On Tuesday night, Tottenham's hopes of qualifying for next season's Champions League came to an end with a 2-0 loss at home to Manchester City. Although the result was a bad one for Spurs, the majority of Tottenham fans left the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in high spirits as it meant Arsenal are now highly unlikely to win the Premier League.
In the build-up to the match, Ange Postecoglou's pre-match press conferences and interviews were dominated by questions related to the notion that Tottenham fans would be happy to lose the match, something that the Australian was clearly agitated by.
He claimed that “100% of Spurs fans” inside the stadium would want to win the match but as the game progressed, it perhaps dawned on him that they didn't. The atmosphere was as flat as a pre-season friendly and the only songs that were sung by the Tottenham faithful were ones about how much they hate Arsenal.
Postecoglou loses it with Tottenham fan behind the dugout
Things came to a head midway through the second half when the Tottenham boss flipped at a Spurs fan behind the managerial dugouts. According to reports, the fan had been shouting at Postecogou throughout the match to lose on purpose and the Australian wasn't prepared to tolerate it any further.
A fan was constantly asking Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou to throw the game last night.
Eventually, he snapped back at the fan… 😳 pic.twitter.com/wKPg7gDIzg
— Football Away Days (@FBAwayDays) May 15, 2024
It's not clear what Postecoglou said to the fan in question but he was animated and the individual involved more than likely stopped yelling at the dugout after facing the wrath of the 58-year-old.
Postecoglou slams ‘fragile foundations'
After the match, Postecoglou was visibly devastated at how the night had gone and said in his post-match interview with Sky Sports that the match wasn't played in front of their ‘normal home atmosphere'. He went further in the press conference, suggesting that the Tottenham fans are fragile.
Postecoglou said:
“I think the last 48 hours have revealed the foundations are fairly fragile. Outside the club, inside the club, everywhere. It has been an interesting exercise. It's just my observations. I'm not going to tell you more. You can make your own assessment of what happened
“I probably misread the situation as to what I think is important and the endeavour to become a winning team, but that's okay. That's why I'm here. I just want to win, I want to be successful at this club. That's why I was brought in.
“I know what's important to build a winning team, and that's what I want to concentrate on. It is what it is, I can't dictate what people do. They're allowed to express themselves however they want. But when we've got late winners in games, it's because the crowd has often helped us.”