First Mourinho, then Conte, now Postecoglou: Are Tottenham the problem?

Ange Postecoglou claimed the “foundations” at Tottenham Hotspur were “fairly fragile” in the aftermath of the 2-0 loss at home to Manchester City.

The Greek-Australian has largely unified Spurs during his first season as head coach, but has threatened to ignite a feud within the fanbase with comments made after the loss.

Tottenham fans were split on whether they wanted to lose the game to City to stop rivals Arsenal from winning the league, though Postecoglou did not explicitly say this was the reason by his anger, He did suggest, however, that Tuesday’s atmosphere was ‘different’ and previously the crowd had helped propel the team to late wins.

This isn’t the first time that a Tottenham manager has dug out the club for internal discrepancies. Antonio Conte departed after an explosive press conference criticising the club’s recent history and players, while Jose Mourinho continually brings up how Daniel Levy sacked him days before a cup final and the coronavirus pandemic meant he never had an authentic connection with the club.

Are all three rants connected? Are Tottenham really the common problem?

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Tottenham’s trophy drought, which will last at least 17 years, has magnified their supposed failures during their time as a ‘big six’ club. They have been caught in a strange position where they are consistently good enough to compete with the best, but never quite topple them all at once.

That said, it can’t just be luck that this drought has lasted so long – even the likes of Portsmouth and Wigan Athletic have won major trophies more recently than Spurs. Since winning the 2008 League Cup, Tottenham have been beaten in four finals and six semi-finals.

Mauricio Pochettino, now of Chelsea, revealed earlier this season that his remit at Tottenham was to make them a consistent Champions League team so the club could finance their new stadium. Such an ambition made sense at the time but now is the moment to change mentality.

The leap from contenders to serial winners when already overachieving to an extent is tough, particularly when a Premier League club. At some point, they will claim silverware again, and they are well-positioned with a manager like Postecoglou – a decorated coach with progressionist principles that fit Spurs’ stature.

After cycling through Mourinho and Conte, it’s time for Tottenham to let Postecoglou have their way. If he says there’s a problem, that the foundations are fairly fragile, he should be allowed to try and come up with and enact the solutions.

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