The Tottenham after-party was in full swing at the Carlton Hotel in Bilbao; players, management and family members just surrendering to the moment. Many of the players were still in their full match kits, medals draped around their necks and the centrepiece was theEuropa Leaguetrophy, 15kg of the purest bliss.
It is heavier than you think, according to Son Heung-min. “Very heavy, very heavy,” he said. The Spurs captain had accidentally head-butted it as he hoisted it high into the sky after the1-0 win over Manchester United, a teammate having pushed into him as he performed the move he had dreamed about ever since signing from Bayer Leverkusen in 2015. The angry red cut on Son’s forehead was a part of the tapestry.
It was about 3am and, suddenly, the lights in the Carlton’s function space were switched on. How do you think that went down? According to one of the revellers, it was the lamest attempt in the history of lame attempts to end a party, to usher people off to their beds. Nobody was leaving. And so they did not, the celebrations pushing on from the small hours into the slightly larger ones. It was the night that nobody connected to the club wanted to end. When you have waited 17 years for a trophy, 41 years for one in Europe, this is going to happen.
There was food laid on. Probably. Maybe … The drinks flowed. One of the musicians who plays at Spurs’ stadium did a turn. There was a DJ. And forAnge Postecoglou, who was there with his family, posing happily for pictures, it was an impossibly sweet time.
Vindication had to be prominent in his emotions. When he pointed out after the derby defeat against Arsenal last September that he always won a trophy in his second season at a club, it was an attempt to rally the troops behind him, to inspire confidence. Postecoglou did not imagine that the comment would track him so remorselessly; the memes, the growing levels of ridicule. As he has suggested, this is life at Spurs.
But Postecoglou has delivered again and in the fuzzy afterglow, as the club prepare for an open-top bus parade on Friday at 5.30pm, there were two questions that pounded, both related. Did the glory of San Mamés make this a successful season, making up for the historically awful Premier League campaign? And will it mean that the lights do not go out on Postecoglou’s managerial tenure?
Ask any Spurs fan about the first – certainly right now – and they would probably say that the trophy trumps everything, even a season in which they have lost 21 times in the league, a club record for a 38-game campaign. If it becomes 22 on Sunday against Brighton in the final match, it would equal their all-time low from 1934-35 and that was across 42 games. In terms of the win-loss-draw record, the club have only been worse off once – in 1914-15.
Whether the chair, Daniel Levy, feels the same way is key; it is easy to believe he does not, even if Champions League qualification via the Europa League has been salvaged.
It was interesting to hear the reaction of the players to the second question, many of them treading a diplomatic line. Guglielmo Vicario and Micky van de Ven essentially dropped their shoulders and stressed a desire merely to celebrate. Brennan Johnson, who scored the goal in the final, his 18th of the season, said that “if there’s ever a time for a mic drop, it’s now” – raising the prospect of Postecoglou striding off gloriously into the sunset.
None of the squad explicitly called on the hierarchy to stick with Postecoglou, despite showing their obvious affection for him, although Son came the closest. “He won the trophy, nobody [else] did it, so ….” Son said. “Look, it’s not up to me or the players. But we just have to look at the facts, at the fact that we hadn’t won in 17 years. It’s the manager who wins the trophy. So we see what’s going to happen.”
The Spurs supporters had been heard singing Postecoglou’s song in one of the tight streets that led towards the stadium before the game. And afterwards, at a little before midnight, as he and the players stood before the packed Spurs end, a wall of brilliant white, it was heard again; the rolling, rhythmic tribute. If Postecoglou is to leave – and he says that he wants to stay – it would be with their eternal gratitude and as a legend. Only two previous Spurs managers have won European silverware: Bill Nicholson and Keith Burkinshaw.
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Posteocoglou gave a speech at the after-party in which he talked of his players as family and paid tribute to their own nearest and dearest. In the team meeting before the game, he had shown the players a series of video messages from their family members, a man-management touch that went a long way.
“It was very emotional and in the back of our minds they were a big part of the game,” Vicario said. “My mum and dad spoke on my bit. They just said to fight for the badge, forTottenham Hotspurand to make them happy.”
Son said: “I was emotional when I watched the video and I desperately wanted to win for the family. People think players are deserving of this trophy but it’s the families who deserve this for their sacrifice, their commitment.”
It was a difficult decision for Postecoglou to omit Son from the starting XI; the player had only recently returned from injury, which was a factor. Postecoglou preferred Richarlison, hoping to harness his physical threat. Son said last week that the reason he had stayed at Spurs for 10 years was to succeed where so many others had failed and win something. Being a substitute in one of the most important games of his life was not a part of his thinking, and he did not attempt to hide it.
“Look, you always want to start,” Son said. “Obviously, I was a bit disappointed, of course. But this was not a stage where you can be selfish. You just have to think about what the team needs and, of course, I was ready to do it. It was difficult but I was committed to the team.”
For Levy, an even bigger decision looms.