An exasperated Ange Postecoglou lost his cool in the post-match press conference after Tottenham’s 2-0 win over Bodo/Glimt (5-1 agg).
Matt Law of the Telegraph, asked: ‘Manchester United have constantly said this competition won’t save their season – managers have said it, players have said it.
‘Would it save Tottenham‘s season, is it different for Tottenham?’
Then followed a terse exchange, with the Spurs boss clearly exasperated by the comparison.
He hit back with: ‘I don’t care – why do I care what Man United think? Why is that relevant to me? Ask the Man United manager why he says that. Me, I’ve said all along that this is important.
He was then asked: ‘What does it mean for Tottenham’s season then?
Ange Postecoglou was involved in a terse exchange with a journalist after the win
Tottenham are through to the Europa League final where they will play Manchester United
Postecoglou flipped the question back to the journalist: ‘You probably know better than me and probably followed this club longer than I have. What do you think a trophy would do for this club?
‘Massive,’ came the reply.
‘Exactly right, so the question answers itself,’ Postecoglou explained, now in a more neutral tone. But what’s happening right now is that people are fearing that, that it actually might happen.
‘Because it might happen they’re thinking, “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”, or somehow comparing us to Man United.’
United are 15th, with Spurs a point behind in 16th in the Premier League table after disastrous seasons.
But silverware and a place in next season’s Champions League is still a live possibility for both sides, who will meet in the Europa League final on Wednesday, May 21.
The final in Bilbao will also have on offer the huge financial reward that comes with Champions League participation and could help inform the summer business of the winner.
The stakes are enormous for both clubs, who put away their respective semi-final opponents with relative ease over both legs.
Dominic Solanke was on the scoresheet for Spurs as they won the away leg 2-0
Man United players and Ruben Amorim have said a Europa League win doesn’t save the season
Earlier this week, Arsene Wenger had said: ‘They should qualify automatically for the Europa League again but not necessarily for the Champions League.
‘Especially when you’re in the Premier League, where already five teams qualify.
‘I think it’s something [for UEFA] to think about and to review.’
Perhaps this was one of the examples of the Europa League being diminished that Postecoglou referred to and he had responded to those remarks robustly.
He said: ‘I’ve never heard that before, so… I’ve said it before, mate, Spurs does crazy things to people. It does, it does.
The Australian cut a much happier figure at full time after seeing a clinical win
‘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 wasn’t there an issue before and it’s an issue now? What’s the difference? I don’t understand what the difference is.
‘Last year, fifth didn’t get you into the Champions League, this year it does. What does that mean?
‘There are competition rules and the rules say that the winner goes into [the Champions League]. It’s not the first year, and there isn’t an asterisk against it that you have to do something else as well. But it’s Spurs mate, they love it. They love it. Oh, they love it, you love it, don’t you?’
