As Tottenham Hotspur fall apart down the stretch of the 2025/26 Premier League season in a heated relegation battle, a number of things have begun to divide the fan base. And despite being a symbol of what Spurs can be in the darkest of hours, Ange Postecoglou, thanks to a few extreme fans, has been used to pit fans against each other.
There is no question that Spurs owe a great debt of gratitude to Big Ange, and had the powers that be at the club been more willing to listen to the harsh truths Postecoglou was not afraid to shoot back at them, perhaps Spurs would not be in this mess in the 2025/26 season. Tottenham were 17th in the league last season under Postecoglou, and the manager's tactical system ended up being badly exposed by other top managers in the Premier League. And his terrible run with Nottingham Forest sealed the fact that Spurs did make the right decision to let him go.
Yet he did win the Europa League for Tottenham, putting his sole focus on bringing European silverware back to a club that had not achieved such a feat in 41 years. Even as Spurs were vindicated for not keeping him, the way in which his dismissal went down - sacked on a holiday after treading waters with no response from the club for weeks - will never sit right with supporters.
Ange Postecoglou will always mean a lot to Tottenham
So, in a sense, you can forgive the Tottenham fans who are clamoring for Postecoglou, posting inecessantly across social media, Reddit, and any other message board or venue they can get their hands on, reviving the discussions had ad nauseum throughout the summer transfer window about Big Ange and how wronged he was.
But, goodness gracious, let's all just give it a rest. Thomas Frank turned out to be a disaster, and Igor Tudor really isn't going to be much better. All this bickering amongst Tottenham fans about Big Ange is not doing anyone a bit of good at a time when the Spurs supporter base needs to be united against the real common enemy, relegation, and not each other.
Postecoglou had his strengths, and he will always be an icon for Tottenham because of what he achieved in the Europa League, as well as his personable demeanor. But to say that a historically bad 17th placed finish was in any way acceptable would be revisionism at its finest, and Postecoglou's tactics were both ineffective and led to injury proneness. Again, he didn't exactly succeed at Forest either.
Tottenham need to more forward and forge a pathway with a real sporting structure, better decision makers at the club, and a coach who can succeed at a Big Six club witih the resources Spurs have and play that kind of football to keep up with the elite of the elite. Postecoglou wasn't that guy. At the same time, he was special in his own way, and Tottenham fans need to appreciate that. Bringing up his name in a relegation fight, fawning over the highs with rose colored glasses, and then causing a sea of backlash that then tears Ange's memory down is hardly the way we should be discussing him or remembering him at this, the darkest hour of Tottenham.