- Tottenham played their last Premier League match on Sunday
- Now heading straight to Australia for a friendly against Newcastle
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Ange Postecoglou and his Tottenham Hotspur stars were filmed flying for their friendly in Australia on Sunday – and the club’s fans were tearing up when they saw the footage.
Dejan Kulusevski scored twice to help Tottenham to a 3-0 win against Sheffield United in the final round of the Premier League to finish fifth and qualify for the Europa League.
Fans had barely had time to celebrate that development when the sight of the stars on board a plane left them infuriated by the decision to bring the team Down Under for a pointless friendly against Newcastle just three days after the Premier League had ended.
“Ridiculous schedule, having to fly for a pointless friendly on the day the season ends,” one fan fumed.
Tottenham coach Ange Postecoglou’s stars boarded a plane bound for Australia just hours after the end of their Premier League season
Some players, such as James Maddison (pictured), appeared in holiday mode on the flight to Australia, with one fan asking if he was ‘moving there’ because of all the baggage he had brought with him
“Give these guys some rest. Ange is about to test these guys in his homeland,” another complained.
“Making money comes at the expense of the players’ health,” another fan wrote.
‘Ridiculous that you put the players through this. Nothing but greed,” another supporter posted.
The decision to bring Spurs to Australia was also branded as hypocritical after the club complained about FA Cup replays earlier this season due to the impact the workload was having on players’ welfare.
Spurs’ quest for a ninth FA Cup ended in a 1-0 fourth round defeat to Manchester City in January.
It came after Tottenham were one of the ‘big six’ clubs to successfully lobby to have FA Cup fifth round replays scrapped from next season to prevent their players from getting tired.
Now there is a move to remove FA Cup replays from the fourth round too, meaning matches will be decided by extra time and penalties rather than replaying matches if there is a draw at the end of regular time.
‘Too tired to play FA Cup replays but will fly to Australia hours after season ends,’ gushed one Spurs fan.
‘Oh well, at least you don’t have to play FA Cup replays next season. You would have been so tired,” another posted sarcastically.
Even Postecoglou said the friendly is “not ideal” and is unlikely to happen again in the future.
Newcastle’s Kieran Trippier (pictured) had previously questioned the scheduling of the friendly after a long season
Postecoglou (pictured after Spurs’ win over Sheffield United) agreed the timing of the friendly is not ideal and said it was unlikely a similar match would be scheduled again
Newcastle’s Kieran Trippier had also previously criticized the match, also calling it ‘not ideal’, especially with the European Championship approaching.
Although Newcastle will play 50 games this season, Tottenham will end their season with 41 games after failing to qualify for Europe and being prematurely eliminated from both domestic cups.
“Our situation is a bit different to Newcastle,” Postecoglou said when asked about Trippier’s comments.
‘They’ve had a European season, the Champions League, it’s been a big season. We didn’t do that. It’s not a secret part of this fame, but also revenue for us.
‘I certainly wouldn’t have let this happen if we were in Europe this year and had a bigger fixture schedule. I probably would have said no to it.
‘And I don’t think the club expected us to go. When we’re in Europe next year, I don’t think you’ll see this happening.
‘I don’t think it’s ideal. But I think every situation is unique. If, as a result of our season, we have to play one more match two days after the end of the season, that means something to us.
‘We had a conversation about it with the playing group very early on. They understood why we’re doing it and we all committed to going and it’s going to happen.”