Ange Postecoglou believes people “are waiting for the white smoke” to see if he will be sacked as Tottenham manager but claimed ending their 17-year wait for silverware would be a “turning point” in the club’s history.
Spurs face Manchester United in next Wednesday’s Europa League final, aiming to salvage a desperate season which hit new depths on Sunday as they fell to a 20th Premier League defeat of the campaign against Crystal Palace.
Sources have told ESPN that Postecoglou is facing a battle to save his job but it remains to be seen whether delivering the club’s first trophy since the 2008 League Cup is enough to convince the Tottenham hierarchy to keep the Australian in post.
Postecoglou, who will have two years remaining on his contract this summer, likened the situation to the conclave, the private process by which cardinals select the Pope, as part of an answer in which he discussed the reasons behind Spurs’ trophy drought.
“Some of it [is psychological], not all of it because you can’t dismiss the fact that I’ve also had to change pretty much everything at the club in terms of playing style, in terms of the squad,” he said.
“It’s not like I took over a team that finished third and is constantly in that echelon. The year before I took over, we were eighth. We weren’t even in Europe.
“So it’s not just been ‘Ok, this is the final bit.’ We’ve had to do a whole lot of other things. We’ve done a lot of heavy lifting in the last two years. We’ve signed a lot of young players with the right kind of thinking for the future.
“That’s costing us now because we don’t have a squad that can cope with what’s going through now. It is not just psychological, it is about trying to change a whole range of things but also have that piece [of silverware].
“My view was that’s what I’ll get judged on. I could have been sitting here fifth last year, fifth this year — maybe people wouldn’t be waiting for the white smoke to see if it’s my last one — but they’d still be saying ‘You know Ange, that’s great but its all been done before. Until this club wins something, you haven’t made an impact.’
“I kind of knew throughout my tenure last year, that’s what I was going to be judged on so now we have an opportunity to do that.”
Tottenham lost the 2019 Champions League final to Liverpool and have faced regular accusations of falling short with the prizes in sight, a phenomenon described as “Spursy” by the clubs detractors.
“When you look at the historical backdrop of this club and what it’s been through on the last 20-odd years, I feel like it could be a turning point in terms of the way the club is perceived but also more how it perceives itself which I think is the biggest thing,” Postecoglou said.
“Until you do that, irrespective of what else you accomplish, people will still say you haven’t won anything and in our game, in life in general, that’s the things that matter most when people assess where you’re at.
“That’s the hurdle this club has to overcome because it’ll always be there. Until you actually do it, then you are fair game for people to say ‘you’ve always kind of fluffed it on the big stage.’
“Irrespective of what the opposition say or what anyone else says, what you’ve got to try and do is break that cycle. Whatever motivation you need to do that, you tap into. So there may be things we do tap into but to really do something as significant as what you want to do, there has got to be a higher purpose than shutting people’s mouths up.
“I think it is more about ‘can you make an impact?’ I often say to the players that at the end of your careers, what you want to be able to do is go back to the clubs you served and know you’ve made an impact.
“The photos I see up on the walls at the stadium are all of Bill Nicholson. The 1984 winning team. A lot of them are in black and white. Can we get this group up on that wall?”
