Alan Shearer Exclusive: Huge credit to Postecoglu but United are in a mess under Amorim | OneFootball

Say what you want Spurs won't care

They've won and they're in the Champions League next season.

Well, the blindingly obvious is that it wasn't a great game. Two very poor teams struggling for confidence, struggling for belief and ability. But by hook or by crook, it doesn't really matter for Spurs fans, they've won the Europa League and they're in the Champions League.

Ange Postecoglu said 'he always wins a trophy in his second season' and that's exactly what he's done. In 10 or 15 years time the history books will not say where they finished in the league, it will just say they won the Europa League and he delivered like he said.

It wasn't pretty to watch, they had to defend, and defend very well, albeit against an awful Manchester United team.

They had to defend very well, in numbers and deep. That was basically all they did for the second half. The keeper made a right hash of one, where he came for a ball and didn't collect it, but it was a great clearance from Van de Ven. Late on Vicario had to make the save from the Luke Shaw header. It was good blocks, organisation and team spirit, all the things they had to do well.

The goal summed up the game really, it was scruffy, it looked like Brennan Johnson got some sort of touch on it, he won't mind, he goes down as the winning goalscorer.

It was a pretty awful game to watch but Spurs fans, players and coaches won't care, they've got their hands on the trophy and they've got winners medals which is all that matters to them.

They'll take the criticism for large parts of the season, but they also had a big chance to shut everyone up, you know, in terms of opinions on what they've done or haven't done this season. They've won the Europa League, and whether you liked their performances or not, they're in the Champions League, and that's all that matters to them.

You have to give credit to ballsy Ange Postecoglu

He's going to lead them out into the Champions League next season, but nothing would surprise me with Spurs.

I'm delighted for him. It's ballsy to say what he said, but he's delivered. Spurs haven't won a trophy for a long time, so for him to come out and make that statement, you've got to give him great credit.

It hasn't been pretty at times, and he's had to put his tin helmet on because of the criticism, and he has to accept that because they're 17th in the league. So he has to accept that the league form has been pretty embarrassing and dire. But for the last five or six weeks, all they've been concentrating on is this competition. It was all eggs in one basket for Spurs and Man United, but Spurs have managed to get the victory, which both teams desperately needed.

They'll look back on this season and this cup competition with great memories and can start planning for Champions League football. What that does for them next season will be huge in terms of attracting players and budget. For Spurs, they can look upwards and onwards now, but it's the opposite for Manchester United.

There was a lot of talk before the match about Postecoglu's position and if he wants to be there, now he will lead them into the Champions League next season. I don't know the ins and outs of the football club. I don't know whether he's enjoyed it or not, or whether he feels his time's up. I guess it will be tough for him to be sacked.

He has delivered a trophy, albeit I know the bread and butter is the Premier League and they've been miles off it. So, I guess he will make that decision himself.

This is the club that sacked a manager before a cup final, same owners, same chairman, so it wouldn't surprise me at all if they started the season with a different manager.

It's embarrassing what's become of Manchester United

Manchester United were relying on a centre half, with long balls into the box in the last 15 or 20 minutes of the game, and that sort of sums up who and what they've come to.

It's a pretty embarrassing situation when you're looking to a centre half to rescue you, as he did in the semi-final and a couple of times by playing in that centre forward position.

That's who and what Man United have come to now. That's the embarrassing thing; the money they've spent, especially on strikers, yet they're chucking a centre half up front for the last 15 minutes of the game and launching long balls up to him. That's how bad Man United are.

It's going to be a long and hard summer for United and Amorim

It's a mess at Manchester United. Much like Spurs, their season was this competition. We've been seeing it for the last two or three months that both clubs needed to win this competition to salvage something from their season.

Financially, it will hurt them to attract the players they wanted because they're not Man United from 20 years ago, where most players wanted to go there. They're not that football club anymore; they're only that club by name.

They don't deserve to win the Europa League or be in the Champions League. They've been awful all season in every department. The final basically just summed up their season as a whole: slow, terrible in front of the goal, no threat, no energy, and really poor.

Are they going to be in the market for top players now? Top players want to play in the Champions League and challenge for trophies. Are Man United going to be challenging for trophies next season? I think the simple answer is no, they're not.

It's going to be a really tough summer for them because everything about Manchester United is a huge problem, whether it's the manager trying to instil his system into the players, the owners getting hammered by their own supporters, or a new third owner like Jim Radcliffe.

There are so many things wrong with Manchester United, and it's not a quick fix. It's going to take a long time, and this only adds to their problems.

Ruben Amorim has made Manchester United worse

There will be a lot of questions around Ruben Amorim's future now and very much like the Spurs situation, it wouldn't surprise me if he wasn't the manager at the beginning of the season. Whether that's his choice or not, I guess.

I've said it so many times, there's no way he's gone into that football club and expected what he found. There's no way he thought it was that bad. He couldn't have, because I'm not sure you'd go.

He hasn't helped the situation. They've actually got so much worse under him. It might have been papering over the cracks if they had won the Europa League, but their problems were summed up in that 97 minutes: no creativity, no legs, no energy, no goals, and a complete mess.

No surprise to see Steven Gerrard heavily linked with a move back to Rangers

I would like to see Steven Gerrard back in management. He's obviously a huge figure up there because of what he did for the football club in winning the league. Different owners are about to go in there and take over too, but I hope he gets back into football.

If he chooses Rangers, then he knows the club, he knows the area, he knows how it operates, and it doesn't surprise me at all that the owners would be looking to appoint someone like him.