IF you’re a cynic, a Grinch or an Arsenal fan, there’s hope for you yet.Tottenham flew out of the blocks last season under Antonio Conte, unbeaten in seven matches and tipped as shock title contenders.
Ange Postecoglou has been a breath of fresh air in the Premier LeagueCredit: Reuters
Two years earlier, Spurs reached the Premier League summit in November when Jose Mourinho masterminded a classic 2-0 victory over Manchester City.
So the apparently miraculous start being experienced under Ange Postecoglou is not unprecedented – and it could yet lead to a predictably Spursy shambles.
But nobody was ever convinced that Conte or Mourinho were the right fit for Tottenham – least of all Conte and Mourinho, who both considered the Spurs job beneath them.
What Spurs needed was a hungry manager grateful, with a chip on his shoulder, a point to prove, tactical acumen, emotional intelligence, an ability to improve players and a belief in attractive possession football.
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In Postecoglou, they have stumbled across just that man. And they’re top of the league.
Yes, Gooners, by the slimmest possible margin ahead of Arsenal.
And yes, they were lucky to defeat Liverpool and were 1-0 down at home to Sheffield United in injury-time.
But not since Jurgen Klopp’s arrival at Anfield has a manager fresh to the Premier League looked such a perfect fit and become so swiftly recognised as a fine coach and a fair-dinkum bloke.
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Postecoglou has revitalised this Spurs squad despite losing talisman Harry KaneCredit: Reuters
And let’s just remember how 2023 had been going for Spurs before Big Ange sauntered in.
Their bankroller, Joe Lewis, had surrendered to the Feds after being charged with insider trading.
Their director of football, Fabio Paratici, had been banned for 30 months, accused of false accounting at Juventus.
Their manager, Conte, had committed verbal arson on his squad and left by extremely mutual consent.
Their chairman, Daniel Levy, was a hate figure.
Their team was a laughing stock and their star player, Harry Kane, wanted out.
Yet Big Ange has somehow cleansed the place, simply by being Big Ange.
This Australian is no song-and-dance man – he’s actually less convivial and matey than most of his nation’s leading sports people.
He’s a serious individual, no sufferer of fools, not prone to great closeness with players.
But listen to him on a range of subjects from mental health to VAR and he speaks with honesty, intelligence and originality.
He sounds like the sort of bloke you’d want to work for. And that is certainly the feeling among Tottenham’s players.
In the ‘meeja’, we can overestimate the importance of a manager’s press-conference performances but with Spurs fans having spent years hearing Conte and Mourinho publicly doing their club down, this matters.
Still, how is it possible for a team which finished eighth last season to lose their 30-goal top scorer and thrive?
Well the old chestnut about ‘no man being bigger than the club’ found an exception in Kane and Spurs.
It’s not that the England captain was a selfish egomaniac, it’s just that tactically and temperamentally, a team can become too reliant on one individual.
Without Kane, Spurs are a true team again, with players accepting, and enjoying, greater responsibility.
The club recruited well this summer, even if it didn’t take a genius to work out that James Maddison was the very definition of a classic crowd-pleasing Tottenham playmaker.
But keeper Guglielmo Vicario, a brilliant shot-stopper, and centre-half Micky van de Ven, blessed with rapid pace, have settled in ridiculously well.
Other players have been transformed – Cristian Romero has cut out the recklessness which made him a liability and now looks every inch the world champion he is.
Yves Bissouma, before a stupid sending-off in Saturday’s win at Luton, has been resembling the ambitious player who bossed midfields with Brighton, having seemed stifled by Conte’s tactical straitjacket.
And Son Heung-Min is reborn at centre-forward and captain.
Son is shining as Spurs’ captainCredit: EPA
Son, like Postecoglou, had suffered from the snobbishness familiar to anyone arriving here from a nation not recognised as a major footballing power.
Postecoglou readily admits his frustrations at establishing himself as an ‘outsider’ from a faraway colony where most people say ‘footie’ and mean a violent game played by men in vests threatening murder over possession of an egg.
That chip on the shoulder can be a hugely positive motivational aid.
Of course, nobody expects Spurs to win a first title in 63 years but a top-four finish, which was such a remote prospect last summer, is already looking entirely likely.
And more importantly, supporters are actually enjoying going to watch their team for the first time in years.
So, yes, be cynical, be miserable, be realistic enough to suspect that this might not last.
But also recognise that Postecoglou is the most instantly effective Premier League managerial rookie we have seen in several years.
WHY on Earth are England playing Australia at football this Friday?
And why on Earth has such a meaningless fixture attracted a 90,000 full house at Wembley?
Maybe it’s admirable that this nation has such an insatiable lust for any kind of live football – but shouldn’t we really have something better to do with our Friday nights?
FOR years we have bashed Gareth Southgate for being overly loyal to a clutch of favourite players.
Now one of those ‘favourites’, Raheem Sterling, has been banished from the England squad despite tearing it up for Chelsea – scoring once and effectively assisting the other three goals in a 4-1 thumping of Burnley.
The England manager’s job always makes them thoroughly contrary in the end.
Sterling is unlucky not to make the England squadCredit: Getty
FULHAM fans all share the same memory of Dan Burn.
He was a gangling young centre-half weirdly employed at full-back by madcap manager Felix Magath for a 4-1 thrashing at Stoke in 2014 which saw the west London club relegated after a 13-year stay in the top flight.
So to see the genial Geordie giant excelling as a full-back for Newcastle in the Champions League, and scoring in a 4-1 drubbing of Paris St Germain, is extraordinary.
Perhaps Magath was a misunderstood visionary genius after all.
Dan Burn at left-back? Felix did it firstCredit: PA:Empics Sport
WHEN an international break descends, the media demands at least one major Premier League club in serious crisis to keep the footballing news cycle turning.
With Manchester United 1-0 down at home to Brentford heading into injury-time, having already suffered their worst start to a Premier League season, Erik ten Hag’s side were the perfect candidates.
So for Scott McTominay to leap off the bench and score twice in added time is frankly very selfish.
WITHOUT Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger, Rafa Benitez, Antonio Conte and Thomas Tuchel, some of us were extremely worried about where the Premier League’s next ‘handshake-gate’ flare-up was coming from.
Thank heavens then for Aston Villa’s Unai Emery and Gary O’Neil of Wolves randomly refusing to shake hands after Sunday’s derby at Molineux.
Now it is imperative that both men hold a significant grudge and allow a petty feud to run and run.
AS the world becomes more environmentally friendly and tolerant, trust FIFA to buck the trend.
The 2030 World Cup will be held in six nations on three continents, leaving a Yeti-sized carbon footprint, and the 2034 tournament is going to Saudi Arabia, with its appalling human-rights record.
Is FIFA chief Gianni Infantino a mere Dr Evil lookalike, or is there more to it than that?
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Infantino’s decision will take the World Cup to six continentsCredit: Getty
UNLIKE most high-profile ex-footballers, we rarely hear Kevin Keegan’s views on the game.
And when Keegan opened his trap to tell us he has a problem with ‘lady footballers’ commenting on the men’s game, we were grateful for those long periods of silence. More
