Ange Postecoglou explains why winning one piece of silverware alone will not necessarily make his time at Tottenham a success, revealing that his objective at the North London club is much grander.
Tottenham fans desperate for trophy drought to end
The Lilywhites have not won any trophy since their League Cup victory in 2008 and with each passing year, Spurs fans get more and more desperate to see their side lift silverware.
Postecoglou has not been shy of publicly stating that he has set his sights on ending the club’s 16-year trophy drought, pointing out on multiple occasions that he has always won trophies in his second season at clubs (Sky Sports).
Accomplishing that at Spurs is undoubtedly the biggest challenge of the 59-year-old’s career, but he has now boldly stated that he would not be content with just winning one trophy.
Ange Postecoglou aiming for sustained success
Postecoglou has pointed out that winning a cup competition does not necessarily mean that the club is moving in the right direction.
While he made it clear that he is keen to win silverware, he declared that his objective is to set Tottenham up for sustained success in the future.
Speaking before the 2-1 loss to Ipswich, when asked if winning a trophy will change the way Spurs are perceived, the Australian told Football.London: “It depends what you’re talking about, in terms of I’ve always said I don’t see just a trophy as the panacea for sustained success. There’s plenty of evidence that is not the case. Not here, sport in general. Winning the league is a bit different but to sustain that is not easy.
“Sustained success is what I talk about a lot. It’s a lot deeper than just winning a trophy. When you’re at a club of this size that hasn’t won, people think that’s the missing piece. But what I’ve been trying to rail against since I’ve been here is that it’s not just the missing piece. It’s about more than that, it’s about a clear idea of what you’re going to build, how you’re going to build and staying true to that.
“The biggest part of that is whatever sort of comes at you externally, it’s not important what people say about you, it’s how you respond to it. That’s much more important, both positive and negative – your response to it. Unless you have a clear idea of what you’re trying to do you’ll be jumping at shadows all the time.
“So I could be going, let’s just win a trophy this season and everything will be fine, but if we win a trophy, finish 10th and five games into next year I get sacked – not that it’s about me – but then the club has to change direction again. So have you really done anything? I don’t think so.
“That’s where I try to stay really clear on for us as a club we know what we want to achieve for sustained success. Does that include trophies? Absolutely. But it’s not going to be one simple thing that opens the floodgates. I don’t believe that.”
Cup competitions do not show a team’s trajectory
What Postecoglou says here is obviously true as several teams have gone down not long after winning cup the FA Cup or League Cup over the last decade.
In fact, it is worth remembering that the last manager to deliver a trophy to Tottenham was Juande Ramos and not a single Spurs fan will describe the Spainiard’s time at the club as a success.
While winning an FA Cup or the Carabao Cup will be huge, that has to be married to regularly competing in and around the top of the Premier League table like we did under Mauricio Pochettino.