Three reasons Ange Postecoglou should be sacked despite winning Europa League, and three reasons he should be kept on

IT was a horrific game, won by a joke of a goal.

But there isn’t a Spurs fan in the land who cares about any of that now.

AlamyAnge Postecoglou has delivered Tottenham fans the trophy they so desired[/caption]

GettyThe club now face the question of whether to stick with the Aussie or move on[/caption]

The big question, though, is whether Ange Postecoglou’s reward for breaking the club’s 17-year trophy drought should be to get another go, or receive his P45.

Sun Sport looks at the arguments both ways…

ANGE IN – The hoodoo is broken

The big Aussie put himself under huge pressure when he pointed out, “I usually win a trophy in my second season”.

He then made it tougher when he doubled down to insist, “I ALWAYS win a trophy in my second season”.

Having done that and delivered on his promise, many will think it would be utterly unfair for Postecoglou’s reign to be cut short.

That Postecoglou believes this can be the turning point is clear, too, after he spoke of his desire to move the club on over coming seasons.

Postecoglou feels that the lack of silverware was a huge albatross hanging over the club.

BEST ONLINE CASINOS – TOP SITES IN THE UK

By ending that jinx, everything can be easier.

In the aftermath of victory, he said: “I’d be disappointed if I couldn’t continue on this path but I understand why it would be difficult for a club like this to buy into one person’s vision.

“But mate, I’m a winner. I’ve been a serial winner my whole career.”

The Europa League trophy is the physical embodiment of his self-confidence and proof that Postcoglou has the courage of his own convictions. Now, he would argue, he deserves the time to underline all that.

Loyalty counts

When James Maddison and Sergio Reguilon raised the banner showing a picture of Postecoglou complete with THAT quote to the Spurs fans amid the Bilbao celebrations, it said a great deal about the bond between the manager and his players.

Maddison is understood to have had his own fall-outs at times with the Aussie this season, while Reguilon was sent out on loan twice and barely kicked a ball for Spurs over two campaigns.

But they were making a statement on behalf of the dressing room – that whatever their various issues might have been, they clearly like the manager on a personal level.

Other players have also voiced their positive feelings about Postecoglou.

And while football is about tactics and intelligence, it is also an emotional game – if you like a manager and want to play for him, you are more likely to perform better.

Continuity counts

Now Spurs have won a trophy, it will ease so much tension – both on and off the pitch.

Change for the sake of change now threatens to blow all that up and bring in a new level of uncertainty.

A new manager means a new coaching team, and probably a new set of players as well – any boss worth his salt will want to have a level of autonomy.

While this has been a roller-coaster of a season – admittedly one with more plunges than ascents – Postacoglou has managed to cope with the intensive gaze of scrutiny and come out the other side reinforced and stronger.

The Australian has admitted the domestic season has been “unacceptable” but success does tend to breed success and he will now be emboldened to be the manager who can lead a bold new Spurs era.

GettySergio Reguilon and James Maddison paraded a banner of Ange in Bilbao[/caption]

ANGE OUT – Months of misery

One night of glory – albeit glory earned through cussed defiance and one-dimensional anti-football – cannot wipe away everything that has gone before.

Postecoglou won 26 points in his first 10 games at the Spurs helm.

The subsequent 65 have garnered just 77 points.

That is relegation form, by any standards. By far the club’s worst campaign of the Premier League era, arguably worse than the relegation season of 1976-77 given the resources at his disposal.

And simply not good enough for Tottenham Hotspur.

Yes, Postecoglou’s squad has been plagued by injuries for much of the past 18 months.

But plenty feel a major contributor to those absences has been Postecoglou’s playing style – if your defenders are permanently playing on the margins, rather than being able to relax a little during games, they are more likely to be injured.

And while his personnel was in a constant state of flux, Postecoglou was wedded, for far too long, to a style of play that failed to take the actual manpower into consideration.

It’s all well and good playing a high line, with inverted full-backs, and playing out from the back, if you have Micky van der Ven and Cristian Romero available.

But not if your central defenders are Radu Dragusin and Archie Gray, with Ben Davies at left-back, in front of a stand-in keeper who cannot kick.

PAPostecoglou’s Spurs have endured a disastrous Premier League campaign[/caption]

Fan unrest

Daniel Levy has long been the Aunt Sally for the Spurs supporters.

But the relationship between the fans and the manager has suffered as well – perhaps irretrievably.

In those early months it was all Robbie Williams and “Oh, oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh, Ange Postecoglou”.

Those have not been heard too much in recent months.

Postecoglou lost a lot of the fans at the end last season, when he simply did not understand how any of them – let alone many – were willing to lose at home to Manchester City to help ensure Arsenal did not win the title.

His arguments were sound – he is a football manager, whose job is to win games and get the best possible finish for his club.

But football is not just about “football”. It is about so much else – and tribal rivalries run deeper than blood.

This season, as Spurs lost game after game – 21 and counting in the league – the simmering discontent has boiled over.

Not in chants, perhaps. But in the bars and the stands, on the podcasts, in the social media chat rooms.

Does one night of joy transcend that?

AlamyTottenham fans continue to protest against the club’s ownership[/caption]

One swallow does not make a summer

No fan who was in Bilbao, or watching at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, in a pub or at home, will ever forget that feeling of sheer, unbridled ecstasy at the final whistle.

All those seasons of frustrations, the near-misses, the agony, gone, in one blast of the referee’s whistle.

Yet Tottenham SHOULD be winning things.

They are the ninth-richest club in the world. With the best stadium in England. And one of the best training grounds anywhere,

For all the koans about the club being reluctant to dig deep, Spurs HAVE spent money, too.

Last season, finishing fifth having lost Harry Kane – if he had not been sold, that would surely have been third or fourth – felt like a decent return.

Even then, plenty of fans looked at the Europa League as a competition Tottenham genuinely could win.

But when Juande Ramos won the League Cup in 2008, it was not the start of anything. He was gone before the end of the year.

Manchester United stuck with Erik ten Hag last summer basically because he beat City to win the FA Cup.

It was an epic mistake and keeping Postecoglou on the basis of an emotional response would represent Spurs doing pretty much the same thing.

VERDICT

I am beyond thrilled that Spurs won in Bilbao.

And I believe Ange Postecoglou is a decent bloke and a decent manager, who deserves his day in the sun. He had faith in himself when plenty did not.

But I do not feel that he is the right man for the next stage.

It is for Daniel Levy and the board to make the final call.

And if Postecoglou is sacked, and the next appointment does not work out, I will not blame Levy and Co for the decision. It would be the right one.

Creator – [#item_custom_dc:creator]