The irony is that Spurs have taken winning their first trophy in 17 years and returning to the Champions League to somehow prove they are the opposite.
Of course, any fanbase should be delighted to see their team win any cup. If you can’t enjoy moments like being victorious in finals, then what’s the point?
If that’s not the time to banter your peers, then when is?
Calling yourself Champions of Europe based on winning the Europa League is funny if you’re a content creator after some views on social media.
It’s cringe when your vice-captain does it.
Bilbao should have been one of the highlights of James Maddison’s career. Yet by taking part in so many post-match interviews despite being injured against Man United, he showed the world why, at the age of 28, he doesn’t have the mentality to fulfil his potential.
He sarcastically made a dig at criticism made by Roy Keane, his lack of awareness was uncomfortable to watch. The midfielder thinks that medal proved a point. His whole demeanour confirmed exactly what the former Man United captain was saying.
Given what he won, maybe someone worth listening to?
Compare that to how Roy Keane conducted himself when suspended for a… CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL!
Now ask yourself how the pundit would have reacted to finishing 17th in the Prem but being successful in UEFA’s secondary competition?
He’d be proud of the medal, but I’m not sure he’d refer to himself and his peers as “legends.”
I’m not sure what he would’ve done if he heard those words uttered in the dressing room.
What about a Tony Adams?
A Steven Gerrard?
A John Terry?
Skippers who would’ve been embarrassed to be competing at that level, and who would make it an expectation to go all the way in the competition, especially now the tournament is easier to navigate than it’s been in decades. They certainly wouldn’t believe it justifies 38 points and 22 Premier League defeats.
Daniel Levy has been criticised across the football community for sacking Ange Postecoglou two weeks after lifting silverware, yet he seems to be the only person at Spurs holding the club to any kind of standard.
Ange had a way out, but chose not to take it
I actually think there was a way Big Ange could have saved his job, but he bizarrely talked himself out of the post since Spain.
Because once the dust settles and the adrenaline wears off, you want to hear the man you pay thousands of pounds a week be humble, and show he understands that, domestically, the season has been unacceptable.
If supporters want to claim it’s been a great year on YouTube for clicks… that’s one thing. But the boss?
He should be wondering how a club that size didn’t even get 40 points.
Yet when losing on the final day 4-1 at home to Brighton, to confirm the club’s worst-ever Prem finish, the Australian had the audacity to summarise the campaign as “outstanding.”
Zero embarrassment.
No shame.
Devoid of any apology to those who pay a lot of money to watch the worst-ever Spurs team in the Premier League era.
He seemed to find it funny that he had kind of cheated and found a loophole.
I don’t like anyone being out of work (although he will be financially okay), but if there is one positive, it’s that at least an Aston Villa or Crystal Palace won’t play the kids the moment they’re safe from relegation, thinking the league is irrelevant as long as you win a Mickey Mouse cup.
Spurs still don’t think like a big club
With the way UEFA have formatted the league stage, any English representative should be getting to at least the semi-finals. The standard of opposition is so poor, it would’ve been a dangerous precedent if clubs started thinking the league didn’t matter.
Ange’s employer must have laughed… then stopped, concerned, when he realised the 59-year-old was not joking.
Reality would’ve hit Mr Levy as it became apparent that the whole time his manager was being serious, not caught up in celebrations.
In that moment, the Spurs chairman had evidence that the man in charge of what happens on the pitch doesn’t get the size of the club, has zero desire for the club to be anything more, and has zero pride.
Yes, a fan channel can argue that Spurs won a trophy and qualified for the Champions League, and that the ends justify the means. And if you were talking to an alien who knew nothing about the sport, that’s how matter-of-fact you would be.
But a professional manager, working in the biggest league in the world, having spent over £150 million in the last 12 months?
No, you can’t have that attitude.
One fan famous on the internet went to the Emirates and took a photo in front of the Thierry Henry statue with a mock Europa League.
Which is kind of sad. Because in his bid to be humorous, he’s making Spurs look silly.
That’s what Ange did. He took a glorious moment, but due to a lack of dignity, he made Spurs get laughed at.
Could you imagine Everton winning the Carabao Cup but finishing 17th and then taking pictures outside Anfield?
I remember in 2005 when Liverpool won their 5th European Cup (the European Cup!).
Part of the thrill of Istanbul was they knew it wasn’t the greatest team in their history. They had finished 5th that year, below the Toffees.
I don’t recall them ever trying to say they were the best in Europe. They acted with class.
They shared the moment with their city but knew they had more steps to go.
A sprinter should be proud of a bronze medal at the Olympics. Yet if you start pointing out that Usain Bolt doesn’t have that colour medal in his Olympic collection, you look foolish and small. You’re also telling the universe you don’t have the drive to be anything more.
This, by the way, is not me being a bitter Gooner.
I can only speak for myself, but when we faced Chelsea in Baku, I remember thinking how relieved I’d be to win and paper over the cracks by saving our season.
It never once crossed my mind that if we had won, we’d be “Champions of Europe.”
It was rock bottom to be competing in UEFA’s second tier, and winning it was an expectation, not a trophy I’d be buying a replica of to pose outside West Ham with.
That was when we finished 5th, not 17th.
I’m old enough to remember Galatasaray on penalties, but again, I don’t recall thinking “we’re Champions of Europe” if those spot kicks go in our favour.
I just recall finishing so far behind Man United, wanting any kind of success.
I wouldn’t have boasted though, because the UEFA Cup/Europa League was not designed for us. It was a chance for a Middlesbrough or a Fulham to have European nights.
Both got to finals. Had they won, would they have been Champions of Europe?
I don’t blame our neighbours across North London. That’s how they’ve been educated.
If your own manager and players are saying 17th and the Europa League is “outstanding,” of course supporters will follow.
Daniel Levy has every right to expect an employee of Tottenham to have more pride and class than that.
He doesn’t pay for his own manager to tell players and fans they should drop all standards in the league because they are rubbish and therefore should accept anything they can get.
How patronising is that?
Mr Levy would’ve partied in Seville. He would’ve toasted everyone involved, a job well done.
With a sore head the next morning, he would’ve flown back to the UK with pride.
Yet he’s still a businessman, used to taking away emotion when making a decision.
Asking himself whether he has the best possible coach leading the team, he can’t ignore the league position based on a one-off game.
He can’t justify 38 points because you won a competition you were favourites to win.
Twenty-two league defeats isn’t overlooked because you beat AZ Alkmaar, Frankfurt, Bodo/Glimt and Man United.
Sacking someone, paying compensation to him, then potentially to another club to take their boss, bringing in that new person’s staff and even signings, it’s a decision worth millions of pounds.
You can’t make a decision worth millions based on one match.
Man United made that mistake with Ten Hag.
A Spurs fan asked me: would I accept five runners-up finishes or one of those years being a Europa League win?
I said, but to qualify for the Europa League, you have to fail first?
That can’t be how a professional sports team wants to be run.
Man United, Man City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, AC/Inter Milan, Bayern Munich would not be legends if they finished 17th domestically but won the Europa League. None of their managers would call that “outstanding.”
Because to be a big club… you think like one.
I guess… it’s happened again?
Dan Smith
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Do I remember a certain Jack Wilshere and the Arsenal women’s captain during their cup winning celebrations calling Tottenham a certain word aqainted with bottoms? Now that’s real class!
Blimey someone’s struggling for content today
Content you read …….then commented on lol
Salty.
The irony of having a pop at another club like this when this is the most small-club mentality post I’ve ever seen. Everyone calls Arsenal fans obsessed with Spurs and here you are, proving all of them right.
We all expected it to be this way, even before the final. We all knew they were going to act like that. That’s why they are Tottenham Hotspur and not anyone else
We/you should be quiet… We haven’t won a thing in years and can’t even win when the league was there for the taking this year.
Would you rather finish where we are or of won a trophy and still be in the CL and 17th? mmmm
Yeah I rather finish 2nd lol
You get the same outcome but don’t get to see your team lose 22 times !
That’s like saying would you like to finish 6 th next season , then finish 17th the season after just to get a second tier cup
Just as well stay in second and compete at the highest level
I couldn’t disagree more!!! I want us to win things not finish 2nd.
A Europa League win is in the history books/in the trophy cabinet .. finishing 2nd in the league year after year is pointless. Spurs did that previously and we took the mickey then!!
I didn’t say either were great
I was asked to choose
Think of it like this
If someone said right now Arsenal will win the Europa League not this season but next would you say that’s successful
Just think what we would have to do for that to happen
My view from the outset was that Spurs winning the EL, (particularly after the changes to the rules) disrespected the EPL. If a competing team next season decides the best way to get CL football is to do what Spurs did then it ought to bring about a review of the rules ie. No automatic qualification to the CL but the chance , instead, to defend their trophy. The European Cup wasn’t a league. It was fought for by genuine champions of their respective leagues. Now it allows the best of the rest a chance and from this recent experience, the opportunity for the club that won the EL to be opportunistic. I’m not sure that is what UEFA had in mind. No wonder my Spurs friends didn’t bombard me with post win WhatsApp banter.
Another sad and predictable opinion on Spurs from a bitter individual
A big club doesn’t have fans who can’t stop talking or singing or mentioning another club no matter what they themselves do. To even have a hate a long as they are called
Spurs are forever in the minds of Arsenal fans. What an inferiority complex
If Arsenal are this so called big club why is their record in Europe a joke?
True big clubs like Real Madrid or Bayern Munich translate domestic success into trophies in Europe
What a mirage and illusion Arsenal are
Your stadium is as silent as a morgue on matchdays and you can’t even organise a proper Tifo
The fact you have taken the time to write this article is yet again more proof of Spurs living rent free in Arsenal fans heads
Hahaha! So spurs fans putting videos on youtube watching arsenal games is a sign of the superior club?
I never even knew where they finished.
It’s a rivalry. It wouldn’t matter if Spurs were relegated to League Two or Non League we as Arsenal fans will still be mocking or talking about them.
It’s a rivalry that goes back from when Henry Norris moved us from Woolwich to Highbury (North London) in 1913.
Hence the bitterness from the Spuds started.
😊
Does anyone remember Man United under Fergie? All throughout the 30 years of Fergies tenure Man United fans and Fergie himself still spoke about Man City even if City weren’t any threat to Man United until tje Oil sheikh showed up in 2007..
Liverpool fans always talk about Everton even if the Toffees are just a weeping boy club..
It’s rivalry. This is what makes football what it is. Little / petty rivalry like this etc..
A lot of the times it’s cringeworthy but hey, these petty rivalries are part and parcel of the Beautiful Game.
😊😊
Didn’t some of their fans wear Man City shirts and celebrate loseing to them so it cost us ?
While you lot may have two more European trophies than us, for the club from N17th to think they are one of the big 6 domestic clubs is a joke. TWO League Titles in your existence is comical for a so called big club.
Things that have happened since you lot last won the League.
The Berlin Wall went up, then came down.
Colour TVs were introduced.
Man landed on the moon.
The Beatles release their first record, Please Please Me.
Concord flies for the first time.
Clubs like Sunderland, Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield Town have won the League more than you lot.
And Herr Drier,
Leicester City won the League more recently than them. 😂👍
Derek, so have Ipswich Town 😂
Herr Drier,
I forgot about Ipswich, thanks for the heads up. I’ll chuck in another one, Leeds United.😂
Anymore?
Herr Drier,
Nottingham Forest, Everton, Derby County, I’m on a roll now. 😂
With respect do you know the meaning of an
inferiority complex ?
Because if you did that wouldn’t make sense in this scenario lol ?
The fact your reading an article on a Arsenal forum and commenting?
Do you see the irony
Didn’t a Spurs fan take a picture outside the Emirates with a toy trophy and even a former player go into our changing room ?
Wouldn’t by your definition make that being rent free in your head
i believe imo the spuds are broken and in terms of where you are as a club then i am comfortable of where we are and regardless if you like the current manager or not, we have progressed and they have regressed over the last 5 years.
they have had some of the best managers in club history and none have been able to crack it
i do though think the spuds have had a much better season then us in the cups as the trophy they have picked up is not to be scoffed at. saying that and i dont want to belittle the standard of the competition but when 2 mediocre clubs get to a final… sorry when 2 clubs get to a final when having a very mediocre season then the competition has to be questioned on the quality going through.
bear in mind no teams finishing 3 in the group stages dropped in to the competition from the CL
good luck to them and not my concern but happy to have north london painted red and white again
onwards and upwards
How is it painted Red and White? It should be, but we’ve won nothing in years!! We need to be realistic..
Because we finish higher
Play at a higher level
Beat them home and away , etc
Thank you, Dan, for stating the reasons why
The home and away being the foundation of it being painted red and white
Firstly, Spurs are not a big club. In regards to revenue they are, but nothing else. Secondly, Utd I always see as our true rival.
The EL win was only their 3rd trophy in 33 years, the other two being the Carabao Cup, and it’s been 64 years since they last won the league!
Levy is an egotistical clown, who hates winners. Didn’t properly back Poch when they were on the verge of greatness. Sacked Mourinho right before a cup final. Even if you hate Mourinho, just let the guy play the final because he’s a master at winning. Levy and the club got called out by Conte, and then a manager FINALLY wins something, gets you CL football, and is sacked!
If Levy seems to be the only person at Spurs holding the club to any kind of standard, then that standard must be all about not having success. because anytime he does get some or gets close to it, he punishes those for delivering it.
I don’t mind Spurs winning, because the banter is great! We definitely had a far better season, as our achievements were much tougher to come by, and I’d prefer to be in our position moving forward, but huge credit to Ange for doing the unthinkable at Spurs. It’s a trophy that will live long in the memory for Spurs fans.
Essentially, I love Levy! Keep him at Spurs for as long as possible.
Dan this time around maybe you made the article a little longer. I’ll try to send my comment when I finish reading.
Cool
Where I come from spurs are they least of my worry and infact I don’t see them as a big club instead man utd are our biggest rivals and that’s why I preferred spurs to win the Europa inorder to save us from noise pollution.
Not sure about some of the content in this post but certainly agree with one thing; Ange himself is just an insufferably smug, self congratulatory onanist. He should have been crucified for that “second season” claim when in reality he’s been sacked at two clubs in his second season there for being so useless but he was never called out on it. And his attitude after winning the Europa (and I’m not knocking it, they should celebrate it) was dreadful. No contrition whatsoever. The worst Spurs team in multiple generations. 22 losses. One place above the relegation zone. This isn’t an attack on the club, but a criticism of Ange himself. He should have wound his neck in and shown a little shame. Been a little humble. He’s a dreadful manager, and Spurs are well rid of him and his awful smug grin.
Effin Spurs fans are the world’s most deluded. Winning the Europa League doesn’t make them Chamions of Europe any more than their winning the English Football League (EFL) Championship in 2027 will make them Champions of England.
Maybe because of their history, Spurs pretend to be big, by trying to rub shoulders with others. I don’t know much of their history.
If a club is not investing BIG on players to make the club ambitious, then how big is the club.
Spurs, since David Ginola maybe, have been team of two or three star players. It will not change even now that they are repaying new stadium debt. They have never built a big club at every opportunities they have got big players.
That 17th and Angie happened to them, it is just reality check I think.
What have they been aspiring for ?
Carlton Cole summed it up perfectly on talksport recently, he said Bodo/Glimt sound like a rock band! That’s the standard of the Europa league, a second rate competition filled with absolute mediocrity, the final was an embarrassment! 😀
A trophy is a trophy is a trophy whatever it is as it is only earned by beating opponents. Those who don’t know winning trophies tend to belittle trophies which I presume is sour grapism. For me I was too ecstatic when Arteta beat Guardiola and Klopp to win 2 Community Shields. I still remember the anguish of the beaten two managers when their last penalties were missed or saved. That was the last moment of joy Arsenal gave us where we shared drinks with friends. Arsenal is always proud of its number 1 status by winning 14 FA Cups so only those who don’t know how trophies are won may dare to undermine the FA Cup. By the same analogy Spurs’ historic and invaluable Europa League triumph which aligned them equally with Arsenal when the UCL draw is done in August.