It was the moment that Tottenham had been waiting for. That wasn’t a trophy, though, since Ange Postecoglou had already just delivered that.
It was how he would would mark it, at least with the media. Brennan Johnson, in effect the match-winner, had already set it up.
“I will be looking forward to his interview,” Johnson said. “If ever there was a moment for a mic drop it is now.”
Except, it didn’t come. The trophy lift was sufficient. Postecoglou, just like in the whole Europa League campaign, adapted. This was now a celebration, so he celebrated. He was happy, if not without some defiance, and some of his press conference was genuinely moving. Postecoglou spoke about his family and his late father, and just what it meant.
Some of this may surprise those who have focused on the controversies of the last 24 hours, as well as the season, but it shouldn’t. Postecoglou can be prickly, but he generally has a good relationship with the media he meets all the time. He even laughed at how the season’s schedule meant he had met them around 160 times.
There was one weighted line, which he explained he was taking from former Australian prime minister Paul Keating’s surprise election victory in 1993: “This is one for the true believers.” He did seem to slightly croak as he said it, although that may have been from all the shouting – and cheering.
There were also some things Postecoglou wanted to make clear, and it wasn’t his future, although he did insist this “can be a great platform for us to keep on”.
Having acknowledged that this was his “toughest” success, and that he could get some of the criticism for Tottenham’s league form, he spoke about how he dealt with it.
Postecoglou claimed that he decided to fully prioritise the Europa League just before the knock-out stage.
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“We got to the end of the January window and assessed it and I made the decision this was the trophy to go for,” he explained.
“That was probably at odds with other people at the club but I believed we could win this. Everything we’ve done in training, games, team selections was making sure we were in the best condition when these games came around. That’s come at a cost in the league. I just felt the end game was more important.”
The final victory, truly, will now last forever in Spurs’ history.
It is amid this general celebration that some more layered analysis is due.
As soon as Postecoglou made that comment about his choice, some in the game and outside it were already expressing cynicism. Tottenham’s form had already been poor before this decision, and it became unacceptable just before the close of that window. Postecoglou’s side lost six of their seven games leading up to the end of January, and drew the other.
This, bluntly, is why it has been expected he is going. As regards his “belief” they could win the Europa League, then, even a club as embattled as Spurs have a wage bill that is at least three times more than everyone in the competition – except a hapless Manchester United. This shouldn’t really have been a question of belief.
Given the relative strength of Spurs’ opposition, too, shifting priorities shouldn’t mean dropping to just above the relegation zone.
Postecoglou said “people can bang on about 20 league defeats but they’re missing the point of what we’re trying to do here”.
Except, they’re not really. You can’t blithely skip over that at this level. What he should be trying to do is build something sustainable for the league, of which there is still little evidence.
Right now, however, that is all just noise. It’s the same with the discussion of how bad an utterly forgettable game was.
All of that is being drowned out by celebration – and a new certainty.
Postecoglou had fulfilled his promise, that he wins trophies in his second season, so he could go all in on the other main message of his victory press conference.
“Mate, I’m a winner, it’s what I’ve done more than anything.”
There were a few variations of this.
More interesting, however, was the manner in which he won. After all the criticism over naivety and ideology, Postecoglou so conspicuously shifted from the latter, and displayed real canniness. It ultimately outdid Ruben Amorim.
“All my teams play different in knock-out games,” Postecoglou said. “You need a clear game plan. Games come down to moments. Players embraced it because it was always going to be our approach in Europe.”
The squad certainly played for him, as influential defender Micky van de Ven was only too keen to make clear.
There are bigger questions over whether this shift can now lead to that sustainable progress in the league, given it has really been steady decline there since his first 10 games. It may not even come to that, though.
While glory offers the purest emotional clarity, it does put Spurs in a typically complicated situation. Everyone has been saying since January – coincidentally enough – that Postecoglou is going no matter what.
As Manchester United found out last year with Erik ten Hag, though, there’s a difference between saying it then and actually going through with it amid the emotion of victory.
Spurs chairman Daniel Levy may be known as one of the most calculating figures in the game, but he’s never actually been in a situation like this. Juande Ramos was sacked months after the League Cup victory in 2008, when it was hardly a difficult decision.
This suddenly is.
Spurs will be all too conscious of the Ten Hag situation and the need to be cold, but Postecoglou can say he deserves the chance. He’s given the club what they most wanted.
As to whether he actually gets to say that, Postecoglou revealed there had been “no planned meetings, no discussions”.
“Nobody has spoken to me. Maybe they feel like they don’t need to or they’re waiting for this game.”
He had his own plans.
“I’m going back to my hotel room with my beautiful family and friends, open a bottle of scotch and a few cold ones.
“After that, I’ll go on holiday with my family, because I deserve it…”
And?
“Que sera, sera.”
Except, in the middle of all that, there was one conspicuous statement. It wasn’t a mic drop but it was left hanging.
“Even when I signed, Daniel Levy said ‘we went after winners and it didn’t work, now we’ve got Ange’.”
Now, they’ve got a trophy. They’ve also got a big decision.
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