Tottenham Hotspur’s clash with AZ on Thursday is arguably the most significant match of Ange Postecoglou’s tenure.
With Spurs languishing in 13th place in the Premier League and already out of both domestic cup competitions, their season now rests on a crucial 90 minutes — or more — at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where they are looking to overturn a 1-0 deficit from the first leg of their round-of-16 tie. Winning the Europa League would give them their first trophy in 17 years and a backdoor into next season’s Champions League.
On the latest episode of The View From The Lane, Danny Kelly, James Maw and Jack Pitt-Brooke debated whether Spurs would stand a better chance of going all the way in the Europa League this season without Postecoglou in charge.
A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on The View from the Lane podcast feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
James: People I spoke to at the Bournemouth game were saying, ‘This is done, there’s no point persisting with this’. The only thing I’d say to that is what I said earlier in the season; unless you’ve got a better option now, then you may as well persist. But that’s not offering much solace and it’s not really a ringing endorsement of this manager.
Jack: I don’t think they would be likelier to win this game with Ryan Mason and Matt Wells in charge, which would be the alternative in the immediate term if they made a change.
James: I’m not expecting you to answer this, but I guess the question should be, ‘Are Spurs more likely to win the Europa League with someone else in charge?’. That should be the only question the club have.
Jack: It’s telling that I don’t know the answer to that question and I don’t have a good answer. Ryan Mason has taken charge of the team twice before and Matt Wells is a very highly rated young coach (36 years old). Hypothetically, if they were to get through, it would only be a quarter-final, semi-final and then the final. I don’t know. As people say, Roberto Di Matteo won a Champions League as a stand-in manager in 2012, so it has been done before.
James: Avram Grant also got to the League Cup and Champions League finals, didn’t he?
Jack: Yeah, he did. But Grant and Di Matteo did have an unbelievably stacked Chelsea squad in terms of experience.
James: Yeah, sure. I don’t think that’s a fair comparison, necessarily.
Danny: A fairer comparison would be what’s happening in Rome this season where Claudio Ranieri, a veteran manager, has come out of retirement and got hold of a bunch of players (at Roma) who were on their knees. They’re almost at the point where they’re seriously challenging for the Champions League and, of course, they’re still in Europe. He’s also made no bones of the fact that not only is he not staying on beyond the end of the season, but he’s also actively part of the team that’s searching for his replacement.
I’m not saying this because it would be him, but let’s call this ‘The Harry Redknapp Argument’. Could you bring in somebody who could lift the players from a vibes perspective, even if not technically, where they were getting more out of them? Because there’s more in this squad than we’re currently getting.
Jack: I just can’t see Tottenham doing that.
Danny: No, nor can I. But the danger is that whatever the result is on Thursday, they will carry on to the end of the season regardless of what happens in the Europa League. Then I suspect — and I’ve got to say it because no logical analysis of what’s happened this season would lead to the manager keeping his job, and I say that knowing that he is a human being who has probably given his absolute best — that Spurs will change.
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(Top photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
