How Ange’s opposite approach can attract Spurs to silverware

Ange Postecoglou’s positivity — the opposite of Antonio Conte’s scowl — is turning the club around.

Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou. Picture: Getty Images

George Costanza: “Yes, I will do the opposite. I used to sit here and do nothing, and regret it for the rest of the day, so now I will do the opposite, and I will do something.” (Goes over to a beautiful woman at the counter). “Excuse me, I couldn’t help but notice that you were looking in my direction.”

Victoria: “Oh, yes I was. You just ordered the same exact lunch as me.”

George (deep breath): “My name is George. I’m unemployed and I live with my parents.”

Victoria (sexily): “I’m Victoria. Hi.”

That’s from the Seinfeld episode The Opposite. George decides every move he has made in his life has been wrong, so doing the opposite can only be right.

Surprisingly, it works for him. It’s working for Tottenham Hotspur, too.

Losing Harry Kane; appointing the English Premier League’s first Australian manager.

Now Ange Postecoglou’s positivity — the opposite of Antonio Conte’s scowl — is turning the club around.

This week, he has even been telling supporters to dare to dream. How marvellous. So many managers play down expectations. Yet Tottenham began this weekend top of the league. They’re a big club, in a big stadium. Why shouldn’t they play up? Why shouldn’t they expect?

And, yes, we know the caveats. Manchester City away, on December 3. Newcastle United, City, Arsenal and Liverpool, straight, between April 13 and May 4 next year. Plenty of time for it to all go, as the saying has it, “Spursy”.

Yet it’s not City on Monday. It’s faltering Chelsea, at home. And it’s not Liverpool the week after, it’s Wolverhampton Wanderers. So Postecoglou is right. Dream on. That is what the game is supposed to be about.

Seinfeld’s George Costanza

Terry Venables, a former manager at Postecoglou’s club used to gather his coaching staff together for a few drinks the night before away games. Why? “Tomorrow (Monday) at 5 o’clock, we could all be crying,” he reasoned. “We’ve done the work all week. Enjoy it now.”

Think about Arsenal last season. Think about all the miseries who hated their pre-emptive excitement, think of all those who demanded they rein it in after the 4-2 win at Aston Villa, the injury-time comeback at home to Bournemouth. Arsenal were overtaken along the final straight anyway. So what did it matter?

Getting excited about what might be isn’t why a team loses the title race; being the second best team is. Arsenal weren’t as good as City but, for a while, it looked like they might be.

Would the narrative have changed had they left the field hatchet-faced and unsmiling? Not if they still lost to City, home and away. What was it Steven Gerrard told his Liverpool team-mates intensely in 2014? “We don’t let this slip.” Didn’t quite work out as planned.

It is not just Postecoglou’s football that is game-changing at Tottenham. His attitude and abandon feel fresh too. When Tottenham went five points clear at Crystal Palace, he didn’t throw cold water on the mood.

“This lot have suffered a fair bit,” he said. “I’m not going to dampen that.”

Too right. There are enough people trying to drag Tottenham back to reality, without their own manager raising doubts. His dressing room will be bouncing, players like Son Heung-min and James Maddison will be feeling invincible. Why be the one to prick that bubble?

This is a club that has been through Conte and Jose Mourinho at their most sour. It needs boosting, it needs optimism.

Jurgen Klopp did not turn Liverpool around with drear.

A positive attitude is not the same as complacency, not the same as announcing the league is won in November. Postecoglou is merely allowing the club a rare fantasy. This is Tottenham Hotspur he is managing.

A play on the name has become a euphemism for inevitable failure in English football.

“Lads, it’s Tottenham,” is now one of Sir Alex Ferguson’s most famous team talks.

These are the demons that have to be exorcised if Postecoglou is to take them forward. There is absolutely nothing to be gained in embracing the pessimism of the past.

Postecoglou is right to seize a healthy instinct for the opposite.

The Sunday Times