Sacking Ange after Europa League trophy would be the ultimate ‘Spursy’ move

What is it, to be Spursy?

It’s more than just not winning things. Being Spursy is having the ability to get yourself into positions to succeed and having the inexplicable ability to throw it away, through sometimes outrageous levels of self-sabotage. Coming up clutch in the moments that give you the opportunity for triumph, but falling short in the moments that actually matter.

It’s sacking Jose Mourinho, two days before a cup final that could have ended a more than a decade wait for a major trophy.

It’s developing England’s greatest all time national team goalscorer – Harry Kane – and failing to convert a single major trophy.

It’s Lucas Moura scoring a miraculous second-leg hattrick, 3-0 down to Ajax in a Champions League semi-final, and then falling flat against Liverpool in the final.

Heading into a Europa League final against one of the worst Manchester United sides in recent memory, you’d think the Spursy script would write itself.

Perhaps a Richarlison sitter that crashes into the crossbar, a Harry Maguire header that slips through the palms of Guglielmo Vicario, or 13 Alejandro Garnacho step-overs before a deflected shot ends up in the Tottenham net.

But no, in the early hours of the Australian morning, Ange Postecoglou led Tottenham to their first major trophy in 17 years, and their first European in over 40.

Losing this game however, is never what Spurs fans should have been most afraid of. Now they’ve seen success, how do they cope with it? They will celebrate this trophy, and they should – for a while. But what comes next?

Their inexperience with victory could lead to the most Spursy move of all: sacking Ange Postecoglou.

“I’m not a clown, mate”

In his pre-final press conference, Ange hit back at a reporter that had suggested the Europa League trophy would decide whether he would be perceived as a hero or a clown, as the dust settles on the 2024/25 season.

The use of “clown” was excessive and Ange had a right to be irritated, but the general sentiment of how football history would perceive this Tottenham season was right on the money.

A loss: Ange would be just one in a line of experiments that failed to get Tottenham over the line for a trophy, and remembered more for their disastrous performance in the Premier League – currently only one position out of the relegation zone.

A win: he becomes the first manager outside of Europe and Argentina to win a major European trophy, forever etches his name in Tottenham, European and Australian football history (not that the latter was in doubt).

It was a fine line, but one that Ange has fallen on the right side of. Many have also thought that it would be the line that determines his future at the football club.

All of a sudden, Ange is the antithesis of everything that rival clubs have shouted at Tottenham for at least the last decade.

“I would be disappointed if we couldn’t continue on this path … whatever happens, my own belief in what I do doesn’t waver and I’ll continue to push on and do what I do,” Postecoglou said post match.

Again, winning the Europa League and breaking the drought is a terrific achievement that should and will be celebrated well into the off-season, but there will be longer term thinking behind the scenes.

17th in the League

“Obviously the way things have gone in the league, people are right to be concerned about [the team], but I don’t think that’s a true reflection of where [the project] is at,” Ange reflected after the game.

Ange Postecoglou has given Tottenham a glimpse of what success looks like. Overcoming that mental hurdle is more valuable than any revolutionary on-field tactic. It has the power to cast aside doubt, and inspire belief.

We’ve even seen Ange adapt. He’s always maintained that knockout football is a different breed, so take what you will from the performance in the final. They looked a defensively cautious team, leaps and bounds away from the one that played a half-way offside trap with nine men, against Chelsea back in November of 2023.

Their form in the Premier League has been atrocious, but there are reasons for that.

After January, the eggs were firmly in the European basket. Not to mention having to deal with one of the worst injury runs of any team in the league.

Tottenham should be aiming to be a consistent Champions League outfit, but a poor domestic campaign in exchange for ending the trophy drought in Europe, is a deal with the devil that most Spurs fans would’ve jumped at on match day one.

And now that trophy-less streak is broken, they’ll go into season 2025/26 with new life. Not to mention Champions League football.

Will Ange drastically improve the league performance next campaign? Maybe, maybe not. That’s football.

But Tottenham are on a journey that is bigger than just this Europa League title. How can Daniel Levy not even give Ange the chance to carry through this momentum?

With a fit squad, another full off-season still resulting in poor league form and a few losses in the Champions League – fair enough, that might be the end of it.

But to remove him now? That would be the most Spursy move of all.