So we will never know now if Ange Postecoglou was right about his theory that his third season at Tottenham Hotspur, like the third season of a great television series, would have been better than his second.
We will never know if Big Ange had a later-series masterpiece in him like Ozymandias in Breaking Bad. Instead, it turns out that an episode called ‘Bilbao’ was Postecoglou’s magnum opus. Because on Friday afternoon, Season 3 was cancelled.
Just for the shortest time, Postecoglou was the king of kings in a corner of north London, leading Spurs to their first trophy for 17 years when they beat Manchester United in the Europa League final that night in late May in the Basque Country.
What a night that was, a night when it felt as if Spurs had finally shed their cursed identity as a team of nearly men, a team that always found a way to ruin things, a team expert in self-sabotage and under-achievement.
It was a personal triumph for Postecoglou, too. As Spurs’ Premier League season lurched from one low to another — they lost 22 of their 38 games — he was lampooned as a big Aussie out of his depth in a big league but victory in Spain bracketed him with Bill Nicholson and Keith Burkinshaw as the only Spurs bosses to have won a European trophy.
To be there that evening in the San Mames was to share in the wondrous and joyous disbelief of a long-suffering fan base that had finally silenced all those jokes about what ‘Spursy’ meant and had walked through a door into another land.
Tottenham Hotspur announced the harsh sacking of manager Ange Postecoglou on Friday
Postecoglou was dismissed just 16 days after lifting the UEFA Europa League trophy in Bilbao
‘The only thing that was going to change this football club,’ Postecoglou said that night after the match, ‘was us winning something.’ And in that moment, it felt as if maybe he might have been reprieved after a terrible season when Spurs had finished 17th in the league.
But 16 days have elapsed since then. Days of silence and doubt and rumour and counter-rumour before the statement on Friday from Daniel Levy and theSpurs board that shattered Postecoglou’s hopes of being able to build on what he achieved in Bilbao. ‘Whilst winning the Europa League this season ranks as one of the club’s greatest moments,’ the statement announcing Postecoglou’s departure read, ‘we cannot base our decision on emotions aligned to this triumph.
‘It is crucial that we are able to compete on multiple fronts and believe a change of approach will give us the strongest chance for the coming season and beyond. This has been one of the toughest decisions we have had to make and is not a decision that we have taken lightly, nor one we have rushed to conclude.
‘We have made what we believe is the right decision to give us the best chance of success going forward, not the easy decision. We have a talented, young squad and Ange has given us a great platform to build upon.’
Talk of the succession, of course, is already rife. Thomas Frank, who has done such a consistently brilliant job at Brentford and is one of the best man-managers in the game, is the favourite to take over. Andoni Iraola, the Bournemouth boss, has been mentioned. Others favour a return for former manager Mauricio Pochettino, now the coach of the USA men’s national team.
It was a logical, cogent statement that took all the emotionof Bilbao out of the equation and in some ways it is easy to sympathise with the decision. After all, when Manchester United abandoned their plan to fire Erik ten Hag after he had led the club to an FA Cup final victory over Manchester City, it backfired on them spectacularly and they were lambasted for the naivety of their decision.
This feels different, though. For one thing, United are a team used to winning things. Even in the context of the hard times they have fallen upon since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson, the FA Cup is a relative trifle compared to the bigger prizes they once chased.
But for Spurs, winning the Europa League in Bilbao felt like a game-changer. I have rarely felt energy like that in a stadium before, the energy of redemption, the energy of renewal and the energy of hope. It should have been the start of something, not the end of something.
At Tottenham’s trophy parade in London, Postecoglou declared that in ‘all the best television series… season three is better than season two’
But there will be no season three of Ange at Tottenham, thanks to chairman Daniel Levy (right)
Now that Postecoglou has been fired, it feels as if all that momentum and all that magic has been lost. Suddenly, the club have invited ridicule upon themselves again: they hired a manager who won them their first European trophy for 41 years and then they sacked him. It feels, I hate to say it, a little Spursy.
It feels, again, like plucking a defeat from the jaws of victory. Because Postecoglou had done the hard part. Victory in Bilbao proved that he was not the impostor some had painted him as. Had Spurs kept faith with him, winning the Europa League would have given Postecoglou added authority next season, not to mention added funds.
United are hardly a model that one should aspire to but they did, at least, keep faith with Ruben Amorim after a league season almost as dire as Tottenham’s. They believe in his plan and they are sticking with him. Spurs should have done the same with Big Ange.
Postecoglou had a plan, too. In the early months of his tenure, his team played football that was breathtaking to watch. That was derailed by injuries and it was not until last season’s European adventure that Postecoglou proved he could adapt and play more pragmatically.
But he did prove that. He won a trophy to prove it. And next season he would have felt the benefits of all the hardships his side endured last season. He would have reaped the rewards of the experience he gave fine young players such as Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall. He had a system, a plan. He should have been given a dividend from Spurs’ participation in the Champions League to develop his ideas.
Instead, however good the manager is that Spurs appoint — and Frank, in particular, is a man who has earned a shot at managing in the Champions League — Spurs are heading back to that place they know so well called Square One with a new boss who has the unenviable task of trying to follow that success in Bilbao.
What the future holds for Postecoglou, nobody yet knows. For now, like the statue of Ozymandias that Percy Shelley described, he lies like a ‘colossal wreck’ in the desert of his hopes of building on that one beautiful night in northern Spain.
THE STATS THAT MADE SPURS SACK ANGE POSTECOGLOU
17. Spurs finished 17th last season, their worst finish of the Premier League era and their worst in any top-flight season since 1976-77, when they were last relegated.
63. Only the three relegated teams and Wolves conceded more league goals last season than Spurs (63).
