Daniel Levy, executive chairman of Tottenham Hotspur (right) and Tottenham Hotspur manager, Ange Postecoglou, watch the women's Super League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, December 16, 2023 in London, England
In Daniel Levy (right), Ange Postecoglou works for a chairman who is quick to sack his head coach
There is only one thing more dangerous for embattled Tottenham Hotspur managers than grievances directed at them from a disgruntled support – and that is when the same fans turn on Daniel Levy.
The Spurs chairman, who has piled up 11 major managerial departures on his watch, gets very jumpy when the support directs its rage at him. Over and again Levy has offered up the manager as a sacrifice – and most of the time it works. The anger abates, the world turns. Levy is not a popular man at the club he has run for two decades. But he is still the man who runs it, and that appears to be the priority.
Enter Ange Postecoglou, the manager who came from nowhere – a dreamer of sorts, a high-line absolutist with a troubled countenance. A man who observes the kind of joyfully reckless football he demands of his players with a touchline aspect of stoic forbearance.
It can be a strange combination. In his darker moments, Postecoglou can conduct press conferences with the grim resignation of an old Prussian general who has just had the day’s casualty numbers whispered in his ear.
Sometimes one wonders: does Postecoglou know? Surely, he knows. He must know how it ended for all the others, from Glenn Hoddle to Mauricio Pochettino; from Jose Mourinho to poor old Nuno Espírito Santo, who barely seemed to be there at all. Dispatched with his luggage trolley still unpacked in the corner of the office.
It could all come apart today for Postecoglou with a supporter base strung out and frazzled on a lifetime of recriminations.
Ange Postecoglou manager of Tottenham Hotspur look on after Roma equalise during the UEFA Europa League League Stage match against Roma at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, United Kingdom, 28 November 2024
Postecoglou was involved in a heated exchange with a Spurs fan after the defeat at Bournemouth
Facing Chelsea at home is freighted with all the usual regrets for Spurs. Discounting even the wider picture, which is to say the divergence in the two clubs’ fortunes over the past two decades, there is the divergence in the past two months alone.
Even Chelsea, leveraged up on private-equity cash, living in the far margins of the financial control hinterlands, seem to have some kind of momentum. Spurs, on the other hand, are now back to quarrelling amongst themselves. Postecoglou confronting his own supporters on Thursday felt entirely in keeping with the repeating of a story.
A story that endures through many different managers, and their many different approaches – the iron fist, the arm-around-the-shoulder, three at the back, wing-backs. There have been three different home stadiums, one Amazon Prime documentary, Harry Kane’s Skechers boot deal. It never changes.
Manager’s problem? He thinks it is all about him
One can understand Postecoglou’s reasons for refusing to back down in the face of that away support hostility. We know his backstory, which is an uplifting tale of immigration, adversity, and triumph against the odds.
The trouble is he thinks this is all about him. But the 21st century story of Spurs is never about the manager, whomever he might be. It is about Levy. It is always about Levy at Spurs. He has even outlasted the ruthless Caribbean-domiciled billionaire who enabled his rise to chairman. Another managerial career added to the body-count is not going to make much difference.
Which is why Postecoglou needs the supporters – and why those same fans wield such power. When they demand the end of Levy and the reign of Spurs’ parent company Enic, what they are actually effecting is managerial change.
Postecoglou, for his part, has never cashed in what would be an entirely reasonable complaint that he lost Kane, one of the greatest players in the club’s history, before he had even coached a game.
Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur applauds the fans after the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Brentford FC at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on May 20, 2023 in London, England
Postecoglou swallowed Harry Kane’s sale without complaint
Heung-min Son, Hugo Lloris’s successor as captain, is 32 and while still outstanding on his day, the day is closer to its end. Spurs spent £100 million on five teenagers in the summer and Postecoglou has owned the decision on behalf of the club without complaint.
With the fans Postecoglou has been less sure-footed. The nose-to-nose at Bournemouth followed Postecoglou’s grim verdict after the Brighton capitulation which added to the despair. When Spurs faced Manchester City at the end of last season, he never quite grasped the essence of the debate when the general mood among supporters was that they wished not to help Arsenal’s title prospects. Even if that imperilled their own Champions League qualification.
That would have been an easy issue for Postecoglou to leave alone. He will know from his time with Celtic that a fanbase’s personal list of priorities can look peculiar from the outside and that often it is best not to ask, or to challenge. They have their reasons, and that is a debate that no manager can ever really hope to win. What most supporters, of any stripe, cannot stand is being told how to define the nature of that support.
Chairman devoted to keeping fans at end of their tether
Levy’s most successful manager, Pochettino, did not put a trophy on the boardroom table either, but he kept the complaints of the supporters about Levy at bay for longer than any other. At his most strategic, Pochettino created the notion of a manager-chairman partnership with Levy – a bromance sealed over a white-water rafting trip. But in the end, it was not enough to save Pochettino either.
There is something compelling about what Postecoglou offers. The nature of the approach, and his resolve to live and die by that. But he has to know what he is up against. In this case it is a club with a support which feels permanently at the end of its tether, and a chairman who is committed to keeping them just about on it.
The temptation for any Spurs manager is to believe that the unique experiences of their life mean that the usual rules of the club do not apply to them. So far all have been proven wrong.
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