Any more of this and Ange Postecoglou will be traversing the Bay of Biscay in fatigues. In the context of the full English between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United, the battle of Bilbao, or as some might call it, El Crapico, has acquired a significance greater than the weight of the pot.
The Europa League is essentially no more than a support act to the main event. Indeed, its greatest value lies in the qualification for the Champions League it controversially confers upon the winners.
Yet for Postecoglou, at least 21 May has come to decide the significance of this sporting life. What does it mean to win a trophy? What will it say about me and my team if we beat United to claim victory in Europe for the first time in 41 years?
For him, everything it seems. Well it would when your job is on the line and the bookies are laying odds on the candidates to replace you. Thus was Postecoglou deep in the trenches following the semi-final victory over Bodo/Glimt, visiting existential rage upon those who would question the validity of cup success in the context of a pitiful Premier League campaign in which Tottenham have caved 19 times and sit 16th.
“Let’s see how we can tear it down somehow, diminish it somehow by saying it’s been a poor season, we don’t deserve this, we don’t deserve that,” Postecoglou said in response to the inevitable question “what would victory mean?”
“I’ve said it before, mate, Spurs does crazy things to people. You put that club into any sentence or any issue, and invariably they all come out and try and diminish as much as they can.”
"Why do I care what Man Utd think?!"
Ange Postecoglou wants to concentrate on his Spurs team, and their focus, ahead of the Europa League final
@tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/5YNY5J5f20
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 8, 2025
Postecoglou wants the run to Bilbao to mean something, to be suggestive of what might be given a more favourable bounce of the ball.
He wants the victories in Bodo and Frankfurt to be seen as the version of Spurs that expresses the best of him and his team. This, of course, requires us to set aside the more telling evidence of a long campaign in the Premier League during a season in which a team good enough to finish fifth a year ago has demonstrated a different, more brittle side of itself.
Postecoglou wants to make this reversal about injuries, about the tough selections forced upon him by rank bad luck that has impacted his team more than any other. Some might classify this as denial, or a persecution complex, or just excuses. Name a manager who has not suffered the loss of key players at some point in the campaign.
United are working through their own neurosis. Five ex-players sitting in a room, three from United, four men, one woman, all debating what winning the Europa League might constitute for United. Yes it’s The Overlap, just one of Gary Neville’s many endeavours, a talking shop that gives a sacred centrality to football.
The identity of the new Pope, the escalation of tensions in Kashmir, trade negotiations between the US and China, who cares? The only question that really matters here is this. What would victory in Bilbao say about United?
There is something about United, argues Neville, that no matter how bad they might be “they are always in for trophies”.
Your next read
square FOOTBALLRuben Amorim finally has a Man Utd selection problem
square FOOTBALLFive players Arsenal should buy this summer – and five they should sell
square FOOTBALLMan Utd cruise past Athletic Bilbao to reach Europa League final
square FOOTBALLSpurs win at Bodo/Glimt to book Europa League final with Man Utd
For Neville then, there is something deeply philosophical going on, the very act of reaching the final in Bilbao expressing something essential about United’s very being. To which Roy Keane says bollocks.
“Not the right trophies,” Keane says. “You want to be able to compete week in week out. This United team can’t compete. You can’t win the league but it’s ok to be 15th? Losing 15 league matches, it’s a disgrace.”
Neville, like Postecoglou, is desperately trying to hang on to something that suggests tomorrow will be better, that the planet will shortly return to balance and reveal the true United. Keane is saying, no, the planet hasn’t changed and United are where they deserve to be. And he is surely right.
United and Spurs have advanced in a hybrid competition contested by teams that do not have anywhere near the Premier League’s prestige or power. Bodo have barely fourth tier infrastructure. Winning it thus reflects where the finalists stand vis-a-vis the quality of the competition, just as sitting 15th and 16th is a measure of their quality in the Premier League.
United won the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup under Erik ten Hag. Neville argues this is a good thing when it is an act of sophistry to divert from the fact that there is zip equivalence between those trophies and the serious stuff contested by United’s superiors. Had those victories carried the meaning Neville wants them to hold, Ten Hag would still be in his post.
This is the pitiless reality pressing down on Postecoglou. No matter how loudly he protests, the Europa League is neither a front rank pot, nor an indicator of future success. It is a knockout competition in which the random variable has a greater influence than it does in the top flight. The Premier League shows what Spurs are about and that condemns him.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Battle of Bilbao? Spurs vs Man Utd smacks of El Crapico )
Also on site :
- Trump cuts tariffs on U.K. cars, steel and aluminum but keeps 10% base duty while Britain trims its taxes on 2,500 U.S. products
- ‘Shadow Force’ Review: Two Spies Get Dragged From the Cold in Middling Action Opus
- UAE denies supplying Sudan paramilitaries with Chinese arms