Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has responded to Ange Postecoglou’s claim that being a football manager is harder than being prime minister. The Tottenham boss was reacting to a flurry of Premier League sackings which saw Gary O’Neil and Russell Martin sacked by Wolves and Southampton, respectively, last weekend.
“This job is the hardest job now in any walk of life,” declared Postecoglou. “You can say politics but this is harder than any job. The tenure and longevity of this role means very few are going to come out of it without any scars.
“How many times does [Keir Starmer] have an election? I have one every weekend. We have an election every weekend and either get voted in or out.”
Starmer - a huge Arsenal fan - has now provided a clever response via his office.
"It's always difficult for Spurs, isn't it?” joked Starmer’s spokesman in response to the BBC.
"I think the Prime Minister’s focus every day is on getting up, delivering the plan for change, delivering on the priorities of the British people, and delivering on the mandate that he was elected to deliver.”
Postecoglou had been enraged by Southampton’s treatment of Martin after Spurs defeated the Saints 5-0 last week. The Premier League’s basement club sacked their manager only hours after full-time, despite sending him out to conduct post-match media duties.
Referencing a popular chant aimed at struggling managers, Postecoglou said: “You don’t even get sacked in the morning now, you’ve got to change your song.
“We have lost all sort of modes of respect in our society where guys are in jobs and they are putting up names of who is going to replace them while they are still working.
“This notion that clubs want to bring managers in and build stuff doesn’t exist. The moment there is a bit of a wobble there will be flak coming from all areas.
“Gary and Russell are both outstanding young managers who have long careers ahead of them. Unfortunately, for them at the beginning of their careers that’s what a manager’s career is going to look like. You’ll find that from now on managers are going to have about 20 clubs on their CV. Even the successful ones.”
Postecoglou himself has faced pressure over some inconsistent performances by his Spurs side this season. The Australian has the club 10th in the top-flight after 16 matches.