Here are our Tottenham talking points after the north London club ended the 2024/25 season with long-awaited silverware but also a final day defeat.
It was almost 10pm on Sunday night at Northumberland Park and Tottenham Hale stations and the Spurs fans were still singing songs from that final in Bilbao.
It was the same at pubs on different sides of the stadium, like The Bill Nicholson or the Antwerp Arms, with supporters in full voice. ‘Johnson again’, ‘ Micky van de Ven, Van de Ven’ and the special Bilbao adaptation of Shakira’s ‘Waka, Waka’ were the main songs of choice and they will forever be linked to that historic night.
That’s what Ange Postecoglou and his Tottenham team have given a fanbase that has endured so much frustration and mocking from their rivals over the previous 17 years. The memories of where they were on May 21, 2025 will be something they’ll never forget and neither will they forget the names of those involved in writing that chapter of their lives.
That’s why the fans were singing so loudly ahead of kick-off at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday and it’s why just three minutes in they sang Postecoglou’s name, first booming from the big south stand and then it began to roll around the stadium.
That’s why they sang for the Australian twice more during the game, including while the hosts were behind, and after the match as well as he walked around with his wife Georgia and their two sons.
That’s why even as Brighton scored a fourth goal against a bleary-eyed Spurs side that had celebrated wildly for three days straight after their night in Spain and run out of gas on Sunday, so the 61,449 Tottenham supporters began to sing in unison ‘When the Spurs go marching in’ so loudly you could hear it it for miles around.
Those fans knew that this week was all about a different match to that one and it was one of those moments when the Spurs fanbase showed just how special they can be. Postecoglou admitted he’s been blown away by the reaction to landing the club’s first trophy in 17 years and its first European one in 41. He is only the third manager in Spurs’ history to win continental silverware.
“I think, especially the parade, it’s just been overwhelming, but I understand it, because when you think about 17 years without any sort of silverware, that means, you work it out, what’s that? Fifty games a year that these supporters have supported their football club with everything in their heart, and they haven’t been able to enjoy a day like they have, for those whatever, 900 games,” he said.
“And not only that, they’ve seen other clubs do it, which doubles the pain, and they’ve had no experience where they can reflect on it for themselves, for everything they’ve been through.
“So I understand it. I knew that. There were the legends out there [forming a guard of honour], and they’re still remembered because of that and there’s been a lot of footballers that have come through these doors since then, world class footballers, but they haven’t made the impact that this group has and I think they’ll be remembered for that.
“I love how it’s made people feel, it’s filled a massive hole that they’ve had for so long, that they now can proudly say their club is a trophy winner. It’s a champion of a competition. There is no more this slight of ‘you’re a great club, but you’ve never won anything’, that’s done and I’m super proud of that.”
This week has been one of great pride for all of the people who work inside the north London club. Not only the players and the coaching and support staff around the first team, but also those who work in various departments across the training ground and stadium.
They all feel part of something bigger and they’ve experienced emotions in recent days like never before while employees there, not least during Friday’s huge parade which showed everyone how much love Tottenham Hotspur actually engenders when it truly does something right.
For Tottenham now feels like a different animal under Postecoglou because of what he led everyone to on Wednesday night. A huge ‘Europa League winners’ sign sits above the curved entrance of the stadium’s west stand, catching the eye of everyone who passes by on the High Road and that’s exactly what the club now are – winners. There’s no mocking to be done right now unless Tottenham were to do something that reverses all of the current good feeling.
All of which brings Postecoglou and Spurs to a sliding doors moment.
The Australian has now written his name in the history of the north London club and that’s why he got so much love inside that stadium on Sunday, with not only those repeated chants but banners, flags and homemade placards proclaiming messages such as ‘We’re loving Big Ange instead’, ‘Ange In’ and ‘Thank you Ange’.
Whereas chairman Daniel Levy, when his image briefly flickered on to the big screen during the post-match squad, coaches and family walkaround, found himself booed loudly by a portion of the supporters before the camera swiftly cut to someone else.
Postecoglou knows the league form has been dreadful and that horrendous tally of 22 defeats is awful, even with his contextualisation of it as he prioritised the Europa League and saw his mostly young, makeshift second XI was not good enough to perform in the Premier League as a unit.
It was putting all of his eggs into one basket to an extreme degree, but it worked. Postecoglou went as far as telling his players midway through the season that they could put everything into the Premier League and finish second but he was certain they could win the Europa League if they put all else to one side. It could have been a spectacular failure but instead Postecoglou’s side spectacularly made history and succeeded where so many before them have failed.
