The cries are growing for the newly sainted Ange Postecoglou to keep his job as Tottenham manager following his emotional Europa League triumph, with his players and former Spurs greats leading the clamour.
Spurs’ 1-0 triumph over Manchester United in Bilbao for their first trophy in 17 years has seemed to have prompted a whole new “Save Ange” wave of sentiment, with victorious club captain Son Heung-min offering the strongest support.
“He won the trophy. Nobody (else) did it,” South Korean superstar Son said.
“Look, it’s not up to me or the players, but we just have to look at the facts, at the fact we haven’t won in 17 years and this is the day we finally won it. It’s the manager who wins the trophy, so we see what’s going to happen.”
The silence was deafening from around Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as chairman Daniel Levy and his board, who had been said to have already decided on his sacking, may have been taken aback by the exultation from the fans over Postecoglou’s drought-busting triumph.
As they pondered their next move, whether to allow Postecoglou to keep hold of the reins with Champions League football now secured, could the win really have saved the day for him?
“It’s an unbelievable moment for Spurs. People asked me today, ‘do you think the manager will go?’ but how can you get rid of a manager who just won a European Cup?” Spurs’ Irish great Robbie Keane asked on talkSPORT radio.
“You need stability at the club and you’re not going to get that if you keep changing every couple of years. They need to build on this and build on momentum now,” added the striker who was in Spurs’ League Cup-winning team 17 years ago.
Son was far from alone among the Spurs squad going in to bat for Postecoglou.
Spurs’ keeper Guglielmo Vicario, one of their big Bilbao heroes, declared: “Of course I want him to stay. He’s my gaffer, he’s the person who decided to bring me to this football club.
Ange Postecoglou. (Photo by Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)
“I’m very happy for him, for what we achieved altogether. He told us this group is going to change something, it’s going to change the history of this football club and we did it.
“Credit to him. He was the first to start to believe in something special and we did it.”
Former Northern Ireland World Cup hero and Spurs star Gerry Armstrong told the BBC: “I’m backing Ange for next season.
“He deserves another year after what he has done and I’m hoping that winning the Europa League is going to make a difference.”
Tottenham will celebrate their Europa League success with an open-top bus parade around the streets of north London on Friday night.
Brennan Johnson’s 42nd-minute close-range finish helped Spurs edge out Manchester United by a 1-0 score in Bilbao to win the club their first trophy since 2008.
Plans have now been unveiled for a victory parade, which is set to begin around 5.30pm on Friday at Fore Street in the Edmonton Green region, travel down High Road past Tottenham Hotspur Stadium before it concludes in the stadium’s service yard on Northumberland Park.
The open-top bus parade will last approximately “between 60-90 minutes”, with a staging area to be erected outside the stadium on Paxton Terrace to host the players and coaching staff for a presentation of the trophy to fans.
Ange Postecoglou. (Photo by Alex Pantling – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
Spurs boss Postecoglou, the first head coach to lead the club to European success in 41 years, teased a “massive parade” during his press conference in the bowels of San Mames on Wednesday night.
“What I do know is, I’ll go back to my hotel room, get my family and friends together, open up a nice bottle of scotch, have a couple of quiet ones, get ready for a massive parade on Friday,” Postecoglou insisted.
Tottenham declined the opportunity to hold an open-top bus parade after Carling Cup glory in 2008 and instead presented the trophy to supporters before a UEFA Cup fixture with PSV Eindhoven.
The 1991 FA Cup final victory over Nottingham Forest at Wembley was marked with a parade around the club’s old White Hart Lane stadium.
Johnson’s scrappy first-half finish proved the difference at San Memes and helped Tottenham end a 17-year wait for silverware.
Just as important was Micky van de Ven’s incredible clearance off the line to deny Rasmus Hojlund after 68 minutes.
Afterwards the Dutchman spoke of Postecoglou’s famous, oft-quoted statement that he “always wins things” in year two of a job.
“To be honest I’m really happy he said he always wins something in his second year. We made sure he can keep saying this. We’re happy for him and happy for the team,” he said.
“Probably (critics) will continue but I don’t care anymore. We proved them wrong. We won a trophy so they can say whatever they want.
While Postecoglou’s own future remains uncertain, he did back Tottenham to win further trophies after they “climbed the mountain”.
“Of course we want to build on it,” Van de Ven insisted.
“Every time we played in Europe, we showed our quality, we showed how we can play.
“The gaffer had a big role in this. He kept believing in us, the whole staff kept believing in us. He just made sure we stayed together and as a group we stayed together.
“We kept believing that we could create history with this group and we did it.”
© AAP
