It's safe to say that some of the feel-good factor that initially surrounded Ange Postecoglou upon his arrival as Spurs manager from Celtic may have somewhat eroded.
The Aussie manager led Tottenham to a sensational start to the season, winning eight of their first ten games to sit atop the Premier League.
Things have been decidedly trickier since then, and Spurs have won only 11 of their following 27 games to slip out of Champions League contention. Their faint hope of European Cup qualification rested on claiming victory against title favourites Manchester City on Tuesday night.
It was, however, one of the strangest Premier League nights in recent memory. Despite their Champions League hopes hanging in the balance, many Spurs fans harboured hopes of their side losing - as victory would almost certainly hand the title to their fierce rivals across North London, Arsenal.
"Big Ange" had addressed this line of thinking pre-match, saying, "If you're going by social media then 99 per cent of them will [want Spurs to lose] but please don't tell me that's your world. If it is, you need counselling. I understand rivalry but I'll never understand anyone wanting their own team to lose."
It appears that Postecoglou's frustration with his own fanbase spilled over on Tuesday night, as his side fell to a 2-0 defeat which handed the final Champions League spot to Aston Villa.
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Ange clashes with fan amid Spurs frustrations
Footage from the stands at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium showed Ange Postecoglou rounding on a Spurs fan mid-game on Tuesday evening.
Ange is getting a little bit techie tonight 😬 Anyway, no drama mate, City win the league 🥳 all good in the hood mates, we're in the Europa League, see you at Sheffield #COYS pic.twitter.com/4O0UXgYd8i
— Danny (@Spurserk) May 14, 2024
Another fan responded to the video claiming that Postecoglou's anger was in response to the fan in question repeatedly yelling at the Spurs boss asking him to throw the game in order to prevent Arsenal winning the league.
It was a Premier League night like no other and, if Postecoglou was indeed getting jeers from the home fans asking him to lose the game, one can understand why his frustrations boiled over.
He articulated his anger further in the post-game presser.
In a remarkable rant, Postecoglou went in on the "fragile" foundations at the club, and appeared to question the priorities of fans who would rather see their team lose than push for Champions League football.
I think the last 48 hours have revealed the foundations are fairly fragile. Outside the club, inside the club, everywhere.
It has been an interesting exercise. It's just my observations, I'm not going to tell you more. You can make your own assessment of what happened.
I probably misread the situation as to what I think is important the endeavour to become a winning team but that's okay. That's why I'm here, I just want to win.
I want to be successful at this club, that's why I was brought in. Other people, what their priorities and interests are, I have zero interest in - I know what's important to build a winning team and that's what I want to concentrate on.
It is what it is. I can't dictate what people do, they're allowed to express themselves however they want. But, when we've got late winners in games, it's because the crowd has often helped us.
On a surreal night when "Spurs fans" were ejected from home sections for cheering Manchester City goals, perhaps a bit of the goodwill between Ange Postecoglou and the Tottenham fanbase may have disappeared.
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