jones, at the front of the bus. Jones, who is now 90, was believed to be inside the ground.
As the celebrations reached fever-pitch, Postecoglou delivered a rousing speech from the stage and signed off with the day's killer line: "I’ll tell you something, I’ll leave you with this: all the best television series, season three is better than season two."
It felt like a challenge to the club. Postecoglou won back the fans, and now it is up to the board, led by chairman Daniel Levy, to decide the manager's future.
And if there was a takeaway from the parade, aside from Postecoglou's position of strength, it the sense that the squad, many of whom were experiencing these kinds of scenes for the first time, had been given a taste of success and now want more.
"If you experience this, you want to try to do it over and over again," said Micky van de Ven, whose goal-line clearance in the second half was arguably the standout moment of the final. "And we want to try and do the same beautiful things next season."
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