Postecoglou given six months at Spurs as Man City create ‘meh’ moments

The appointment of Ange Postecoglou has been called Spursy in the extreme as people continue to mail in about something they definitely don’t care about.

Mail us at [email protected] with your views.

Many ‘smaller’ clubs can punch above their weight by having a source of inexpensive foreign talent. Someone at the club has some insight into a particular and perhaps not as well-known market. It works for a while until others decide to poke around for hidden gems in the same place. We have seen that play out oh so many times before. And once the well dries up, the team struggles to replace those gems who now move on to ‘bigger’ clubs for a higher price.

Celtic have a particular advantage with a form of financial doping from constantly getting into the CL – either the qualifying round, group stage or dropping into the Europa League. The extra money from their European involvement means they stay the biggest fish in a small pond.

With Postecoglou having some insight into the Asian market with his experience working there and Celtic’s incremental European funds, his odds of succeeding in the Scottish league and cups versus failing were always high.

So winning the Scottish Premiership doesn’t really tell the story of Postecoglou’s value to Spurs but how Celtic fared against European opposition might be a better indicator.. They got blown out by Midtjylland in his first year in the CL qualifying, dropped to the Europa, where they beat AZ Alkmaar in a playoff to get to the group stage (not bad), where they dropped down to the Conference League and got trounced by Bodo/Glimt. All in all, not a great result. But it was his first year with the team. The following year, with his own players entirely in place and the team having more than a year to work with, they won 0 out of 6 on the CL group stage. Entirely and utterly outclassed.

While Postecoglou is undoubtedly not a completely outside punt, he will be under much more pressure at Spurs. Finding gems from Asia may work for a mid-table EPL team, but it isn’t a long-term solution for Spurs – their fans would scream, and Levy wants all the transfer glory. Making the team work harder would not be bad for this Spurs side, but it would need quite a few moved on, as even Conte found a few that couldn’t be arsed. Again, getting the team to work harder and press harder is great for a lower-table club to make them more competitive, but it doesn’t usually win anything in the long run. Klopp did it to get the most out of a squad he inherited, but that was a mid-season appointment. And the quality of the coaching in the EPL has improved dramatically since his Klopp’s arrival.

The measure of his success will be in year 2, as Spurs will certainly be in transition this year as they attempt and right the ship after some recent dreadful managerial and transfer decisions. He might be the right guy to come in and get the club back on its feet, but is going to have his work cut out handling Levy.

The question is, will he last long enough? With 40 managerial appointments in the EPL in 2022/23, the average managerial stay is getting increasingly shorter.

First of all, Harry Kane will fail if he goes to Spain. He seems to be a nice enough fella, but he hasn’t got the wherewithal to adjust to the culture/language differences. See Ian Rush as a good example. It would be too much for him. He’d be back within the year with his tail between his legs.

And secondly, has there ever been ? It’s a leftfield, cheap option and a huge risk, and has Daniel Levy written all over it. It is not that he won’t succeed – anything can happen – but the odds are stacked against it. It’s no good pointing to successes in the J-League and Scotland because they are very different animals. You only have to look at how Gerrard struggled with Villa and how Rodgers’ time at Leicester was ultimately unsuccessful to see that success in Scotland means very little.

I really feel sorry for Spurs fans. Imagine having that shitshow imposed on you, year after year. Every time they take a step forward, they stumble back a few months later. Getting rid of Poch was the worst decision Levy ever made.

So far. The decade is young.

John, Glasgow has made me actually excited to see the new manager at Spurs from .

365, 365 sign him up!

I was an underwhelmed season ticket holder when Ange was appointed as coach of the Brisbane Roar. I was wrong. He rebuilt the team, got them playing really good football and won back to back A-League titles.

Since then I have keenly followed his progress as a coach, admiring his success with The Australian National Team when they won the Asian Cup, winning the J League with the unfancied Yokohama F Marinos, and confounding the doubters during his time at Celtic.

I’ve followed every team he’s coached since his time at the Roar and always hoped that he’d get a chance in the premier league where I’d wish him every success.

Only trouble is I’m an Arsenal fan. I am very conflicted now.

I remember sending a mail a few years ago when Arsenal finished in 8th place and won the FA Cup, while United finished in 2nd and ended the season trophyless. I argued that trophies are the most important thing in football and got varying responses to my mail.

Now that the shoe is on the other foot, Arsenal trophylesss and United winning the Carabao Cup, I wouldn’t trade our (ultimately futile) title challenge and 2nd place finish for the Carabobbins.

So, if given a choice, would fellow Mailboxers prefer to have their teams challenge for the title and potentially fail (as my team did spectacularly) or prefer the 4th place + Carabao/ 4th place + FA Cup

Hot take…as an Arsenal fan, I want Man City to win the treble, and every other football fan should too (with the potential exclusion of United fans….)

Winning it will accelerate Pep’s departure, and that is the only way to end this endless/sexy/boring nightmare.

If Man City win the treble, I will be 100% totally and utterly ‘meh’ about it. I will see it in the same vein as the achievements of Ben Johnson, Lance Armstrong, and Tonya Harding.

I also find it amazing that half of the fourth estate, TV and print, hardly ever mention the 100+ accusations hanging over the club.

I spent almost three-quarters of an hour during my run this weekend listening to the normally excellent Athletic Podcast on this matter, it was time from my life that I will never get back as the Man City based contributing to the production remarkably managing to get through 45 mins saying absolutely nothing of interest whatsoever; the sum of the podcast was;

‘They were found not guilty by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), you can’t blame the players or manager, and finally, come back when the verdict is in.’

Now I know that reporters for Man City need to toe a party line as I am sure they are worried that the “Deity” that is Pep will not speak to them if they do not, but I personally find that level of blind impartiality foolish, for three reasons.

1) they were not found “not guilty” by CAS, the charges were not proven. That is a totally different thing.

2) if your other argument is that you can’t blame the current employees you are entering the ‘grandfather paradox’. If City are unable to afford the players they currently have by fair means, then they shouldn’t have them, so you cannot blame those who shouldn’t be there in the first place. But they currently do have them, so you must blame City for having recruited them with ill-gotten gains, and so on and so forth.

3) like any other multi-national corporation the executives will try and to complain, obfuscate and drag out this process until so many people are sick to death of it that they hope no one will care whatever the outcome is.

Pep said the other day he wants this all over very quickly, and not so sure that the CEO and CFO share his eagerness

I for one hope the Premier League to come to a decision quickly, and if warranted asterisks are placed on old tables to symbolise that the achievements were tainted.

…So when City win the CL, which they will without needing to get out of 2nd gear, it will be a, “I really don’t care” moment.

I have no love or hate for City, to me they are just an annoying itch that will one day go away and be forgotten. I’d much rather City won the treble than say a Liverpool, Arsenal or Chelsea. Imagine the scousers winning it, that would hurt, but City? Nah.

City are like the equivalent of the Michael Carol (Google him) of the football world. An irrelevant club bouncing around from league to league, being a bit annoying at times, a club that nobody took seriously and nobody, except 209 city fans cared about. Then one day they won the lottery and started buying all these shiney new toys. A few toys turned up and failed work so they were left in the corner of a field, or once a toy lost its appeal it would just be sacked off and replaced with another shiny new toy. All of a sudden city get all these new friends, you know the ones, they’re easily influenced by shiny toys and knob eds, the sort of people that lose their collective minds over tossing a bottle.

Meanwhile, the rest of the football world just sat back and waited, we are still waiting and it might take a few more years, but one day, the lottery winner normally ends up back on the dole or working the irrelevant job that they started with.

City know they cheated the entire system, fans know (apart from the 209 deluded ones), the FA and UEFA know, even my dog knows and I don’t have a dog. Admittedly they have been very good at hiding it with their incredible magical accounting skills and dodgy sponsorship deals with themselves.

In my opinion, if (cough cough) when city are eventually found guilty of even half of those charges then surely it puts into question the fit and proper person being allowed to own a football club? So the punishment should be that the owners and everyone associated with them being banned from ownership. If not, then what’s the point in the fit and proper person? Begs the question, if they can cheat at a sport to win then what else do they do to win at other things they have their mits in?

If guilty they should be forced to sell, but who is going to buy it when the books have been cooked so hot and all their buddies dodgy sponsors are no longer allowed to be involved. It’s basically a worthless club without the owners propping it up.

Everybody knows it’s all fake and that is why many of us just don’t care what city do now, how well they play, what they win, who they sign, it’s not bitterness or jealousy or crying eyes, nobody cares about your fake victories.

Have your open top bus, make sure the camera angles are just right to hide lack of fans, maybe don’t drive the bus, just park it in a netto car park. Spray some blue stuff in the air, call Manchester blue, blast out an oasis song then go out and buy another 5 or 6 shiny new toys and do it all again.

Sun’s still out here so I’m going for a nice wine on the balcony.

See ya.

Dear ,

Pep Guardiola is not Lord Voldemort, and you are not Harry Potter.

He is not the Dark Lord Sauron, and you are not Frodo Baggins.

Although, having said that, he just might be Darth Vader to your Luke Skywalker. You know, the bit where he’s just chopped off your right hand and then said “No. I am your father”.

Because that last one would explain a lot!

Sorry if I’m a little late but I’ve felt compelled to email in regarding the recent off-field issues we’ve been seeing.

Firstly – Mourinho and his whole carry on.

Absolutely disgusting, I’ve seen mails here defending the antics and persona because the game needs drama. Nope, not having it, Anthony Taylor and his family do not deserve any of that.

I’ve seen the game, Taylor and the officials for me didn’t get anything wrong. The handball Jose has issue with is the only dubious one – seen them given but the arm was in a natural position and he moved it away and behind his back when the cross came in, not (importantly) towards the ball or away from his body (Grealish – unnantural) so I can see why it wasn’t given but wouldn’t complain if it was given against my team.

Mourinho and many other managers just look to deflect blame from themselves, now instead of Roma fans asking why he withdrew Dybala, Abraham, Pellegrini and Spinazzola (his better players) and only managed 11 shots / 3 on target in 120mins of football he has them on a witch hunt for the officials. Classic Jose and I’m glad he’s nowhere near my club anymore.

Secondly – Vini Jr and the Spanish racists.

In case your readers are not up to speed here’s the latest news:

4 men fined 60,000 Euros (51,700 pounds) and a 2 year stadium ban for hanging an effigy of Vini near Reals training ground in January.

They were arrested 11 days ago and released on bail.

3 other people were fined 5,000 Euros (4,300 pound) and banned for a year for making racist gestures at the Valencia game 2 weeks ago when Vini was red carded (rescinded).

Those 3 men aged between 18-21 were detained 2 days after the game.

Those sanctions were given by Spain’s State Commission against violence, Racism, Xenophobia and Intolerance in Sport wo clearly don’t really care too much about wiping these issues out especially in that second lot of fines and a 1 year ban.

Thirdly – and somewhat related to the Mourinho point.

I was watching the Welcome to Wrexham doco and managed to get half way through it before I lost interest in Phil Parkinson absolutely berating 4th officials and referees constantly.

I couldn’t believe what he (any many others no doubt) get away with. The FA need to stamp this out.

We, the public see the behaviour of these so called elite level managers and it gets replicated at grassroots level by kids and adults alike. The respect starts at the top of the game, on TV and trickles down.

Klopp needs reigning in, Parkinson needs to be put in his place, raise your voice to an official or do it in a threatening / aggressive manner and there’s a touchline ban (not 1 or 2 games either) and massive fine. Keep offending ? Points deduction.

This will never happen because I think it’s just accepted that it happens and we’ll never change that mentality.

…I can barely believe I’m writing this but we have had a week now of people going public in this mailbox defending, indeed praising, the behaviour of Jose Mourinho and others towards referees or linesmen. So to be clear: if you behave as Mourinho did in a car park last week, that is a criminal offence and thousands of ordinary citizens end up with criminal records for such actions. Fact. The offence, if you’re interested, involves behaviour that would cause a reasonable person fear or alarm. It’s not “passionate” or “committed” or “loyal”. It’s pathetic. Most of us grow out of it at an early age.

I am not a fan of Mourinho. I don’t like his tactics. I don’t like his football and I’m not a fan of his conduct at any given time.

There are lots of people sending letters in saying you don’t treat another human being that way. You don’t shout and berate them even if you believe they made a mistake etc etc.

Just about everybody in our society certainly does approve of screaming and berating when someone does something wrong because I see them do it to their kids all the time. The vast majority of parents in this country use verbal intimidation as a parenting tactic. So either lots of people don’t consider kids to be human beings worthy of consideration or they are totally fine with shouting and screaming when you’re unhappy with someone’s behaviour.

Personally, I think refs are too soft. Why are they offered special treatment? Players get abused by 30-70k people multiple times in a match, should we start kicking them all out of the stadium to generate more respect?

Maybe what we really need isn’t respect the ref it’s refs to have a thicker skin and stop being so childish. I’ve worked many customer service jobs in my life and I was an insurance claims investigator too and I got abused on a regular basis. Just ignore it and do your job instead of running to mummy and daddy FA all the time. You can’t stop abuse, there will always be some but you can stop your reaction to it.