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Ange Postecoglou said he had left plenty of his previous jobs after the most important matches and achievements as he sounded resigned to his fate at Tottenham before the Europa League final against Manchester United on Wednesday. The manager is not expected to carry on into next season after a dismal Premier League campaign when his team have lost 21 times and lag 17th in the table before the final game against Brighton on Sunday.
The showpiece against United here offers Postecoglou the opportunity to lead Spurs to a first trophy since 2008 and he made clear that his focus was trained on what would be a momentous feat. Yet the subject of his future is an unavoidable sideshow and he did not run from it on Tuesday. What was also striking was Postecoglou’s suggestion he was not ready to leave, believing his work at the club was far from finished.
“I’ve said to the lads from day one that nothing is guaranteed in life, nothing is guaranteed in sport,” he said. “You just need to try and make sure you take every opportunity before you. That’s what I have done my whole career. I’ve been in this position before where the big game was the last game I managed. It’s not unusual territory for me.
“I have always navigated it pretty well because, for me, nothing is more important than my responsibility for this football club and its fans. Me, the players … our mind is only on one thing and that is to create something special.
“I qualified for a World Cup [with Australia] and left. I won the treble with Celtic and left. I won at Brisbane and left. It’s more common than you think.”
Postecoglou reacted spikily to the suggestion that his future would be decided by the Spurs hierarchy. “My future is assured,” he said. “I wouldn’t be the first person who changes job. We all change jobs. I am sure you’ve had more than one job.
“I have got a beautiful family, I’ve got a great life. I’ll keep on winning trophies until I finish – wherever that is. Don’t worry about my future. My future is not intertwined with anything. My future is assured provided, God willing, my health remains, my beautiful family is beside me, my friends … there is nothing wrong with my future, mate. Don’t stress. Sleep easy tonight. I’ll be OK.”
It has been possible to wonder whether Postecoglou might ride off into the sunset if he were to beat United, content he had achieved his ends at Spurs. He gave it short shrift. “No,” he said. “Because I don’t think my job is done here. I really feel like we are building something and what a trophy does is hopefully accelerate that.
“It is quite obvious with the challenges we’ve had this year, which are well chronicled, but there is some reasoning in the context of that. But also there has been some growth and I would like to see [that] through. Whether that happens or not is not that important right now, but I don’t think this job is finished, far from it. I certainly feel there is some growth there, that we can take this club to where it needs to be.”
Postecoglou said he had not felt the need to address the subject of what happens next in terms of himself with the players. “I’ve said before that whatever happens beyond tomorrow is kind of irrelevant when you think about the opportunity that exists right now.
“If I was worried about my tenure at this football club, it’s fair to say we wouldn’t have been in this position [in the final] because I would have been distracted long ago. Whatever happens after, I’m very, very comfortable.”
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Postecoglou bristled with defiance, a window into his soul provided when he slaughtered a journalist he has always seemed to respect; the writer had said that Postecoglou was in a strange position before the final, “teetering between hero and clown” – the latter phrase going down incredibly badly.
Postecoglou spoke emotionally of his late father, Jim, who he said would always be with him, and also of his Greek-Australian heritage. Postecoglou will become the first Greek or Australian to manage in a European final. “I love being Greek, I love being in Greece, it’s where I’ll retire one day,” he said. “And I love that I grew up in Australia. When you grow up there, you have the attitude when it comes to sport that you’ll take on anyone. It doesn’t matter how big or small they are.”
Postecoglou reported that Pape Matar Sarr was available after picking up a knock at Aston Villa last Friday. He reiterated that Lucas Bergvall was out with an ankle injury.
