Ange Postecoglou was far from pleased in his Tottenham press conference after the defeat to Manchester City and, honestly, who can blame him?
A huge clash against the best team in the world with high stakes and it was overshadowed by the potential success of the club’s bitter rivals. while a victory will would have being huge for there champion League hope, it could have also handed arsenal the premier league title.
Heading into the game, City were one point behind the Gunners and anything but a victory would have meant the latter were in control of the title race for the final day. However, two goals without reply from Erling Haaland has placed City in the driving seat to claim their fourth consecutive crown.
After the game, Postecoglou was not in the greatest of moods but perhaps not because of his side’s defeat despite their good performance. when ask if he had the foundation for what he want to build, Postecoglou replied: “No, I think the last 48 hours has revealed to me that the foundations are fairly fragile mate.
“I just think the last 48 hours have revealed a fair bit to me. That’s alright. It just means I’ve got to go back to the drawing board with some things. It’s just my observations mate. I’m not going to tell you, because it’s for me. I’m the one who’s got to do it
You can make your own assessments of what’s happened. I understand. I probably misread the situation as to what I think is important in your endeavour to become a winning team, but that’s ok. That’s why I’m here.” The outburst from postecoglou has cause some rift to emerge among the fan base with many left frustrated this level of fight have to be shown in the last four weeks which cause this scanro to play out.
Emotions were clearly high, though, and upon reflection it is rather important to understand Postecoglou’s anger was not directed at the supporters. Although it may certainly seem that way, this felt like a direct message to chairman Daniel Levy regarding the clear changes needed and the sheer magnitude of them.
A new report from The Athletic as certainly helped back up that suggestion with it being revealed club staff joked to Postecoglou to play the kids in order to stop Arsenal winning the league, something that the Spurs boss did not find funny.
While the initial feeling towards Postecoglou’s comments was confusion from the majority, especially given his Celtic links, upon reflection he is right. If supporters actually want things to change, some harsh truths have to be delivered.
Wanting to lose purely to spite your rivals is a clear mentality issue and that, at least among the younger generation, is understandable given for many of those born in the 2000s, Arsenal were not winning league titles. For the last five years, even though the Gunners have won more trophies it has felt like a much more even playing field, until the last two seasons.
Under Mikel Arteta, they now feel light years ahead of Spurs but that ground can be made up if Levy hands Postecoglou what he wants. Bringing in marquee players is of course great and should be done, but the absolute priority should be trimming the squad.
Depth is of course still needed but it has been made clear on numerous occasions this season that many of the players in the squad, despite their service, are simply not good enough anymore and must be moved on. That is just the simple brutality of it if Spurs want to be successful.
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