A Premier League manager has a tougher job than the prime minister, according to Ange Postecoglou. The Tottenham manager was reflecting on the departure of top-flight peers Gary O’Neil and Russell Martin while looking ahead to a meeting with the new Manchester United manager, Ruben Amorim, in the Carabao Cup on Thursday.
“This job is the hardest job now in any walk of life,” declared Postecoglou. “You can say politics but this is harder than any job. The tenure and longevity of this role means very few are going to come out of it without any scars. How many times does [Keir Starmer] have an election? I have one every weekend. We have an election every weekend and either get voted in or out.”
Martin was sacked by Southampton after Tottenham’s 5-0 win at St Mary’s on Sunday. Postecoglou expressed his disappointment with Martin being asked to carry out post-match press duties only to lose his job within the hour. “You don’t even get sacked in the morning now, you’ve got to change your song,” he said. “We have lost all sort of modes of respect in our society where guys are in jobs and they are putting up names of who is going to replace them while they are still working.”
Amorim replaced Erik ten Hag who lost his job in October after a little over two years in charge at Old Trafford and Postecoglou was scathing about the treatment of managers. “This notion that clubs want to bring managers in and build stuff doesn’t exist,” he said. “The moment there is a bit of a wobble there will be flak coming from all areas.
“Gary and Russell are both outstanding young managers who have long careers ahead of them. Unfortunately, for them at the beginning of their careers that’s what a manager’s career is going to look like. You’ll find that from now on managers are going to have about 20 clubs on their CV. Even the successful ones.”
The Australian’s previous declaration that he always wins trophies in his second season at a club places pressure on Spurs’ Carabao Cup run, but Postecoglou said winning one trophy would not be nearly enough. “I always say that my ambition is to build a team and a club that has an opportunity for sustainable success. I don’t think winning a trophy will have done that but it will help the cause as it will show the ability to win things, create an environment that does bring trophies. If you win one and you fall off the cliff in another, I don’t think it’s the way forward.”
With Marcus Rashford suggesting his future lies away from United, Postecoglou sidestepped any possible link with the 27-year-old forward and Tottenham.
“That’s not on my radar,” he said. “You can ask me about Marcus but you can ask me about every single Premier League footballer and I’ll say the same thing.”
