Despite his two-year spell as Tottenham manager coming to an end, Ange Postecoglou is continuing to split opinions in England.
The Australian’s relationship with the English football punditry was always shaky.
Postecoglou did not take kindly to the disrespect towards his past accomplishments or the Evening Standard’s Dan Kilpatrick writing that he was “teetering between hero and clown” ahead of the Europa League final.
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Many members of the press pack did not like Postecoglou’s willingness to challenge the status quo be it with the way his side conducted themselves on the pitch or with his answers to their questions.
Meanwhile, others loved that he was a breath of fresh air whose every interview would include golden nuggets to base catchy headlines upon.
That polarisation has lingered upon Tottenham chair’ Daniel Levy’s decision to cut Postecoglou loose - the 15th manager he has sacked since he took charge of the club in 2001.
Many believes the former Celtic and Socceroos boss deserved more time given he had fulfilled his promise of always winning a trophy in his second season.
The players certainly seems to think so after several glowing testimonials pre and post sacking.
Others standby Levy’s call that a 17th placed Premier League finish with 22 losses, more than Tottenham had ever endured in a 38-game campaign, was in surmountable, and the club needed to look at the likes of Brentford boss Thomas Frank, despite Postecoglou ending the club’s 17-year trophy drought, and 41-year European silverware drought.
It will be a debate that will rage on among football enthusiasts for years to come from London to Melbourne.
There is certainly an abundance of perspectives and examples to talk through from a rollercoaster two seasons for Postecoglou in north London.
‘WILL NOT ALLOW TOTTENHAM TO BECOME ANYTHING OTHER THAN HIS’
Postecoglou knew his dismissal was on the cards when he joked about how sometimes television shows kill off the main character after he said “season three is better than season two” to jubilant Tottenham fans and the Europa League victory parade in London.
In this drama, Levy plays the role of villain, depending on your perspective.
Thousands of Spurs fans certainly think so as they protested his ownership of the club on countless occasions at home games over the years.
Their cries centred on a reluctance to provide managers, all 15 of them during his tenure, with the squad they demand resulting in disappointing performances; as well as a petulance that fosters leaks and discontent within the club, with a frequent desire to turn fans against the manager.
Only this time it did not work, and Postecoglou paid the price.
The Australian was honest, for good and for bad.
To quote Frank Sinatra, Postecoglou said “the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels”.
He certainly did things his way and while that ultimately earned the respect of the fan base, it did not sit well with Levy.
The Telegraph’s football news correspondent Matt Law wrote that when he joined the club “Postecoglou’s aim was not to deliver Levy’s Tottenham back to supporters” as Levy professed he had done when they were unbeaten after Postecoglou’s first ten games in charge.
“He wanted to change the club, the narrative around it and give the fans something to be truly proud of,” Law continued.
“In that regard, he was successful, as the club Postecoglou leaves behind after his sacking could not be further removed from Levy’s Tottenham, thanks to a Europa League trophy success that rendered the ‘Spursy’ tag meaningless.
“But asking the Premier League’s longest-serving chairman to fully invest in him and trust him to build on that victory in Bilbao proved to be an impossible dream.
“Levy simply will not allow Tottenham to become anything other than his.”
As history shows, Levy has plenty of experience sacking managers.
But this time it was different to the others.
He once sacked Jose Mourinho in the days leading up to a League Cup final, whereas on this occasion he waited for some time to think after the Europa League success before making his next move.
Law suggested that “Levy was taken out of his comfort zone by Postecoglou, who revealed that his plan to prioritise the Europa League after the winter transfer window closed did not meet with wholesale approval from within the club”.
While Postecoglou delivered the financial windfall of the Champions League for next season - a minimum £15.7 million (A$32.7m) for just qualifying from the total prize pot of £2.06 billion (A$4.29b) - his side’s poor league standing cost them roughly £36 million (A$75m) in prize money compared to last season.
The focus on the Europa League was a move ultimately deemed too risky by Levy, but the fact it was successful is what makes Postecoglou’s “the strangest Tottenham dismissal of recent years”, according to The Athletic’s Jack Pitt-Brooke.
“He did not leave when the fans had turned on him, but when many had turned back in his favour,” Pitt-Brooke wrote.
“And while most of his predecessors went when the players had grown thoroughly sick of them, and the mood turned fully toxic, he commanded a remarkable loyalty from the squad through the difficult spells and right to the end.”
Sky Sports senior football journalist Peter Smith agreed that the decision has come as things were looking up after bleak periods.
“Should this not be the time to capitalise on the momentum that victory brings and use the Champions League riches it delivered to upgrade Postecoglou’s options in the summer transfer market?” Smith suggested.
“It is easy to imagine the galvanising force the Europa League success, along with the subsequent trophy parade and celebrations could add to the group in pre-season. Confidence and belief had been restored.”
‘BROKEN BEYOND REPAIR’
Postecoglou’s relationship with the Tottenham fans had all the trademarks of a good romantic comedy.
There was the whirlwind honeymoon phase when results were good and the fans sung ‘I’m loving big Ange instead’ to the tune of Robbie Williams’ hit Angels.
Then things got rocky as losses mounted and only the ‘true believers’ as Postecoglou called them showed faith as others called for change.
Then the love was reignited via the captivating Europa League campaign, capped off by the Bilbao triumph.
Postecoglou brought the fans along for the journey throughout the knockouts rounds and they celebrated profusely as they finally enjoyed some success.
But Levy and the other decision makers at Tottenham hit pause with half an hour left in the movie, and left with the hard times firmly imprinted in their memories.
“Look at the relationship between Postecoglou and the crowd, particularly those fans who attend away games,” The Athletic’s Jack Pitt-Brooke wrote.
“There was an incident at Bournemouth on December 5, where Spurs lost 1-0 and the travelling supporters let him know exactly how they felt about the performance. The crowd steadily turned against Postecoglou over the course of the season, and the team were booed off more loudly with every home defeat.
“Things came to a head at Stamford Bridge on April 3. Postecoglou’s decision to take Lucas Bergvall off for Pape Matar Sarr was booed by the away end, who sang, “You don’t know what you’re doing!”.
“When Sarr then thumped in an apparent equaliser, Postecoglou cupped his ear to the Spurs fans and waved at them. The goal was disallowed anyway.
“For many supporters, this was a breaking point. And it left senior figures at the club worrying whether the relationship between Postecoglou and the crowd was now broken beyond repair.
“But then Bilbao happened and, for many fans, that relationship was not only fixed but stronger than it had ever been.”
Twelve months on from when Postecoglou had lamented the club’s “fragile foundations” for the supporters desire for their team to lose to Manchester City to prevent rivals Arsenal from winning the title, the fans were endeared by the way he had passionately stuck up for the club amid media scrutiny.
Postecoglou called out agendas against the team, and demanded greater respect for the accomplishment of making, and then winning, a European final.
The Times’ football reporter Tom Allnut wrote that: “Even the fans loved the way Postecoglou stood up for Tottenham, rather than belittling them like his predecessors had done.
“He called the “Spursy” tag “schoolyard stuff” and ridiculed the debate around them qualifying for the Champions League: “It’s going to upset a lot of people, so that makes me happy.”
But there was another testing relationship that ultimately sowed doubt in the mind of Levy.
‘LIKE A HOUSE OF CARDS’
Undeniably, the chief instigator of Tottenham’s disastrous Premier League campaign was their injury crisis.
This is where the biggest point of conjecture lies.
Some believe it was simply bad luck, others insist it was largely self-inflicted.
‘Angeball’, Postecoglou’s famously intense, at times manic, style of play is physically demanding.
Some argue that he was not given the depth needed to play his way, others suggest he should have adapted better to the cards he was dealt.
The latter becomes somewhat redundant when he did so in Europe, most notably in Bilbao with a steely defensive performance and less aggressive displays in the league in the new year with teenagers and depth players on the park.
The Times’ football reporter Tom Allnut laid out how severe Postecoglou’s Spurs’ injury crisis was.
“In his first season they lost Micky van de Ven (hamstring), James Maddison (ankle) and Rodrigo Bentancur (ankle) in November, and never truly recovered,” Allnut wrote.
“In his second, they never had fewer than five players out from November to February, and in January that number climbed to 12.
“Postecoglou’s defence was ripped apart. Four of his first-choice back five — Guglielmo Vicario (21 games), Destiny Udogie (13), Van de Ven (30) and Cristian Romero (27) — missed a combined 91 games this season due to injury.
“In total, Postecoglou fielded an astonishing 30 different combinations of back four and goalkeeper.”
But the medical staff seemingly were angered by Postecoglou’s approach to managing the almost never ending line of soft tissue issues.
They were the ones baring the brunt of the casualties, despite Postecoglou’s public insistence that the blame lied squarely with him, and they wanted the coach to change his philosophy.
He demanded players go full throttle in defence and attack, while Postecoglou publicly said the mounting injuries were a series of unfortunate circumstances, behind closed doors the views were reportedly different.
“Those ideas grated with medical staff, who warned Postecoglou early in his first season the data for sprint and high-intensity distances in training was too high,” Allnutt wrote.
“Postecoglou insisted the players needed to endure to adapt. Staff were dismayed when he ignored advice around how long players should stay on in games, particularly those returning from injuries. They told him the risk rate of recurrence for a hamstring injury doubles after an hour but Van de Ven played 79 minutes against Chelsea last December, before going off with another hamstring tear.”
The Athletic’s Jack Pitt-Brooke dived into the data behind the territory Postecoglou’s men were covering when they were at their electric best.
“When Spurs were truly on it, playing at their intense physical peak, they were impossible to live with,” he wrote.
“They put up some huge running numbers — 119.8km in a 3-0 win away to Manchester United, 117.7km in that 4-0 at City — some of the highest figures all season.
“But at times it felt like a house of cards, where one part out of place could collapse the whole structure.
“Especially when key players were missing and their replacements were unable to replicate their work.”
‘FEAR OF REPEATING THAT MISTAKE’
In the end, the decisive factor in Levy’s decision to sack Postecoglou was the desire to not be like Manchester United.
Tottenham added to the Red Devils painful season by defeating Ruben Amorim’s side 1-0 in Bilbao.
The Portuguese manager was extracted from Sporting CP in November after a disastrous start to the season, and things only spiralled further out of control at Old Trafford.
Levy could see a similar situation arising at Tottenham next season if he stuck with Postecoglou, according to Sky Sports senior football journalist Peter Smith.
“Spurs’ Europa League final opponents Manchester United were fooled last summer when they extended Erik ten Hag’s contract, allowing the buzz of that FA Cup win over rivals Manchester City to mask their true status,” he wrote.
“At Spurs there was clearly a fear of repeating that mistake.”
The Times’ Tom Allnut wrote that: “There were concerns about attention to detail and fears that the injury situation that derailed his first two seasons could, with the added strain of the Champions League, be repeated in a third.”
Ultimately, no one will ever know how Postecoglou would have fared in a third season at Tottenham.
But what is for certain is that his legacy will long be debated, and his replacement will be immediately placed in a pressure cooker after how Postecoglou’s tenure has played out.
