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Harry Redknapp has every right to be annoyed by what’s happening with Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham now
Tottenham Hotspur won the Europa League a week ago, and the entire vibe around Spurs has changed after that win.
Ange Postecoglou was on the verge of the sack before the Europa League final, and while Postecoglou may still get sacked, at the moment, he’s the man of the hour.
Indeed, Postecoglou is being lauded as a hero by many at Tottenham, and it appears that he could well save his job.
On paper, Postecoglou achieved what he set out to achieve, he won silverware and qualified for the Champions League – albeit via the back door.
- UEFA Europa League
However, one former Tottenham manager does have a right to be annoyed by the adulation Ange Postecoglou is now receiving.
Harry Redknapp has right to be annoyed by Ange Postecoglou plaudits
Postecoglou has benefitted from UEFA’s rules regarding European qualification as he’s taken Spurs into the Champions League via winning the Europa League.
In recent years, rules regarding qualification to the Champions League via other UEFA competitions have changed.
Now, you can qualify for the Champions League directly by winning the Europa League or winning the Champions League without affecting the places allocated via top four/five finishes in the league – hence why, at one point, 11 English clubs could’ve qualified for Europe this season.
However, those rules weren’t always laid out this way.
In the old system, if a team won a Champions League place by winning a UEFA competition, they would take that spot from a team in their league, as Tottenham found out the hard way back in 2012.
In 2012, Harry Redknapp led Spurs to a fourth-place finish, and it looked as though Spurs had qualified for the Champions League.
However, just a week after the season finished, Chelsea beat Bayern Munich in the Champions League final, and, despite finishing seventh in the Premier League, they pinched Spurs’ Champions League spot and relegated them to the Europa League.
Redknapp was shocked by this decision, saying:
“I had that. It is disrespectful. I had it at Tottenham at the end. I never had a clue, it was completely out of the blue to me It was going great, we finished fourth and we were in the Champions League, but Chelsea got to the final of the Champions League that year and finished sixth.
“When they won it was a disaster. I’d gone from qualifying for the Champions League, and when I got home I was told that Daniel had a meeting with one or two managers at the time.
“It was quite a shock, but yeah, sadly that was it.”
Nowadays, if this situation occurred, both Spurs and Chelsea would be in the Champions League next season, but back in 2012, the rules were much more brutal – Europa League winners didn’t even qualify for the Champions League, that rule was introduced in 2014.
Ultimately, Harry Redknapp would lose his job in the summer of 2012 – owing partly to these rules, now, 13 years later, Ange Postecoglou may be set to keep his job via a change in UEFA rules that have changed since Redknapp’s sacking.
Simply due to how the rules work, Redknapp was sacked and Postecoglou is being lauded as a hero, despite the fact one manager had Spurs in 4th and the other has Tottenham in 17th.
The other UEFA rule change that benefitted Tottenham
The Champions League qualification system isn’t the only UEFA rule that has benefitted Tottenham.
Indeed, according to Michael Owen, another UEFA rule change has benefitted Spurs.
Owen believes that Tottenham only won the Europa League this season because Champions League sides no longer drop into the competition.
‘As a total neutral I’m doom and gloom for Tottenham. The only reason they won that competition is because no Champions League sides now drop into the Europa League. Did they play anybody any good?” Owen asked.
“Even the final, it was probably the worst game of football I’ve ever watched, it was so bad. I rarely ever want to switch over the game, but that final, I mean…”
Of course, UEFA didn’t have all of this in mind when they were coming up with their qualification rules, but Ange Postecoglou has been a key beneficiary from modern changes, while Harry Redknapp was ultimately ousted at Spurs due to how the old format used to work.