What We Need, Ange’s Soul Power
To dare is to do, that’s all very well but Spurs’ new motto is onwards and upwards with Ange. Hang on, we can’t go upwards because we’re on top of the league!
Old habits ingrained over five decades die hard. I’ve not yet come to terms with how being top feels. Rational brain tells me that we dominated Fulham even after throttling back towards the end. Spurs’ brain screams don’t give the ****ing ball away! Don’t leave those gaps at back! Emerson, what are you DOING? Rational brain doesn’t expect us to be lasting contenders for top spot. Spurs’ brain says – could we?
The proper answer to all this is: enjoy every chuffing second. The first half was dynamic attacking football, inventive and ingenious. A few of the moves were simply beautiful, with Maddison at its heart, all swagger and poise, the cocky git we’ve craved since dear Dele faded. Never mind the table, I’m overwhelmed by the sight of pace at the back. I wouldn’t swap Romero and Van der Ven for any central defensive partnership right now.
The transformation of every aspect of the club is little short of miraculous, especially as it has been achieved in such a short space of time. Every first teamer is playing better than they did last season, while newcomers have integrated perfectly, more than the sum of the parts because they’ve galvanised existing squad members to aspire to be better. The Lane is rocking and rolling. Attacking front-foot football is a delight.
And its soul power comes from a man with the air of an avuncular uncle at a family do, who is pleased to see you and surreptitiously slips a fiver into the palm of the youngest child as he leaves the party. He is, as he’s fond of saying, your mate.
Postecoglou is self-evidently a fine coach, able to convey his ideas unambiguously. At first glance he’s not a charismatic figure, but in my view, charisma is over-rated. Its essence is about an individual, all about the me. Follow if you wish, but it leaves nothing behind once belief in that figure fails or the leader departs.
JM and Conte worked assiduously to polish their charismatic image, because this, rather than the well-being of Tottenham Hotspur, was their prime concern. They could pack up their image and charisma whenever they wished and take it away with them. What they left behind was none of their concern. They focused on finding another set of converts. And if the players ceased to believe, perhaps because at close quarters they saw right through the facade, they were to blame. When these managers were not blaming the fans, that is.
I’ve been reading Still Dreaming by Alex Fynn and Martin Cloake, the story of last season at Spurs intertwined with a sharp, informed commentary with inside knowledge on the state of the contemporary game with the fans’ experiences at its core. Hard recommendation from me. It’s written in the present tense, a sort of live action commentary over the season. Its strength lies in the way it interweaves the story of the season with wider issues about the club’s history and future and uses this to illustrate developments in the contemporary game such as the impact of television and the need to maximize income generation.
While acknowledging his successes, Conte’s vanity and hollow pronouncements about his hopes for the club are exposed, while the board are intent apparently on alienating loyal supporters by any possible means. The last few seasons have been bleak, the extent of which I didn’t fully take on board until the close season when I had time to reflect without having to think about our points total.
However, I wonder if history will judge last season as a turning point. Things are different now, perhaps because Spurs were compelled to change direction due to the sheer awfulness of the last three managers and how they denied and desecrated the club’s culture and heritage, something which even our board could not ignore.
Postecoglou is a different kind of leader. He’s ambitious, of course he is, but achievement comes via another route. His is an authentic voice, and the players believe him, not just because it’s him but also because what he says is meaningful for them as individuals. Ange doesn’t say, believe me because I’ve won all this stuff somewhere else. He says, believe me because I’ve had to work bloody hard to get where I am. I’ve lived through failure and disappointment, I know what that feels like, and I don’t want you to feel like this. I want you to be the best you can be. Come with me.
His supposedly more illustrious predecessors preened as saviours handing down wisdom from on high. Ange has a different relationship. He says, I believe in you, do this and this because it will make you better players. The players give something back to him in return. There is reciprocity, a bond, a sense of working together with the same aim in focus. If Ange left tomorrow (perish the thought), he’s left something with the player, he’s made them better. It’s his gift to them.
He understands them, because he is without pretension. He’s at their side, not standing aloof. If they make a mistake doing something he’s asked them to do, like passing it forward and taking a risk in so doing, he’s got their back. He takes each player and asks them to play in a position that suits them, asks them to do things he knows they can do, and do well.
Already, the players sense he understands their game better than they understood themselves. Not so long ago, I wrote about my fears for the squad, including the imbalance of wing-backs ready for a manager who likes to go four at the back. What he has achieved with Porro and Udogie in a short space of time is remarkable, yet he’s still playing to their strengths. Coach the players and they can improve, to me a basic concept that nevertheless appeared alien to JM and Conte. I agree with Alex and Martin when they point out that these managers are prepared to shape proven talents into a team, rather than coach players to develop. Where they saw flaws, Ange sees potential.
You’ve probably seen this team-talk he gave to the Australian national side, with his now famous sign off, enjoy your lunch. JM and Conte, they were at the centre of their world and everything else orbited within their gravitational force, whereas Ange inhabits our world and walks in our footsteps. He motivates by appealing to what lies in players’ hearts, what is important in their lives. Personal pride, family, people who meant something to them emotionally. Play for them. They believed in you, now believe in yourself. That’s proper leadership.
At Spurs, he gets it. Our history and heritage are important to him. Fans are fully part of his world. Again, reciprocity – he gives us something meaningful to us and we give back. First game in 67, I’ve seen the Lane rocking over the years but the raucous din of celebration after the United and Sheffield games was off the scale, an expression of pride in the club and rediscovering the joy of being Spurs. You lead Ange, we’ll follow. Cheers mate.
And is it so fanciful to say, after all these years, the board were so wrong with their choice of not one, not two but three managers in succession, that even they have through the bad times gleaned a better grasp of what works at Spurs. Repeating myself over the last ten or twelve years, I said again last year (full disclosure – this is quoted in the book) that any football club depends on three elements, manager/coach, recruitment and finance, and Daniel Levy has seldom aligned all three. When he did, they now appear as outliers.
Yet here we are. Ange and his team working well. Recent signings have worked well without breaking the bank plus they are geared to the way the manager wants to play, pace with VDV and Udogie, guile and passing ability with Maddison. An overhaul of the recruitment department has established clear demarcation lines with (in theory) our chairman taking a back seat and based on a data driven approach. This complements a development that began a while back of buying young talent to develop in the under18s and 23s and paying the market rate to keep young talent at the club. None of these developments are original but in terms of the way Spurs are organised, it’s revolutionary. Spurs are going in a different direction. The only way is up.