IT looked remarkably like two teams from the bottom end of the Premier League who didn’t seem to know how to contest a major European final. One scored and defended stoutly, the other failed to turn up, even when they were trying to exert some pressure in the closing stages. Tottenham Hotspur arguably needed to win more to end 17 years of waiting for a glimpse of silverware, while Manchester United’s demoralised bunch of expensive misfits didn’t really fancy saving their manager’s career in the Premier League. If tickets didn’t cost so much, some of the punters might even have left early to savour some of Bilbao’s famous gastronomy, but at least baby-faced Brennan Johnson spared everyone the prospect of extra time.
Make no mistake, this was a final that could have been settled a lot closer to home but the devotion of both sets of fans meant they found multiple ways to get to the Basque region of Spain. There were simply not enough flights to take something like 40,000 people from Manchester/London to Bilbao, so convoys of cars and trains headed through France and across the Pyrenees. In years to come, there will undoubtedly be tales of endurance and determination that will be documented in countless fan-lit books marking the end of Spurs’ trophy drought. Somebody is probably writing one of them right now.
Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur are very mediocre teams at the moment; the league table doesn’t lie after 37 games and the constant debates about the future of coaches Ange Postecoglou and Ruben Amorim merely confirm that all is not well at either club. That they should both win through to the Europa final reminds us that English football has more strength in depth than many countries, but then the two teams that started the final cost a combined sum of close to £ 900 million. With that in mind, it is not unreasonable to wonder if the grandees of Old Trafford and Tottenham High Road feel they are getting value for money for their outlay. We all know the answer to that question – there’s been no shortage of cash spent on these teams, but it hasn’t been spent very well.
The final was a season and face-saving game for the eventual winners, but nobody should be fooled into believing a magnificent tin pot can wipe away all the frustrations and shortcomings of league campaigns that have left supporters infuriated and calling for the head of the managers and the people running the clubs. For most of the first half, both Spurs and United were either overawed by the occasion or simply lacked the ability to rise above the tedium. The only goal of the game was very much in keeping with what we had seen in the opening 40 minutes, a scruffy finish that started with Luke Shaw and ended with Johnson’s air-kick somehow grazing the ball into the net.
United should have changed their outlook sooner, but they eventually acquired some urgency and the most spectacular moment of the game arrived in the 68th minute when Rasmus Højlund’s header was scythed away from goal by an acrobatic manoeuvre by Micky van de Ven. Goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario did his best to keep United at bay and his save from Shaw’s header in the dying seconds effectively won it for Spurs. Rio Ferdinand, always the captain cliché of punditry, declared their success was another sign it was the “year of the bird”. We’ve had Newcastle’s magpies, Palace’s eagles and now the cockerel is crowing. And of course, there’s that Liver bird.
There could be no denying it was a poor final, but Spurs will be mightily relieved that they have won something, ironically with one of their least impressive teams of the past decade. This has probably bought Postecoglou some time and will get the media and the fans off his broad shoulders for a while. United, however, possibly have more questions to answer than they did before kick-off in Bilbao. The fans expect more from both of the finalists and, as members of the celebrated ”big six”, who both ask for top dollar to see their games, that is not asking a lot, especially as so much money has been spent on constructing ineffective teams.
That aside, Spurs have ended their most barren period since the inter-war and early post-WW2 eras when 30 years lapsed between their 1921 FA Cup victory and their “push and run” title win of 1951. Today, the sun rose over the High Road for the first time in 17 years. They will never take success for granted in their part of north London.
Game of the People was founded in 2012 and is ranked among the 100 best football websites by various sources. The site consistently wins awards for its work, across a broad range of subjects. [View all posts by Neil Fredrik Jensen](https://gameofthepeople.com/author/georgefjord/)