- The Tottenham manager was furious with the home fans on Tuesday for cheering on Man City
- Spurs fans were divided in the stadium as a win would have helped Arsenal
- Of course, Spurs fans want their team to lose to City if it stops Arsenal from winning the league! Listen to the It all starts! podcast
I have been a Tottenham season ticket holder for over a decade and have traveled the country supporting Spurs, and supporting them has given me some of the best moments of my life.
Tuesday evening I found myself in a situation that I have never experienced before and that I do not want to experience again. I wanted the team to lose.
I couldn’t bear the thought of Spurs handing the title to Arsenal. Our slim chances of qualifying for the Champions League next season didn’t interest me.
I expected the entire fan base to feel exactly the same way I did. I heard someone say: ‘I’d rather sell my own mother than see Arsenal win the league’.
So I sat in my usual spot and supported Manchester City for the evening.
Tottenham fans were conflicted on Tuesday over whether they wanted to beat Man City
Ange Postecoglou expressed frustration at suggestions that supporters wanted the team to lose
In the opening moments of the match I found myself willing Guardiola’s team to come forward, urging Kyle Walker to keep bombing from right-back on the wing, praising Phil Foden’s every touch.
At that point, it had been fifteen minutes since the season ticket holder on my left shoulder attacked me.
‘Mate, can you please stop supporting Man City and wanting them to score? It already hurts me. It’s shameful that you want us to lose.’
It caught me off guard. How can a Tottenham fan want to help Arsenal win their first title in twenty years?
I challenged him on that point, to which he replied: ‘I don’t care about anyone else, I only care about Tottenham and I always want the team to win.’
The discussion got a bit heated – as a fan who has been to every home game this season, I feel like I have the right to support the team in whatever way I can – and it ended with me telling him that he should mind his own business and I will. the same.
I looked around and there were plenty of similar conversations happening all over the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Home fans cheer the City corners and grimace at near misses.
When Erling Haaland scored the opener, I gave a muffled fist pump – a terrible feeling – but I saw hundreds of Spurs fans standing to the south celebrating as wildly as if Son Heung-min had given us the lead at the other end.
Celebrating Erling Haaland’s opener was a terrible feeling, but many supporters did
Some Spurs fans have recreated City’s Poznan celebrations after the visitors scored their first goal
There was a collective sigh of relief when Son Heung-min saw his shot saved by Stefan Ortega
When the South Korean broke through at 1-0, I had my head in my hands. There were collective sighs of relief around me when he was foiled by Stefan Ortega.
It felt like this was the moment when the penny dropped for many fans. If they wanted Spurs to win, they would have realized what it would have meant if we had done that.
But not the fan next to me. As I sat with a smile, he left before the final whistle and confronted me again as he walked towards the exit: ‘Are you happy now? Did you get what you wanted, and was it worth it?’
Yes I am, yes I did, and yes that was it.
In the closing stages, there were anti-Arsenal chants in the stadium, unlike any I had ever seen after Haaland sealed the match with his second.
And this is where Ange Postecoglou has misunderstood the (silent) majority of the fanbase.
In his criticism of the fans’ mentality after the match, he suggested that we don’t want to watch a winning team. It showed he doesn’t seem to understand the fanbase and the rivalry with Arsenal – a rare misstep from someone who has spoken eloquently all season.
Postecoglou’s rhetoric this week felt damaging and he may have misjudged the fanbase
The Spurs boss has shown he can turn the club around but may need to mend broken relationships with fans heading into a difficult summer
His rhetoric this week also feels damaging. By suggesting that Tottenham fans need advice because they want City to win, despite saying earlier in the season that he can’t tell supporters how to think, the usual trophy looks more like Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte in the past seasons and even confronts a fan in the The crowd all leads to a growing rift between manager and supporters.
It also completely sidesteps the fact that his team have lost five of the last six, as he has consistently suggested that Champions League football doesn’t matter in the run-in.
That said, Postecoglou has shown us enough in the first ten games of the season to make anyone think he could be the man to turn this club around. But now, on top of what has already been a difficult summer, he must also repair a seemingly broken relationship with the fans.
And that wasn’t a headache anyone would have anticipated just a few weeks ago.