I woke up this morning and Ange Postecoglou still had a job. Depending on which side of the ideological divide you fall, that’s either a positive, or a stubborn reflection on what has been a pretty miserable season thus far.
I choose to think of it as a positive. According to a report in football.london from Alasdair Gold, recent unsourced reports on social media of board meetings to decide Postecoglou’s fate are untrue, and the Spurs hierarchy is still sympathetic to his plight and focused on getting Big Ange the help he needs amidst a dire injury crisis at the club.
football.london understands that Spurs remain intent on trying to help Postecoglou rather then removing him from his position and that rumours surrounding upcoming board meetings to decide his fate in these couple of days ahead are untrue. However, the club need to move faster with that help.
— Alasdair Gold, football.london
I reckon that the fan frustration has as much to do with Tottenham only signing keeper Antonin Kinsky during this month’s transfer window and not outfield players who can help replace and spell injured or exhausted first team players. Not that the club hasn’t been trying — they were very much in on Randal Kolo Muani, who ultimately chose a loan at Juventus over Spurs — but there are 11 days remaining in the window and the closed shop that Johan Lange has established with his team means that we don’t really know whether or how close Spurs are to any given target, or even really who those targets are.
Sunday’s loss at Everton was probably Spurs’ worst overall performance of the season, even though the team came back to score two late goals to make it a somewhat respectable 3-2 loss at Goodison Park. There seems to be an understanding that Spurs have had some absolutely foul luck this season — 0-11 in matches decided by one goal, second in the league in goal scored with a +10 goal differential, but still in 15th place. But for many fans the only thing that matters is W & L, and Spurs now have 12 losses this season, the most of any Spurs team since 1998.
So the Everton loss may or may not have moved the needle with regards to Ange’s employment status, but it does increasingly feel like a lost season. Spurs are expected to get Cuti Romero and Micky van de Ven back by the end of the month, and hopefully Spurs’ recruitment team will get a couple of January reinforcements in as well. With this many players out, what else can we do but hope?
