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4 hours ago
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In the buildup to the north London derby the former Tottenham goalkeeper Paul Robinson repeated a line that almost every pundit/journalist/fan has used this season: “With Spurs, you don’t know what you’re going go get.” The trouble is it feels increasingly – especially in the league – that you know exactly what you’re going to get.
Wednesday night appeared entirely predictable. Watching two great young prospects, Djed Spence and Archie Gray, play the ball to each other, slowly but surely progressing it backwards towards their own corner flag before giving away possession/a throw/a corner with almost no other options, seemed like a very limited and dispiriting choose your own adventure.
On the rare occasion Spurs had the ball in Arsenal’s half, at no point did the players look like breaking through the back line. Knocking the ball from one side to the other, ignoring the opportunity to sling it into the box so Pedro Porro could overhit an impossible pass inside the full-back, giving Gabriel Magalhães another opportunity to show just how good he is at shepherding a ball out of play.
As with all football matches, it is worth pointing out the existence of the opposition. Arsenal may not be thrilling going forward but defensively they were absolutely brilliant. Even in the exact moment of conceding a goal they didn’t really look in any danger.
Spurs, since beating Manchester City 4-0 at the Etihad at the end of November, are 18th in the form table. They have five points from a possible 27. They are level on points with Crystal Palace and below West Ham. Since Ange Postecoglou’s impossibly good start last season (26 points from the first 10 games), his league win percentage is 39%.
So is there any kind of compelling case for keeping him? None of us is objective. Since moving to Australia I have been brainwashed by the football community. Perhaps because there are no Australian superstars in the men’s game, Ange carries the hopes of a wildly passionate set of fans who are almost universally desperate for him to succeed.
A lot of Premier League fans and pundits are quick to dismiss his achievements elsewhere. The A-League, the J-League, Scotland. If anything, the Scottish Premiership is a bit of an outlier compared to his previous successes. The Sydney Morning Herald sports reporter Vince Rugari wrote Angeball: The definitive biography of Ange Postecoglou. “Celtic is the only time he’s clearly had the best/richest team in the league,” he says. “In every job he’s had he’s faced exactly the same questions/criticisms as he is now: he must adapt, it won’t work at this level, he’s naive, been found out, no plan B. Every time he’s proved that sort of narrative totally wrong.
“If you’re faced with the question: ‘Do we trust this guy to turn it around?’ It really depends for me how highly you rate his credentials from earlier in his career. If you think Asia is a joke and that it’s easy to win the Asian Cup or whatever, and can’t recognise how difficult it is to navigate a salary cap and build a team that plays possession football with limited Aussie players … then yeah you probably think, bin this guy. But if you are the opposite, then betting against Ange is a bit like thinking that maybe this time Wile E. Coyote is gonna get that bloody Road Runner.”
Injuries also matter. They are not interesting to talk about – any conversation about them ends with: “Everyone has them, you just have to find a way.” But they can define seasons. If important players are injured in positions where you have limited cover you will get fewer points. To be without your first-choice goalkeeper and centre-backs (and now left-back) for such an extended period means Spurs should be a few points lower than expected.
It also adds to the exhaustion of the 14 or so who are playing every few days. There is an interesting question about how much Ange’s style contributes to injuries. Historically there doesn’t seem to be a consistent pattern of it happening under him, although perhaps the physicality and relentlessness of the Premier League pushes Angeball hamstrings past their elastic limit.
Limited cover, especially at the back, seems an important point here. Where should blame be apportioned for going into a season with only three centre-backs and a second keeper with such a wildly different skill set to your No 1?
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This is where Daniel Levy comes in. The Football Weekly podcast regular, and Spurs season-ticket holder, Mark Langdon from the Racing Post articulated it well on a recent episode. “Inside the stadium not many people have been calling for Ange to go. I think the issues lie way above Postecoglou. Daniel Levy has been in charge for a quarter of a century.
“ There’s a direct link between wage bill expenditure and success in football and Tottenham have tried to do it on the cheap. According to Deloitte’s last figures, for the 2022-23 season, Spurs have got the lowest wages to revenue ratio in the Premier League. That in itself shows a lack of ambition. They wanted [Leandro] Trossard, they wanted [Pedro] Neto, they wanted Luis Díaz. They got [Arnaut] Danjuma, [Manor] Solomon and Timo Werner. There are lots of things at the club that people are unhappy with and Ange is a long way down that list even though things are not going well on the pitch.”
So if football leagues are the same (a big if), history suggests that Ange, with a fit squad and a bit more investment, can overachieve with Spurs. Perhaps for a number of reasons the Premier League is where this approach falls down. Postecoglou is coming up against the best managers and players he’s ever faced.
I would stick with him – for this season, and next. If nothing else to just see it play out. At their best under Ange they are a brilliant and thrilling football team. I am more interested to see if he can get them doing that consistently than to see another manager come in and start again.
Worst-case scenario Spurs are average at best for another couple of years. Their fans should be well adjusted to cope with that – nothing in the past two and a half decades suggests someone else would do better. Just imagine if it did work, with those talented teenagers at the heart of it. If all things were fair and equal, then this crisis will only make the story better in the end.
