Even though Tottenham Hotspur had to part ways with him in order to move forward - yet screwed up the follow through so badly they might as well have kept him - Ange Postecoglou will always hold a special place in the hearts of fans as a club icon after leading Spurs to their first European trophy in more than 40 years last season.
Postecoglou did not spend much time on the unemployment line, though, as he quickly latched onto Nottingham Forest, which initially upset Spurs fans since Tottenham had just been screwed over by Forest and owner Evangelos Marinakis after their tantrum blocked a fair and square deal to sign Morgan Gibbs-White.
Well, in the end, Postecoglou joining Nottingham Forest and getting promptly fired by Marinakis may have been one last, doomsday saving gift from Big Ange to the club. Because as Spurs barely sit above Forest in the drop zone during this tooth and nail Premier League relegation fight, all the points Postecoglou's Forest dropped loom large.
Ange Postecoglou tanked Nottingham Forest
To say that Big Ange had a nightmarish tenure at Nottingham Forest would be a severe understatement. He did not win a single one of his eight games as manager before Marinakis dumped him, drawing just two in total. So out of 24 points Nottingham Forest could have won, they took home just two, and though it was a very long time ago, those points count the same as any points accrued now at the end of the season during the heated relegation battle.
Thus, in a big way, a key reason why Tottenham are above Nottingham Forest and not in even more trouble in the Premier League relegation battle is all those points Postecoglou dropped. Whlie, in reality, they are a reflection of how poor of a job Postecoglou did for Forest, who had qualified for Euorpean football last season as the Premier League's biggest surprise side, Spurs fans will cheekily joke that it was all just a ploy by Big Ange to do one last favor for Tottenham.
And it is simpler and happier to believe a timeline in which Postecoglou joins Forest, sabotages them out of revenge for the Gibbs-White debacle, and leaves to chill and slag off the horrible Tottenham board and Daniel Levy on podcasts. Surely, he won't be back at Tottenham, but maybe he will reunit with Celtic. Hopefully by then, Spurs will have a better manager than Thomas Frank or Igor Tudor while staying up in the Premier League, thanks in part to Postecoglou tanking so badly for Forest.