Dreadful Europa League final delivers glory for Ange and huge question marks around Ruben Amorim

Gavin Cooney

FOR WHAT SHALL it profit a man if he shall gain a trophy, but lose 21 league games in a historically awful season that leaves that man bristling at clown jibes while apparently resigned to losing his job? 

It profits him quite handsomely, as it turns out. 

After the fraught final few minutes of a Europa League final that was compellingly and  fascinatingly awful, Ange Postecoglou disappeared in an embrace with his staff before turning around and grinning an I-told-you-so grin for the cameras. 

Postecoglou has delivered to Spurs the second-season trophy he had always promised, even if it felt for much of this season less a vow than a pure Hail Mary.

But tonight Spurs showed another side to themselves. This was the anti Angeball: short on attacking inspiration or adventure but rich in flint and resolve. They won a stunningly bad game with a stunningly bad goal, which Uefa’s mandarins couldn’t agree was a Brennan Johnson goal or a Luke Shaw own goal. 

But the absences of Dejan Kulusevski, James Maddison and Lucas Bergvall provided mitigation for Spurs’ fitful attack, and they otherwise defended their penalty area bravely and with utter commitment. 

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Mickey Van de Ven’s acrobatic clearance after Vicario’s error was the headline moment, but every single Spurs player stood tall amid Man United’s late siege. The tenacity of Spurs’ performance shows Postecoglou has added another dimension to just who we are, mate.

Spurs, in other words, battle and scrapped with the will and desire of the team that didn’t announce ahead of the final that they wouldn’t parade the Europa League trophy if they won it. 

That Manchester United were granted this undeserved shot at complete salvation and told everyone it would be beneath them sums up the myopia that abides at the club at an institutional level. United have either still not awoken to how bad they are, or are too  afraid to admit the reality to themselves. Ineos, searching for anything to believe in, have bet the house on Ruben Amorim. On tonight’s evidence, it’s a bust. 

Consider the absurd rationale of what United have just witnessed. Amorim’s system of play suits very few of the current squad and thus relies on a massive transfer turnover, which United could not immediately afford without winning the Europa League, but tonight they couldn’t win the Europa League because so few of the current squad suit Amorim’s system. 

In his fanaticism, Amorim tonight found a way to play United’s best player out of position and leave many of their other better players on the bench. Hence Bruno Fernandes started in a deeper midfield role, where his risky passing has its least reward. It was Fernandes who gave the ball away in the lead-up Spurs’ goal, though United’s many starting centre-backs couldn’t deal adequately with Pape Sarr’s terrific cross. 

United meanwhile offered almost nothing in an attacking sense until Amorim introduced Alejandro Garnacho, with Kobbie Mainoo coming on only for the final few minutes. Neither Garnacho and Mainoo are perfect, but the notion they are not among United’s best XI is absurd.  Especially when the alternatives were the anonymous Mason Mount and the senescent Casemiro. 

As dysfunctional as Erik ten Hag’s team was, he won silverware by recognising that United were a better opportunity with Garnacho and Mainoo in the team. 

But for all of that, United’s lack of attacking craft in the closing stages were jarring, as they were reduced to launching the ball into the penalty area for Harry Maguire. Vicario’s lithe save from Luke Shaw was as close as United came to scoring, with Kevin Danso coming off the bench to steel the Spurs’ defensive effort. 

But while Spurs were dogged and determined, they offered very little in attack and still United managed to lose.

Tonight United had the opportunity to salvage an appalling season and instil very real hope for the future, and all they had to do was to beat an injury-depleted version of one of only four teams with a worse Premier league record than them. They couldn’t do it. 

Amorim will start next season under big pressure to validate his revered ideals.

Spurs’ abysmal league record means Ange Postecoglou may never get that full validation, but tonight he has earned glory. 

And the game, as a Tottenham legend once told us, is about glory.