Ange Postecoglou’s Europa League title with Tottenham the single-greatest achievement by an Australian coach

“I’ll correct myself — I don’t usually win things, I always win things in my second year.” Ange Postecoglou warned us all back in September this was coming. Now, he sits firmly atop the pantheon of Australian coaching greats. He was derided, mocked, chastened, insulted and even likened to a circus performer pre-game, but Postecoglou will never be some Krusty the Clown-type. As it turns out, Tottenham — English football’s answer to the Washington Generals — were due. After the sophomore slump from hell, ‘Big Ange’ has ridden out the storm and ended Spurs’ 17-year trophy drought with a 1-0 win over Manchester United in Thursday morning’s Europa League final. Tottenham’s first European trophy since 1984 was delivered by South Melbourne’s favourite son, a man who was deemed unhireable in Australia following his exit from the Young Socceroos in 2007, and was coaching Whittlesea Zebras in NPL Victoria just two years later. As Postecoglou put it perfectly by dipping into Paul Keating vernacular post-game: This was one for the true believers. Spurs’ circuit-breaking silverware was not a tactical masterclass, nor a perfect representation of ‘Angeball’, his high-octane attacking philosophy. But in a business based on results, the 59 year-old has now etched himself into history by becoming the first manager not from either Europe or Argentina to win a continental European trophy. After successes at Brisbane Roar, Melbourne Victory, the Socceroos, Yokohama F. Marinos and Celtic, Postecoglou’s Europa League triumph will go down as the single greatest achievement by any Australian coach, and cements his legacy as one of the greatest Australian coaches. While Australia has exported many a world-class athlete, few local coaches have come close to touching Postecoglou’s resume, which has now been franked with one of the biggest continental trophies in club football. Only Ric Charlesworth’s dominant seven-year spell with the Hockeyroos and John Buchanan’s all-conquering Australian Test teams of the early to mid 2000s are in the conversation with Postecoglou. Both of those coaches work in sports where Australia is a world power, but Postecoglou has had to fight for respect at the top level of the game and now, he has delivered the knock-out blow to his critics. The achievement in itself is a monumental one, but the way Postecoglou has done it his way by fighting tooth and nail, overcoming disrespect, silencing critics and breaking the vicious cycle of Spurs’ brutal history of trophy failures trumps any other single tournament win coached by an Australian. In a sport dominated by Europeans and South Americas, Postecoglou punched his way to the top and ensured his permanent legacy on the world game and at one of England’s biggest clubs. Australians plying their trade in Europe have spoken about the stigma attached to being a footballer from down under, routinely looked down upon at the top level of the game and treated patronisingly. Postecoglou has not been immune to this despite his glowing CV in Australia and Asia. His arrival at Celtic in 2021 was greeted by sneering and across his past two years in North London, condescending tones from fans and the media have provided en ever-whirring white noise. Just days ago, the London Evening Standard argued would Postecoglou would go down as a clown if he fell in a European final, a stupendous notion ill-befitting of a man who has won trophies at almost every stop in his coaching career. Postecoglou also succeeded where his much-vaunted and highly-decorated predecessors failed. Since 2008’s League Cup win, an entire generation of talented Spurs teams fell by the wayside and fell in three League Cup finals and a European Cup final. Jose Mourinho, Mauricio Pochettino, Antonio Conte are all former Tottenham coaches once considered among the best in the world who could not snap Spurs’ barren trophy run. It was left to the Australian to break the cycle — and in a European final no less — with a club defined by ‘Spursy’, the moniker bequeathed upon them by rival fans, mocking their ability to flatter to deceive and find ways to clutch defeat from the jaws of victory. It was far from a perfect season for Postecoglou’s Tottenham, with injuries and terrible English Premier League form leaving Spurs languishing in 17th. But winning in sport tends to be a cure-all, and while his Europa League final will not go down as a masterclass, Postecoglou has now delivered the perfect riposte.