Tottenham hotspur fans are in a bit of a pickle. Spurs host three time defending Premier League champions manchester city on Tuesday. A win means Tottenham clinch fifth place and are still in with a remote chance of champions league qualification. A win also means that they’ve gone up against one of the best teams in the Premier League and beaten them with an injury-ridden and out of form squad.
Pretty good, right? Well, the flip side of that situation is that beating Manchester City could very well hand the Premier League title to Arsenal, assuming they beat Everton this weekend. According to a non-insignificant percentage of Tottenham fans, they’d rather see Spurs lose — and could even actively root against their favorite club — in order to prevent their biggest rival from winning the title.
Now, look — far be it from me to tell people how to fan on this blog dot com. Fandom is irrational, banter is eternal, and I’m not going to sit here and tell you how you should navigate your own fandom.
Just don’t ask Ange Postecoglou his take on it, because he’s likely to (gently) call you an idiot. In fact, he was asked about this “Spurphie’s Choice” and, as is his way, completely rejected the premise of the question.
Purposefully lose a football match? Get the f— out of here.
“So you think the majority of our fans will want us to not win tomorrow night? I don’t see it that way. I think the majority of our fans will create the atmosphere they always create at our home games. Irrespective, we have a game of football to win and that is what we are going to try to do.
“There’s a pretty simple notion to this – there’s a game of football tomorrow night. What do you think is going to happen? What do you think we’re going to do as a team? Or any team on this planet. Aren’t we just going to try and win? It’s a simple, basic premise. Now how that makes people feel, I’m not really fussed. I don’t really care. I’d hate to think that anyone will think we’ll go out there tomorrow with anything other than trying to measure ourselves against a top team and maybe win a game of football that’s consequential. How are we ever going to become a team that wins things if in the big games we shy away from it? Why would we shy away from a challenge tomorrow that exists? Look, I get it. Your straw poll of Arsenal fans if it’s correct, and if we walk out to 50 per cent boos tomorrow and 50 per cent cheering… but I think that’s highly unlikely.”
This answer is likely going to make that same segment of Spurs fandom really angry, but, like, what else is Postecoglou supposed to say? “Yeah, mate, we care more about our rivals not winning than we do about winning.” No way. That might be a valid position for a football fan to take, but there’s a practically zero percent chance of a top football club taking that position. Footballers and football managers play games because they want to win them. Everything else is secondary. Honestly, I feel a little embarrassed for the reporters who felt the need to ask him that, because it’s a ridiculous premise that’s more at home in pubs and amongst friends than at a press conference.
“Well yeah if you’re going by social media then probably 99% of supporters don’t [want Spurs to win], but please don’t tell me that’s your world. There’s a bigger world out there mate. We’ll need to have a counselling session if that’s your world.
“To me, I don’t understand it, I never will. I understand rivalry. I was part of one of the biggest ones in the world in the last couple of years with Celtic and Rangers and I understand the rivalry but I’ve never and will never understand if someone wants their own team to lose. That’s not what sport is about. It’s not what I love about the game. What I love more than anything in the game is the competitiveness, challenging yourself to beat someone and coming out successful. Anything outside of that it’s got nothing to do with sport. It’s got nothing to do with me.
“If other people want to treat it that way, that they get pleasure from other people’s misery, that’s not how I’ve lived my life and how I perceive my role. My role is to bring success to this football club and whatever proportion, whether it’s his two mates or 99% of people you know, I know 100% of Spurs supporters want us to win, be successful and win trophies. That is without a shadow of a doubt and us winning tomorrow night will help us bring joy to 100% of Spurs supporters.”
That said, it’s also pretty clear that Ange Postecoglou understands what it means to be a football fan, because he’s one himself. He’s referenced numerous times over the course of the season about how fans are allowed to feel the way they want to feel with regards to their team. A little later on, while discussing whether Manchester City could win their fourth straight title, he even says that fans’ hatred of their rivals is motivation.
“Well [City] haven’t [won the title] yet. That’s an important point. They haven’t done it yet but if you think they have, then it does become an issue because everyone is putting down the red carpet for them. I’m not going to do that. I don’t think other managers would do that. I’m certainly not going to sit down and watch them win again. That doesn’t sit comfortably with me.
“That’s in the hands of each club to try to break that dominance and try to create teams that will challenge their dominance. As a supporter I’ve always felt, I have been a supporter of the game and I have supported clubs when I was younger, I was just interested in my club. I didn’t care about anyone else. I just wanted my club to win, I just wanted my club to be successful. I couldn’t care less about other teams other than hating them to the core of my being, but apart from that I just wanted my team to be successful.”
So Big Ange is going to set up Tottenham Hotspur to do their damndest to beat Manchester City tomorrow, as he should, and let the chips fall where they may. They might lose anyway, but it won’t be for lack of trying. End of discussion, I guess.
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