Tottenham fans risk driving Ange Postecoglou out of the club when their hatred of Arsenal supersedes their love of Spurs.
Big Ange’s brutal post-match comments, following the 2-0 home defeat by Manchester City, was not the confected disappointment of a manager miffed by missing out on a Champions League place.
They were warning shots to the board, to the supporters, to an entire industry, that he was deeply unhappy about trying to win a football match when so many people around him (excluding the players) seemed to prefer defeat - because it scuppered the arch-rivals’ chances of winning the title. At one stage on Tuesday night, Postecoglou turned round to confront a fan whose contribution to a curious atmosphere did not match Big Ange’s own definition of ‘support.’
Have a read of the growling Aussie’s comments below and decide for yourself: Does Postecoglou sound happy? And would you put every last penny of your mortgage on him being at Tottenham beyond 2024?
He said: “The last 48 hours have revealed that the foundations are fairly fragile. It just means I've got to go back to the drawing board with some things. It’s outside (the club), inside, everywhere. It's been an interesting exercise.
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“I probably misread the situation as to what I think is important in your endeavour to become a winning team, but that's ok. That's why I'm here.
“Maybe I'm out of step, but I just don't care, I just want to win. ‘I want to be successful at this football club, it's why I was brought in. So what other people, how they want to feel, and what their priorities are, are of zero interest to me.
“I know what's important to build a winning team, that's what I need to concentrate on. I can't dictate what people do. They are allowed to express themselves any way they want. But when we've got late winners in games it's because the crowd's helped us.
“I already know what I want to do, it's just I've got to make some adjustments to how I do it.”
Conflicted or not, if Spurs fans are happy for Arsenal to miss out on the title, even if it costs them a top-class manager, it’s a strange old world.
For much of the night Postecoglou cut a frustrated figure (Getty Images)When are Tottenham ever going to win another trophy - it’s 16 years and counting since the last one, and only two cups in 33 years - let alone beat Arsenal to a Premier League crown if they undermine one of their best appointments since Bill Nicholson?
Look, fans pay their hard-earned to follow Spurs and they are entitled to support the club as they wish.
And much of sport is based on enmity, rivalry, loathing and hatred, whether it’s Ali vs Frazier, the Ashes, Scotland vs England or parochial derbies all the way down the English football pyramid.
But surely there is a line in the sand, a picket line you don’t cross. When Tottenham fans explored that frontier on Tuesday night it left Postecoglou frustrated by defeat, exasperated by missing out on the Champions League after four defeats in five games… and wondering if he really knew the people he was employed to please.
I’m not going to sit here and judge Spurs supporters who turned on each other on the concourses, who performed City’s signature ‘Poznan’ celebration after Erling Haaland opened the scoring or who let rip with a chorus of “Are you watching Arsenal?”
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But let’s put it this way: They will never get a job with MI5 - because the security services wouldn’t know whose side they were on.
Ange Postecoglou confronted a Tottenham Hotspur fan during the game (X)Fans of a certain age will recall a parallel dilemma on the last day of term in 1995, when Blackburn and Manchester United were running neck-and-neck for the title.
Rovers lost 2-1 at Liverpool, when Jamie Redknapp’s last-minute free-kick gave United the chance to pip Blackburn at the post if they could win at West Ham. It would have stuck in the Kop’s throats if their team had denied Anfield deity Sir Kenny Dalglish the title and handed it to their bitter riva - but the football gods had the final say.
United missed a glut of chances at Upton Park, where Red Devils striker Andy Cole and Hammers keeper Ludek Miklosko’s duel was a thrilling final act, and could only draw 1-1. Blackburn were champions and Dalglish triumphed despite his former club’s best efforts to thwart him.
Back in the present day, so what if Tottenham had beaten City, or Heung-min Son had buried a late chance to equaliser and thrown Arsenal the mother of all lifelines? Like United and Blackburn 29 years ago, the football gods would have had the final say. And what’s so terrible about that?
Steffan Ortega saves from Spurs striker Son (Marc Atkins/Getty Images)Two final thoughts.
How about Tottenham winning their first title for 64 years next season - and then they can crow about denying Arsenal the crown until their hearts’ are content, with no undercurrents or spurious talk of collaboration with dark forces.
And on a more humanitarian note: If you were walking along a riverbank, and you saw a supporter of your team’s arch-rivals drowning, would you throw them the lifebuoy on the shore and pull them to safety?
If the answer to that last easy conundrum is ‘No’, give your head a wobble.
Life is more important than football - although, in some cases, it appears to be a close-run thing.
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