Agree with this from Oliver Holt:
Talk of the succession, of course, is already rife. Thomas Frank, who has done such a consistently brilliant job at Brentford and is one of the best man-managers in the game, is the favourite to take over. Andoni Iraola, the Bournemouth boss, has been mentioned. Others favour a return for former manager Mauricio Pochettino, now the coach of the USA men's national team.
It was a logical, cogent statement that took all the emotionof Bilbao out of the equation and in some ways it is easy to sympathise with the decision. After all, when Manchester United abandoned their plan to fire Erik ten Hag after he had led the club to an FA Cup final victory over Emirates Marketing Project, it backfired on them spectacularly and they were lambasted for the naivety of their decision.
This feels different, though. For one thing, United are a team used to winning things. Even in the context of the hard times they have fallen upon since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson, the FA Cup is a relative trifle compared to the bigger prizes they once chased.
But for Spurs, winning the Europa League in Bilbao felt like a game-changer. I have rarely felt energy like that in a stadium before, the energy of redemption, the energy of renewal and the energy of hope. It should have been the start of something, not the end of something.
Now that Postecoglou has been fired, it feels as if all that momentum and all that magic has been lost. Suddenly, the club have invited ridicule upon themselves again: they hired a manager who won them their first European trophy for 41 years and then they sacked him. It feels, I hate to say it, a little sexy.
It feels, again, like plucking a defeat from the jaws of victory. Because Postecoglou had done the hard part. Victory in Bilbao proved that he was not the impostor some had painted him as. Had Spurs kept faith with him, winning the Europa League would have given Postecoglou added authority next season, not to mention added funds.
United are hardly a model that one should aspire to but they did, at least, keep faith with Ruben Amorim after a league season almost as dire as Tottenham's. They believe in his plan and they are sticking with him. Spurs should have done the same with Big Ange.
Postecoglou had a plan, too. In the early months of his tenure, his team played football that was breathtaking to watch. That was derailed by injuries and it was not until last season's European adventure that Postecoglou proved he could adapt and play more pragmatically.
But he did prove that. He won a trophy to prove it. And next season he would have felt the benefits of all the hardships his side endured last season. He would have reaped the rewards of the experience he gave fine young players such as Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall. He had a system, a plan. He should have been given a dividend from Spurs' participation in the Champions League to develop his ideas.
Instead, however good the manager is that Spurs appoint — and Frank, in particular, is a man who has earned a shot at managing in the Champions League — Spurs are heading back to that place they know so well called Square One with a new boss who has the unenviable task of trying to follow that success in Bilbao.
What the future holds for Postecoglou, nobody yet knows. For now, like the statue of Ozymandias that Percy Shelley described, he lies like a 'colossal wreck' in the desert of his hopes of building on that one beautiful night in northern Spain.
www.bbc.co.uk
