By Vince Rugari
It used to be Wham’s Last Christmas in Glasgow. Now it’s Angels by Robbie Williams in north London.
“You can keep your Pochettino, Conte and Mourinho, and even Christian Gross,” they’re singing.
“Cos everywhere we go … I’m loving Big Ange instead.”
Even Williams himself is singing it now, releasing a video on social media that has been lapped up by the Spurs faithful.
It has taken less than two months for the Tottenham Hotspur faithful to fall head over heels in love with Ange Postecoglou. For a few hours over the weekend, they sat top of the English Premier League after a 2-0 win away to AFC Bournemouth – their second in a row, after last weekend’s triumph at home to Manchester United and an opening-day draw with Brentford.
Initially obscured by the heroics of the Matildas during the Women’s World Cup, there is another unprecedented Aussie football fairytale unfolding, and you really can’t afford to miss a moment.
Spurs are playing beautiful football again, best captured by James Maddison’s opening goal against the Cherries. More or less a tap-in, it was the build-up play that made it: a series of short, clever passes, simple movement, anticipation, a run into space and a poke into the bottom corner, all before Bournemouth’s defenders had a chance to figure out what was going on.
In other words ... pure Angeball.
The only thing remotely surprising about any of this, at least for those who have followed Postecoglou’s career closely, is how quickly it has happened.
Usually, there is a difficult “adjustment” period at the start of Postecoglou’s tenure - the bit he perversely says he enjoys the most, as his players get to grips with his unique tactical demands, results suffer, and the doubters doubt. We’ve seen it at Brisbane Roar, Yokohama F. Marinos and Celtic, and with the Socceroos.
Ange Postecoglou celebrating after Spurs beat Manchester United.Credit: Getty
Maybe it’s still to come. Surely, there will be bumps in the road ahead, moments where his resolve is tested.
Or maybe not.
As he told the English press, who wondered aloud this week whether he could be seen as the fresh new face of the Premier League, Postecoglou has been doing this for a long time. Sunday was his 58th birthday. He’s in his managerial prime. By now, he has this down to a fine art. He knows exactly what he wants and what it will take to get there, and since he’s now working with better-quality players than he ever has before, it’s probably no shock that they’re firing ahead of schedule.
Postecoglou has Spurs supporters eating out of the palm of his hand.
They’re singing his name, even though he says he doesn’t deserve that just yet. They’ve done their research, pored through old YouTube videos, listened to every word of his note-perfect press conferences, lost themselves in his steely, determined gaze, and marvelled at his weaponisation of the word “mate” - they’ve now figured out what he’s all about, where he wants to take Tottenham, and they’re very clearly up for the ride.
They’ve watched him embrace Ossie Ardiles, heard him re-tell jokes he learned off Sir Bobby Charlton. They’ve laughed as he hit back at Gary Neville’s criticism of Tottenham’s inverted fullbacks, his allegations that he pinched Pep Guardiola’s tactics and made them worse, by saying: “I just copied Pep, mate!”
It’s almost like he’s been there forever.
You might recall how Tottenham’s greatest ever player, Harry Kane, walked out on the club three days before their Premier League season began.
Dejan Kulusevski celebrates Heung-Min Son after scoring a goal against Bournemouth.Credit: Getty
Other managers would have thrown a tantrum, but Postecoglou handled it with class and control, and calmed everyone’s nerves.
It’s both easy and difficult to predict where this goes next. Postecoglou will be a success at Tottenham Hotspur. In some ways, he already is.
Whether that success ultimately manifests itself in the form of silverware – if he can bring home the club’s first trophy since the League Cup in 2008 - remains to be seen.
For a bloke who has made a living out of proving others wrong, you wouldn’t bet against it.
But some things are more important than trophies.
Football is ultimately about winning, but it is also a form of entertainment, a thing people do on weekends to distract them from the horrors of the working week – and you can’t put a price on the feeling Spurs fans are experiencing now when they watch their team play.
Pretty much all of it is down to one man: Ange Postecoglou.
There’s something else they’re singing in north London: “We’ve got our Tottenham back.”
Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.