Postecoglou ‘prism’ rant shows Nottingham Forest manager has lost touch with reality

Please guys, for the love of God, stop looking at Ange Postecoglou through your own “prisms”, will you? He’s got his own, very particular “prism”, through which you will see and herald him as the trophy-winning, misunderstood genius of a managerial supremo he is, alright?!

Postecoglou is very much on the back foot at Nottingham Forest having lost five and drawn two of his seven games in charge. Reports suggest the lunchtime clash with Chelsea on Saturday could be his last, with Evangelos Marinakis ready to swing the axe to fell a second Forest tree in the space of six weeks as he considers Sean Dyche, of all people, to replace Postecoglou, who is now painting himself as some sort of societal outsider, rather than simply a manager who can’t win a game of football.

“I guess from my perspective I just don’t fit, not here, just in general,” Postecoglou said, to a room full of journalists all delighted at the headline-making quote he had given them in his very sentence and utterly confused as to what the p*ssing hell he’s talking about. Don’t fit in the Premier League? Football? On this planet? What?

“If you look at things through the prism that I am a failed manager who is lucky to get this job, I know you’re smirking at me, but that’s what’s been said, then of course these first five weeks looks like this guy is under pressure. But there is an alternative story.

“I came to the Premier League two years ago and I took over at Tottenham, I was told by the chairman [Daniel Levy] that this club has to win a trophy. He said we’ve tried to bring winners in: Jose [Mourinho], Antonio Conte, and it hasn’t worked. We need something different. I was slightly offended by that because I see myself as winner.

“I took over Spurs who finished eighth. Massive club, but no European football, and one that can’t go two years without European football. We finished fifth in my first year and every time Harry Kane scores a goal [for Bayern after leaving Spurs] I go, ‘I wish he stayed just one more year’. It would have been handy to have him after finishing fifth.

“But somehow that [first] year has disappeared from the record books. It was even used as a reason for me losing my job because even Tottenham decided to exclude the first ten games. Yet the first ten games here [at Forest] are important apparently.”

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We would put it to Ange here that he’s viewing his time managing Spurs in the Premier League solely through the “prism” of his first ten games, which saw them leading the table on 26 points, rather than his last 66 games, from which they won just 78 points, more only than Wolves (76) out of the teams who have remained in the top flight throughout that time.

“But anyway, we finished fifth. I got them back into European football, which is where a club like Tottenham should be. Then I was in [post-season] meetings and was told we need a trophy because it will mean everything to the football club. That’s fine.

“We win a trophy. We shed the tag of being ‘Spursy’. [We get] Champions League football, which brings some rewards and the opportunity to bring greater players. But all I have heard since I finished at Tottenham is that we finished 17th last year.”

Hang on, we’ve got the wrong “prism” again, haven’t we?

“So if you look at it through the prism of finishing 17th, then I am a failed manager who is lucky to get another opportunity. But again, if I have to explain why we finished 17th, it’s really basic. It doesn’t have to be too in-depth.

“Just look at the last five or six team sheets of last season to see what I prioritised [the Europa League], and who was on the bench.”

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We concede that it was entirely reasonable for Postecoglou to disregard the Premier League and focus on the Europa League in those last weeks of the season, but after 32 games Tottenham were 14th; two points above West Ham in 17th. It’s not as though there was this drastic plummet down the table as a result of that shift in focus. Who’s making this guy’s “prisms” for him?

“And the last game against Brighton, the players were out partying for two days, which I sanctioned because I felt they deserved to. So yes we finished 17th. But if people think that’s a reflection of me and my coaching then again, I think they are looking at it through the prism of I just don’t fit.”

He lost all track of the “prisms” by this point. Having claimed it was his own that showed he doesn’t fit, now it’s the faulty “prisms” that are somehow distorting the image of a football club with the fifth-highest squad market value finishing 17th to reflect poorly on his coaching skills.

“So we get to the current space [at Forest] where there is a different story to tell, that maybe I am not a failed manager who was lucky to get this job and instead maybe I am a manager who, if you give him time, the story always ends the same. At all my previous clubs, [it ends] with me and a trophy.”

And so what Postecoglou is essentially saying, via some extraordinary whataboutery, even by his standards, is that if Nottingham Forest fans are willing to put up with some absolute sh*te in the Premier League, he will win them a trophy. Isn’t it normally in the second season, though?

Sure, if you look at it through the “prism” of wanting to stay in the Premier League then he’s a failed manager, but this “prism” shows us winning the Championship title.

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