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Ange Postecoglou will face even more critics should Spurs be dumped out of the Europa League this week.
Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou is expected to keep his job, even if the club is dumped out of the Europa League by AZ Alkmaar on Thursday night.
Spurs must come back from a 1-0 defeat at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this week to progress in the European competition. A triumph in the Europa League would go a long way to quieting critics of Postecoglou’s second season in charge of the club.
It’s been an underwhelming campaign for Tottenham Hotspur, who sit 13th in the Premier League at this stage of the season. A 2-2 draw against AFC Bournemouth was the latest disappointment for Postecoglou and his side last weekend as pressure mounts on the Australian.
Postecoglou has so far kept the backing of the board and Football Insider reports that, while it is expected that Spurs make it through the Europa League round of 16, defeat on Thursday won’t spell the end of the manager. The outlet adds that Postecoglou will have until the end of the season when the situation will be reviewed.
Any potential sacking will come with the difficulty of finding a new manager to take the hot seat at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Speaking on the latest Tottenham Hotspur podcast, NationalWorld's James Trembath has suggested that the club should keep their search in the top flight.
Tottenham told to eye up AFC Bournemouth and Brentford managers
He said: “I think for Spurs, the Postecoglou football is the type of football we want to play. I just think instead of it being 100mph maybe we need to just ratchet it down to 90mph and have a little bit more pragmatism, learn from mistakes and stop making them time and time again.
“The Bournemouth game was a classic example. One of the best pressing team in the leagues and we don’t change. We need more adaptability. The blueprint is there and there are new really talented young players in the likes of Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray, Djed Spence, Udogie, Van de Ven. There’s a nucleus there of a really good side.
“If you’re looking at potential replacements. Iraola at Bournemouth, you’ve got to look at him. He’s done a fantastic job on a limited budget. The way they play is Tottenham-esque but with a little bit more control. Thomas Frank, a lot of people highly rate Thomas Frank in football. I know Johan Lange is a big fan of him so maybe we go down that route, maybe it’s time for him to have a crack at a so-called bigger club, no disrespect to Brentford.”
Mauricio Pochettino ‘flirting’ with Spurs return
Trembath also turned his attention away from the Premier League but named a manager that the club is very familiar with in Mauricio Pochettino. The former Southampton and Chelsea boss is currently in charge of the United States national team.
He added: “Do we rekindle the love affair with Mauricio Pochettino? He’s been flirting again with Spurs to come back. If you think back two or three years, Champions League final, the way he had us playing on such a shoestring budget, not signing a single player for one summer and we were still banging on the door for the top four and came so close to winning the league a couple of times. Do you go back... it’s almost like a bad girlfriend I guess!
“I know a lot of fans would love Pochettino back in the dugout and maybe with the nucleus of the young team we have, maybe he is the perfect appointment. Whether he’d leave America I’m not so sure. If Spurs put the money there he probably would but we wait and see. We all want Ange to succeed as a fanbase but he’s been given a hell of a lot of time now. He’s been given longer than a lot of Spurs managers have had in the past and the results have been much worse so maybe the writing is on the wall.”
In other news, Tottenham Hotspur have ‘initiated talks’ to sign a former Manchester United star.