The i Paper

Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 Nottingham Forest (Richarlison 87′; Anderson 5′, Wood 16′)

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR STADIUM – Chris Wood kept Nottingham Forest’s Champions League dream very much alive with the winner in a 2-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur.

But the dreams of European glory that Thursday night’s win over Eintracht Frankfurt had engendered in a downtrodden Spurs fanbase faded in 16 first-half minutes on Monday night which, by everyone’s admission, rather summed up Tottenham’s season.

Ange Postecoglou is convinced that the world is out to get Spurs, and him, and where playing Europe-chasing fairytale protagonists Nottingham Forest is concerned he might have been right. But in fact he is getting far more slack in the rope than previous managers who have fallen foul of Daniel Levy.

At least across the touchline for Postecoglou on Monday night was a ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, proving that there is life for Spurs managers who are sacked. (If there weren’t, there wouldn’t be very many top-flight managers left by now.)

Nuno Espirito Santo lasted just four months in north London before pantomime villain Levy donned his dark cloak and swung his scythe the day after Halloween in 2021.

When Nuno was sacked, he had lost five of his last seven league games: with defeat on Monday, so too has Postecoglou.

Yet this is not even the Australian’s worst run of the season, or even the calendar year. Between 22 December and 26 January, Spurs managed a solitary point in their seven league games, drawing 2-2 with Wolves. In the two weeks following that run, they were knocked out of both domestic cups. Much as it is now, the Europa League was their only hope.

Forest probably saved Tottenham from a proper shoeing by their own pragmatism, taking a two-goal lead in just 16 minutes and opting to protect the lead from a Spurs side who would prefer a basketball-style barnstormer as opposed to a pitched battle against a set defence.

Forest battened down the hatches relatively well, despite Tottenham’s 22 shots. They only really relied on goalkeeper Matz Sels twice in the second half to save their bacon, once from Richarlison after some rare mad-cap defending and once to claw away a curling effort by the excellent Wilson Odobert. Otherwise, Sels would have been eying a 14th clean sheet bonus of his Premier League campaign until Richarlison met Pedro Porro’s perfect cross with a powerful header three minutes from time to give the scoreline a less one-sided appearance.

“It’s another game we’ve lost where we shouldn’t lose, and it’s been a big part of our season,” Postecoglou said.

“We’re just making things really difficult for ourselves in key moments. It’s a little bit of concentration, giving away poor goals. It’s a shame, because our football was outstanding. We totally dominated the game.”

He added: “From our perspective, it’s something we need to accept responsibility [for], that we’ve fallen short of the standards we need to have.

“I don’t think they [the players] lack motivation today, because I thought our football was outstanding and but again, we’ve paid the price for lacking focus and concentration in key moments, and it’s another game we’ve let slip.

“We should learn from these things, but it’s a constant in our make-up at the moment that we something we need to eradicate.”

Standards. Concentration. Responsibility. Focus. “We” should learn. Players themselves have to bear some burden for providing those, but they are also things that are coachable. Is this a manager writing his own death warrant by pointing out his own flaws? It starts to feel that way.

The received wisdom is that Postecoglou will survive the summer if he wins Tottenham the Europa League, earning Spurs Champions League football and a first European trophy since 1984.

But there is a chance even that is not enough. Tottenham need another eight points from five remaining games to beat their worst ever Premier League total of 44. This is already their worst ever season at home in a 38-game campaign, having been beaten eight times at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Can Levy really justify hanging on to Postecoglou if the team reach a 30-year low? Previous incumbents of the Australian’s office will feel he is getting special treatment that they never did if he remains in post.

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A deeply frustrating run continues. Bournemouth beat Fulham on Monday evening, but against Crystal Palace they wholly failed to create anything of note. Andoni Iraola’s team have won one of their last 10 games in all competitions and scored more than once in two of those 10.

Iraola was presumably relieved to see Alex Scott avoid a second yellow card for an incident remarkably similar to the one that saw Palace reduced to 10, but I wonder if he might actually have preferred to play 11 vs 11. Before then, Palace were pushing their full-backs forward and leaving space for Antoine Semenyo and Dango Outtara.

Following Chris Richards’s red card, Palace understandably sat back and looked to preserve some energy. That challenged Bournemouth to break down a deep-lying defence and they completely failed in that task. Iraola’s side produced a total expected goals (xG) of 0.28 from nine shots during the second half. They were largely limited to crosses from deep and shots from distance, all low-percentage plays.

That’s a theme. From the nine league games during which Bournemouth have had their highest possession shares, they have taken 10 points in total. From the nine games during which Bournemouth have had their lowest possession shares, they have taken 20 points.

That is the one question about Iraola and those links to bigger jobs. Last week The i Paper reported that he may well sign a new contract to stay at Bournemouth next season despite interest from Tottenham Hotspur. That might allow him to work on improving his ability to create a style that works when given the impetus to break down deeper-lying opponents. The weakness is no longer a secret.

Bournemouth expect Andoni Iraola to stay for at least another season and resist any overtures from Tottenham Hotspur if they decide to sack Ange Postecoglou.

Iraola is understood to figure prominently in Tottenham’s thinking if they decide to fire Postecoglou, who is relying on the Europa League to save a desperately disappointing season.

But the idea that they will be able to prise Iraola from Bournemouth appears fanciful, given both his nature and the scale of the project that is underway on the south coast.

It is understood that Iraola has already begun planning for next season at the Vitality Stadium and appears “all in” at Bournemouth at the moment, where owner Bill Foley has funded a state-of-the-art training ground that opened last month and is close to bringing a Portuguese side into the multi-club project that he hopes will maintain the impressive progress made over the last 12 months.

The Cherries have been one of the surprise packages of the season, but insiders say there is a determination to prove it is no flash in the pan, and that ambition has been stressed to Iraola in positive recent meetings.

Those who know Iraola also describe him as “uniquely focused” on the role at hand and not a manager prone to keeping one eye on possible job opportunities.

He has a year left on his contract and there is a belief that he will stay for at least that, especially with European qualification a possibility in 2025-26.

Iraola has shown in the past that he will carefully select the right roles, turning down a mid-season move to Leeds United in 2023 because he didn’t believe the timing was right and didn’t want to ruin his reputation at Rayo Vallecano.

Having been appointed and then backed by Bournemouth, there is a feeling that he will remain loyal for another year.

The theory is that at that point he may be able to get his pick of roles – or renew with Bournemouth.

Tottenham would appear to present less of an attractive possibility given the internal conflicts at the club and ownership issues that are rumbling in the background.

The i Paper has been told that interest from Qatar Sports Investment (QSI) has not gone away, with some senior figures in football of the belief that it is undermining future planning at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

They have lost 17 out of 32 games this season, languish in 15th place and appear in dire need of a substantial rebuilding job in the summer.

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It would be a huge surprise if Postecoglou, whose side head to Eintracht Frankfurt for a season-defining game on Thursday, was around to see it.

The kind of uncertainty does not exist at Bournemouth, where planning for the summer is already well underway.

And while there has been furious speculation around the future of the players who have lifted them into contention for a place in Europe, the club are under no pressure to sell and are understood to have placed high prices on all of their top prospects.

The outstanding Dean Huijsen – who has a £50m release clause – is certain to leave after just a season at Bournemouth given there is interest from Chelsea, Liverpool, Newcastle United, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain.

The club will look to bank a hefty profit to ease any worries around profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) and ensure any further sales are on their terms.

Liverpool are advancing their interest in Milos Kerkez but Bournemouth want “at least” £40m for the left-back.

Tottenham 3-1 Southampton (Johnson 13′, 42′, Tel 90+6′ | Fernandes 90′ )

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR STADIUM — Home hasn’t provided much comfort for Tottenham lately, but a win in N17 was welcome ahead of Thursday’s pivotal meeting with Eintracht Frankfurt – even if it did come against Southampton, now relegated with seven games still to play.

Ange Postecoglou has been adamant that one of Spurs’ worst seasons in recent memory could yet have a glorious finish. The cockerel’s eggs have long been placed in the Europa League basket, as Spurs have slipped and slid down the Premier League table like an amateur ice skater.

Nevertheless, if Spurs are to end their trophy drought, they will need to generate momentum from somewhere and fast. That was presumably why Postecoglou selected arguably his strongest side, bar Ben Davies for Micky van de Ven, whose taut hamstrings were given a reprieve.

There were positive signs, albeit with the caveat that they came against one of the worst teams in Premier League history.

Brennan Johnson will feel both delighted and annoyed to score two goals, given Mathys Tel selfishly denied him a chance to claim a first Premier League hat-trick with the penultimate kick of the contest.

Some of the attacking football was enterprising and effective, with James Maddison pulling the strings.

The tenets of Angeball have become increasingly tough to spot, but the opening goal was the perfect projection of the Postecoglou philosophy. It started with Cristian Romero’s press-breaking pass from the back and ended with Johnson finishing first-time from Djed Spence’s cutback.

Johnson’s second of the day and 11th league goal of the campaign owed more to Southampton’s statuesque defending than intricate play, with Maddison nodding into his path for another one-touch finish, but a two-goal lead was no less than the hosts deserved.

Spurs played with as much purpose and intensity in the first-half as they have in months, embodied by the dynamic Lucas Bergvall. He has been a blonde-haired beacon in a season of gloom.

In a statement after the publication of the club’s latest annual accounts at the start of April, Spurs chairman Daniel Levy doubled down on a polarising transfer policy by reiterating a commitment to make “smart purchases within our financial means”.

That certainly applies to Bergvall, who has been an unqualified hit since making an £8.5m move from Swedish side Djurgardens last year. Spurs have squandered millions on high-profile players but have struck gold with the 19-year-old, who plays with an assurance and maturity that belies his years.

It was a testament to the Swede’s growing responsibility in this team that he was one of the players peeled off prematurely with Thursday’s game in mind. He had a great game, first in a box-to-box role and then as a sitter, and was unfortunate not to register his first Premier League goal with an instinctive finish.

Postecoglou has long been a dissenting voice against VAR and another lengthy stoppage for Bergvall’s eventual non-goal – clocked at four minutes and 50 seconds – will have done little to quell his anti-tech standpoint.

Complacency set in after the restart as Spurs minds wandered to midweek. Mateus Fernandes’ 89th-minute strike threatened to set up a humiliating finale before Johnson won the penalty that Tel converted.

This was just Spurs’ second home victory in the Premier League in their last 11 games and with the sun shining, most supporters made their way to the exits contentedly.

The scene was different beforehand as hundreds staged a second protest in as many months. Many wielded yellow scarves and banners bearing anti-Enic and Daniel Levy slogans.

“Can Beyoncé play up front?” was a popular chant. With six tour dates slated in for June, Bey will rival most of Spurs’ defenders for appearances at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this season.