Ange Postecoglou teetering between hero and clown with Tottenham legacy on the line in Europa League final | OneFootball

Postecoglou has put full focus on pursuit of European glory and must now deliver it

High stakes: Tottenham’s season and potentially Ange Postecoglou’s future comes down to one match

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One of the messages that Ange Postecoglou has reiterated to his squad in the build-up to the Europa League final is the importance of seizing this opportunity to be agents of change.

Postecoglou's pep talks have not drawn on his own position but if Spurs do win the competition, the same is true for him; he too would be part of Spurs folklore and immediately become one of the most important figures in the club's recent history.

The wretched league season and even Postecoglou's tetchy relationship with supporters, which has felt strained for the best part of a year now, would effectively be memory-holed amid the euphoria of a first European trophy since 1984 and the end of Spurs' 17-year wait for silverware.

Over the last few months, Postecoglou has railed against what he perceives as a gathering of malign forces: supporters seeking to goad him into a reaction; negativity from the media; a lack of public support for Spurs in the punditry class; and even a deafening silence from his bosses on the board.

Ange Postecoglou has the chance to write himself in the Tottenham history books

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A Spurs victory in Bilbao would allow Postecoglou to rise above the alleged naysayers into a position of real strength and be an unequivocal vindication of his approach and everything that has come with it, including writing off the league season.

The other possibility, however, is that Spurs lose to Manchester United for the first time in four meetings this term, and Postecoglou is remembered as the coach who led the club to their worst-ever Premier League finish in a historically miserable domestic campaign.

In that scenario, he would go down as the manager who oversaw a record 21 defeats (and counting) in a 38-game campaign and, by his own admission, failed to unify a fractured club.

The stakes therefore appear sky-high for Postecoglou on Wednesday night, not least because his future at Spurs inevitably feels wrapped up in the result.

If Spurs fall short and lose a second European final in six years, it would be hard to see the 59-year-old continuing in post beyond the end of the campaign, which falls just four days later with Brighton's visit to north London.

It would be unclear where Postecoglou could go from there; would he be able to get another leading European job based on an impressive fifth-placed finish in his first season and runners-up medal in UEFA's secondary club competition?

Conversely, it would be difficult to imagine Daniel Levy, the club's embattled chairman, ruthlessly dismissing the head coach who delivered an historic trophy, assuming of course that Postecoglou wants to stay on.

Daniel Levy could face tough decision if Spurs win Europa League

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So much of Postecoglou's tenure has felt predicated on mood and vibes, and the energy would be so positive in victory that dismissing the coach might be a tough call, especially as there is no compelling alternative waiting in the wings.

There is a plausible scenario in which Postecoglou triumphantly walks away by mutual consent, a hefty bonus (reported to be worth £2million) in his pocket and his promise of winning something in his second season fulfilled.

In this scenario, he would be a much more attractive proposition to another leading European club as the manager who broke the hoodoo at Spurs, particularly as so many of his predecessors - notably the two most recent, Nuno Espirito Santo and Antonio Conte - have gone on to suggest it was the club, not them, which was the issue.

As Spurs prepare for Bilbao, Postecoglou is therefore in a strange position, teetering between hero and clown.

He is, incidentally, all too aware of this fine line and rightly pointed out recently that one result should not define him as a coach nor impact his previous achievements.

That, though, is the way the cookie has crumbled for Postecoglou, in part because of choices of his own.

The manager was billed as a risk-taker when he join Spurs, someone prepared to put his neck on the line and do things his way.

While Spurs' football in Europe has not been high-risk during the knockouts, Postecoglou has been ballsy in effectively putting all his eggs in one basket in pursuit of European glory.

His future and status may feel less binary if, say, Spurs had picked up in the league to achieve a healthy mid-table finish once their injury crisis had cleared and reached the last four of the Europa League.

Instead, Postecoglou has rolled the dice, leaving his fate still yet to be decided.