Postecoglou admits he was asked to lose Spurs game | OneFootball

Ange Postecoglou has suggested he was asked to lose Tottenham Hotspur’s match against Manchester City last season, to deny Arsenal the Premier League title.

Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

With Tottenham Hotspur sitting 16th in the Premier League table with five games to go, Ange Postecoglou is coming under a lot of pressure from inside and outside of the club at the moment.

The manager’s one saving grace at the moment is that Spurs remain in the Europa League, and winning the competition would mean qualifying for next season’s Champions League despite their domestic struggles.

All the same, Postecoglou clearly felt the need to defend himself in a press conference this week.

Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images

“I love the frenzy around finishing fifth this year, they’re all brilliant, aren’t they,” Postecoglou asked sarcastically. “We finished fifth last year, why is it such a disaster that we finished fifth?

“Around this time last year, I was asked to lose a game, and I was wrong for wanting to win it.

“But it’s not a good story. A better story is that my tenure’s been a disaster and it continues to be.”

Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

Postecoglou is seemingly referring to the conversations around Tottenham Hotspur’s match against Manchester City towards the end of the 2023/24 campaign.

Spurs had the opportunity to give local rivals Arsenal a boost by taking points off City, with many of the fans hoping that the team would lose instead.

Postecoglou grew frustrated with the suggestion that he would throw the game to spite Arsenal, but Spurs lost anyway. If they’d won, they would have ultimately finished fourth and qualified for the Champions League.

Instead, their defeat condemned them to Europa League qualification, and Postecoglou clearly hasn’t forgotten that this is the fate the fans demanded.