The wait for a trophy for the long suffering fans of Tottenham Hotspur (Spurs) ended at last when the club won the Europa League Cup defeating league rivals Manchester United by a solitary goal last week. That this silverware was won in a particularly disastrous league season where they languish at 17th place must have been especially satisfying for the fans and the players. (The last Spurs match of the season against Brighton and Hove Albion was still in progress at the time of going to press.)
The error-strewn match, by no means a classic, was settled by a scrappy goal just before half time with Spurs’ unsung hero of the season — Brennan Johnson — just about getting his heel on a teasing cross from Pape Matar Saar. The second half was what football fans would call a ‘park-the-bus’ masterclass, with all the 11 Spurs players resolutely defending to protect the narrowest of leads. These tactics were in complete contrast with what the Spurs coach Angelos Postecoglu adopted all season in the EPL.
Spurs were winning a trophy after 17 years and the first European trophy after 41 years. Spurs incredibly enough get to play in Europe’s marquee club competition — the Champion’s League — which also brings huge financial rewards. Former Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger was rightly critical of allowing Europa League champions to automatically play in the Champion’s League — this backdoor entry is unfair to clubs that have higher ranking in the league table. But the Spurs faithful wouldn’t care. The one Spurs player who deserved this silverware more than anyone else is their captain Son Heung-min, who’s loyally soldiered on for the last 10 years with the club.
Postecoglu managed to do what more illustrious predecessors like Mauricio Pochetino, Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte and Harry Redknapp couldn’t do — win a trophy. Postecolglu’s record of winning a trophy in his second year remains in tact. The Spurs fans would hope that this trophy would help Postecoglu save his job from a disastrous EPL season.