Ange Postecoglou and his Tottenham Hotspur stars were filmed on Sunday as they flew out for their friendly in Australia – and the club’s fans blasted the club when they saw the footage.
Dejan Kulusevski scored twice to help Tottenham secure a 3-0 win against Sheffield United in the final round of the Premier League, ensuring they finished fifth and qualified for the Europa League.
Fans had barely had time to celebrate that development when the sight of the stars boarding a plane got them riled up about the decision to bring the team Down Under for a meaningless friendly against Newcastle just three days after the Premier League concluded.
‘Ridiculous schedule, having to fly out for a meaningless friendly on the day the season ends,’ one fan fumed.
Tottenham coach Ange Postecoglou’s stars boarded a plane bound for Australia just hours after their Premier League season ended
Some players, like James Maddison (pictured), appeared in holiday mode on the flight to Australia with one fan asking if he was ‘moving there’ due to all the luggage he brought
‘Give these lads some break Ange is about to grill these lads in his home country,’ another complained.
‘Money making at the expense of the players’ health,’ another fan wrote.
‘Ridiculous that you’re putting the players through this. Nothing but greed,’ posted another supporter.
The decision to bring Spurs to Australia has also been labelled hypocritical after the club complained about FA Cup replays earlier in the season because of the impacts the workload had on player welfare.
Spurs’ quest for a ninth FA Cup ended in a fourth round 1-0 defeat at the hands of Manchester City back in January.
It came after Tottenham was one of the ‘big six’ clubs that successfully lobbied to have fifth-round FA Cup replays abolished from next season onward to avoid fatiguing their players.
Now there is a push to have FA Cup replays removed from the fourth round as well, meaning matches will be decided by extra time and penalties rather than replaying fixtures if there is a draw at the end of regulation time.
‘Too tired to play FA Cup replays but will fly to Australia several hours after the seasons finished,’ fired one Spurs fan.
‘Ah well at least you won’t have to play FA Cup replays next season. You would have been so tired,’ another posted sarcastically.
Even Postecoglou said the friendly is ‘not ideal’ and that it was unlikely to happen again in the future.
Newcastle’s Kieran Trippier (pictured) had previously questioned the scheduling of the friendly hot on the heels of a long season
Postecoglou (pictured after Spurs’ win over Sheffield United) agreed that the timing of the friendly is not ideal and said it was unlikely a similar match would be scheduled again
Newcastle’s Kieran Trippier had also previously criticised the fixture, also calling it ‘not ideal,’ especially with the European Championship approaching.
However while Newcastle will play 50 games this season, Tottenham will end their campaign with 41 matches after failing to qualify for Europe and being knocked out of both domestic cups early.
‘Our situation is a bit different from Newcastle’s,’ Postecoglou said when asked about Trippier’s comments.
‘They’ve had a European season, Champions League, it’s been a big season. We haven’t. It’s no secret part of this exposure but also revenue for us.
‘I certainly wouldn’t have allowed it to happen if we were in Europe this year and had a bigger game schedule. I probably would have said no to it.
‘And I don’t think the club would have expected us to go. If we’re in Europe next year, I don’t think you’ll be seeing this happen.
‘I don’t think it’s ideal. But I think each situation is unique. For us, on the back of our season, to play one more game two days after the end of the season, there is substance to it for us.
‘We had a discussion with the playing group really early on about it. They understood why we’re doing it and we all made a commitment to go and that’s going to happen.’