Thanks to John Ellis for his comments:-
AZ Alkmaar v Spurs, 06.03.25
Thanks to Andy Park for this picture
What happened at the final whistle was outrageous, indefensible and beyond the pale.
Tottenham fans travel far and wide following their team. As we were only allocated 950 tickets, most of the fans there tonight were the most loyal of our fan base.
They spend incredible amounts of their disposable income, take precious days off as holidays in giving incredible commitment towards their team. There were fans at the game tonight who will have three hours sleep before taking an early flight to land at Gatwick at 7am to go straight into London to do a day's work.
The players meanwhile live a very rare, privileged and a millionaire lifestyle.
Tonight, the fans witnessed a quite dreadful performance with the only consolation being that AZ were too poor to convert their chances. And yet at the end of the game Vicario had the temerity to have a real go at the fans. Some fans close to the pitch say Maddison did too.
Players, managers and even owners come and go. The fans are always there. From players earning more in a week than most fans do in a year, it was totally unacceptable to call out the fans who had endured a totally inept performance.
Vicario's behaviour was almost as bad as that of Ghaly all those years ago. I would happily play Austin or Kinsky for the rest of the season and move him on in the summer.
Sadly he might have been the only player to emerge with any credit from the game but that is irrelevant when disrespecting the fans in such an exaggerated manner.
Moving on to the match itself, Spurs were a tactical shambles. Ponderous in possession, passive and poor throughout.
AZ had enough chances in the first half to win the tie. The only positive is that Spurs only have a one goal deficit to turn around in the second leg at home.
The manager is running out of excuses for the continued poor performances. In only playing four games in almost a month, the players have had plenty of time to recover between matches and the coaches plenty of time to work on tactics including eight days since the last game.
And yet despite that, tonight was another to add to the growing back catalogue of disappointing performances and results under Postecoglou against inferior opposition.
There was enough space to drive the proverbial tank through the Spurs midfield. The attack was non-existent. The experiment of playing Tel as a number nine should surely have been consigned to the dustbin one or two matches ago.
Daniel Levy must be very grateful for Tel's ego rejecting Spurs' offer to sign for £60 million in January. Tel may well develop into a fine footballer but serious questions must surely be asked of those who wanted to commit such a large amount of money for a very raw, unproven youngster.
Son is in desperate need of a rest to determine whether he can return and recapture his form. His return should be in a non-captaincy position because he is most definitely not captain material in leading the team on the pitch.
The passing for passing's sake which allows teams to get back into position to eventually win possession and hit Spurs on the break is a busted flush with most half-decent coaches finding ways to beat these tactics.
Ange-ball is perceived as high tempo attacking play. Sadly this is a myth. The play is tedious, predictable and boring.
With all Spurs' eggs in the Europa League basket, it was to be hoped the team would respond accordingly. They didn't in the first half and got away with it. The manager's half time team talk would surely elicit a response. It didn't. Late substitutions had no impact and the tactics remained consistent throughout with next to no urgency in the team's play.
It was a desperately disappointing and fractious night.
#Coys
. Read the Spurs Odyssey report for this game.
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