Ruben Amorim heard the final whistle, grabbed his jacket and headed straight down the tunnel. His immediate feeling of relief had been swallowed by stress ahead of one of the most important games in his managerial career.
Two thousand miles away in the Arctic Circle, Tottenham Hotspur boss Ange Postecoglou’s notoriously short fuse blew when Manchester United and how they feel about the Europa League was put to him. Stressed too? You bet.
For what is to come on May 21 in Bilbao is not just the biggest game of their respective seasons but a match which has the potential to transform – or ruin – the next few years. The magnitude of the Europa League final is not lost on either manager.
On the Manchester United side, it is not about the money or the chance to put another trophy in the cabinet. For Amorim, winning the Europa League is an opportunity to cultivate a belief that this team can be transformed into a winning machine again.
‘The money is not the most important,’ he said. ‘Even to win a title as a coach is that feeling, that feeling we can do good things.
‘The feeling to give something to our fans, especially in this kind of season. So I agree it is not just playing Champions League next season, it is that feeling too that we can change things.’
Ruben Amorim (left) and Ange Postecoglou (right) are feeling the pressure ahead of a final
On the Tottenham Hotspur side of this equation, they head to Bilbao with huge question marks over the manager, stars missing through injury – the story of their season – and a wait for a major trophy stretching back to 2008.
This will be Tottenham’s sixth European final but their first since losing the Champions League showpiece to Liverpool in 2019. It has been 41 years since Tottenham won this competition, then known as the UEFA Cup.
More than a culture changer, for Tottenham this is as much about shifting the monkey off their back and the ‘Spursy’ nickname of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory as it is anything else.
‘It’s going to upset a lot of people isn’t it,’ Postecoglou, in punchy form in Norway after reaching the final, said.
‘The debate’s now raging. The latest one is that neither of us will be able to get a trophy if we win, they’re just going to take a team photo because we’re not worthy.
‘I mean, who cares if we’re struggling in the league? It’s a separate thing. It’s got nothing to do with league form.
‘I couldn’t care less who’s struggling and who’s not. I think both us and Manchester United have earned the right to be there.’
That debate he speaks of has included former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger calling on the winners of this season’s Europa League to be stripped of their golden ticket access into the Champions League. A nonsense argument but one that has created a siege mentality on both sides.
Manchester United are unbeaten in Europe this season and it is helping lift the doom and gloom
Tottenham have not won a major trophy since 2008 and need to win to show a shift in culture
There are league games between now and Bilbao, not that teams sat 15th and 16th in the Premier League table care too much about those.
Manchester United and Tottenham’s seasons will boil down to one night in Bilbao and while Tottenham have beaten United three times out of three already this season, Amorim is not suffering from PTSD ahead of the biggest night of his Manchester United life in a couple of weeks.
‘Every game it is history,’ he said.
‘We lost the last three games so we can win this one. You look at the odds, we are closer to winning than to losing. Both teams are going to play all or nothing in this kind of game.
‘The position of the coach is similar! I know Ange has one more year and it’s different the context but we are struggling both of us.
‘I don’t know what is going to happen and that is the good thing and the bad thing with this team. I never know.’
Where Amorim and Postecoglou’s situations differ is that Amorim won’t be axed on the back of defeat. No such certainty is guaranteed for Postecoglou.
‘If Tottenham don’t win he won’t be in charge next season,’ former Tottenham and England goalkeeper Paul Robinson told the BBC on Thursday from Bodo.
Amorim is well aware of the power a major trophy can have in getting buy-in to his methods
Postecoglou’s job may prove to be at risk if his side come out second best in Bilbao on May 21
‘Ange Postecoglou’s whole season and Tottenham career depends on that one result. You cannot underestimate how big that game is for Tottenham to win the final.
‘Champions League football, yes, and the finances that come with it, but not having to go through a whole restructure. If they don’t win that final they are back to square one. It’s massive for Tottenham.’
Manchester United desperately need to jumpstart Amorim’s reign and ease the growing concerns in the finances department. Over at Tottenham it is D-Day for Postecoglou on his promise of winning something in his second season.
No wonder the stress has already kicked in.
