The Curious Case of Ange Postecoglou
From the day he was appointed manager of Tottenham Hotspur, Ange Postecoglou was always fighting an uphill battle. Coming from dominating the Scottish Premier League with Celtic FC, to now coaching in the toughest league in the world, the English Premier League, Ange is facing one of his biggest challenges. Coaching Tottenham Hotspur.
A big reason I believe in Ange Postecoglou is his ability to overcome adversity and rise above the challenges in his path. Every coaching job he goes into is a step up, so it’s plain to see when you’ve started off coaching in the semi-professional league of Australia, to the English Premier League, that you’re definitely doing something right. I mention this because some criticism Ange receives is regarding his experience coaching in Australia, Japan, and Scotland. Despite possessing a resume of over 16 years of coaching professional football, it is not deemed good enough for the Premier League. I personally think that is just English arrogance. When they see someone who’s not English, doing well in their country, it’s very easy to put them down, and in Ange Postecoglou’s case, he is not doing very well.
Tottenham now sit 14th in the Premier League, knocked out of two cup competitions, but remain in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League. Yes, Ange and his team should cop the blame for the team sitting 14th, as I felt there was a lack of proper preparation when approaching the league games, and this is something he’s recently mentioned in an interview with Mark Schwarzer. In terms of the cup competitions, I think any manager who comes to Tottenham Hotspur is under immense pressure to win trophies, given our trophy drought, so I don’t blame him for that. I still find it crazy that Tottenham are odds-on favourites to win the competition, even at this stage of the season, given the teams still in the Europa League, again English arrogance. It would be stupid to dismiss the other teams, do I think we can win the competition? Of course, I do, whether we will is a different thing. It’s weird how Ange’s fate now seems like it rests in how we do in Europe, cause it’ll basically mean he stays if we win and he leaves if we lose. But then again, if he gets sacked, who do we replace him with?
Thomas Frank? Andoni Iraola? or even Marco Silva? I’m not dismissing these managers and their seasons, but I feel the only thing they have over Ange is more years of Premier League experience. Something Ange is adding to his resume. You can see more similarities in playing style with maybe Iraola but with Frank and Silva, it could mean another season building on a different style of play, and it was made plain and simple when Ange was appointed, the club would only sign managers who had an attacking way of play. Besides, all managers are doing adequate jobs at their current clubs, so why would they ever leave that?
Criticism is inevitable and especially in the Premier League. Something I don’t understand is the reaction to the answers Ange gives the media in press conferences and interviews. I feel fans in general expect managers to be honest and transparent, but at the same time not, they will get angry when Ange answers honestly and claim he is not being professional or respectful to reporters and journalists, when they try to get a reaction. Even with “fans” who shout abuse at Ange, look, I understand it’s best not to react, but I understand if Ange gives someone a response. Football fans are extremely brutal, and I think there is a sense of entitlement amongst some fans where they feel they can do and say what they want because they bought a ticket. Anyway, that is a separate issue.
To conclude this, I’ll simply say if we get knocked out of the Europa League, I’ll continue supporting Ange and even more if we win because I see the vision and I whole heartedly believe that vision. Like I always say, Ange will always have my support till the day he is not manager of Spurs. COYS.
