Europa League Final: Now that the dust has settled, where do Spurs go from here?


Ange Postecoglou lifting the Europa League trophy – in his second season

As the final whistle sounded in Bilbao on Wednesday, the relief and jubilation for the Tottenham Hotspur fans around the globe was there for all to see.

The seventeen-year wait for major silverware, since a League Cup victory in 2008 at Wembley against Chelsea, had finally ended, with Brennan Johnson’s goal enough to see off Manchester United in the showpiece in the northern Spanish city. What’s more, Europa League victory for Spurs secured their place back in the Champions League for the first time since the 2022/23 season.

But will this glorious failure be overshadowed by such a disappointing, dismal league campaign, their lowest finish since relegation in 1977?


It has been a massively disappointing domestic season for Tottenham Hotspur and captain Heung-min Son

The 2024/25 domestic campaign started promisingly: five wins out of the first nine Premier League matches, and a Carabao Cup semi-final secured after a memorable 4-3 quarter-final victory over Man United – them again. However, a complete capitulation either side of Christmas, combined with a heavy defeat in the second leg of the semi-final against Liverpool completely cancelling out a narrow lead from the first leg, saw the North Londoners slip further and further into the bottom half of the league table, seemingly left counting down the days until the end of the season, with little to nothing to play for.

But amid all the domestic disappointments, a promising Europa League run was beginning. Just one group stage defeat, in the hostile RAMS Park as Galatasaray brushed them aside 3-2, saw the Lilywhites ease into the knockout stages, and victories over AZ Alkmaar, Eintracht Frankfurt and FK Bodø/Glimt set up an intriguing final with Manchester United in Spain.

United were having an equally poor season. Also languishing in lower mid-table, they were without a victory in the league since comfortably beating lowly Leicester City 3-0 in mid-March, but, like Tottenham, were thriving in Europe.

The match in Bilbao itself was a poor one, living up to the standard of the respective clubs’ domestic seasons, as opposed to their European campaigns. Tottenham managed just one shot on target, when Johnson poked the ball past Andre Onana in the 42nd minute, and were under pressure for most of the second half.

Tottenham held on, however, for a glorious triumph, and the celebrations lasted for days – the victory parade in N17 two days afterwards attracting an estimated 225,000 people, lining the streets of Tottenham.

But, now that the celebrations are out of the way, and the team brought back down to earth with a convincing 4-1 defeat at home to Brighton on the final day of the season, questions are beginning to arise as we enter the off-season, mainly: does chairman Daniel Levy place his trust in Ange Postecoglou for a third season?

The Australian has been hit-and-miss during his time in North London. An electric start to his first year in charge has been hampered by constant injuries to key players ever since – which have been so rife that Spurs had to contend with just 13 fit senior first team players for the matches against Everton and TSG Hoffenheim earlier in the season.

Even for Bilbao, the entirety of arguably their first choice midfield – James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Lucas Bergvall – were sidelined.

You can blame the 17th place finish on injuries as much as you like, but the fact is, if Postecoglou were to stay for a third season, he would desperately need to somehow tweak his tactics so that the constant risk of injuries is not so rife.

During the glorious celebrations in N17 on Friday evening, the former Celtic boss won plaudits for his proclamation: “In all the best television series, the third season is better than the second.”

This was the latest in a series of quotes, most notably of which came in August when he claimed he “always wins things in [his] second season”, which, despite everything Tottenham have had to contend with this season, turned out to be magnificently true.

But he will no doubt have his work cut out after the summer break. Reinforcements will need to be brought in, not least in preparation for more potential injuries next season with European football coming back to N17, which once again falls on Levy, and whether he will be prepared to open his chequebook.

The dilemma for Levy is this: does he back Postecoglou for another year, even though you risk further domestic failures? Or does he make a change now given that 17th is not good enough for Tottenham Hotspur?

The last two Tottenham managers to lose 20+ games in a single season? Bill Nicholson and Keith Burkinshaw. Also the last two managers to win European silverware at Tottenham, and arguably the two greatest managers in the history of the club.

Postecoglou will hope that history is on his side.

 


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