OLIVER HOLT: What Ange Postecoglou reminded me about how much we have killed in our national game and how dangerous the consequences will be - it's so much wider than Cup replays and VAR
OLIVER HOLT: What Ange Postecoglou reminded me about how much we have killed in our national game and how dangerous the consequences will be - it's so much wider than Cup replays and VAR
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The tie over, Ange Postecoglou came back out on to the pitch at the Lamb Ground quickly on Sunday afternoon to start his round of post-match interviews. The light from the watery sun was starting to fade. A couple of Tamworth players who were still talking to the media, had begun to shiver in the cold as the adrenaline of their extra-time defeat wore off.
![[Tottenham's trip to Tamworth offered a stark reminder of how football has abandoned its roots]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/13/16/94043003-14279177-image-a-16_1736784830458.jpg)
Some Tamworth fans in The Shed, a terrace covered by corrugated iron, sang about being cheated out of a replay. Postecoglou came over to where we stood in our semi-circle. The Tottenham Hotspur manager kept his head down as he spoke, which is his habit. He spoke well and succinctly and without artifice, which is also his habit.
![[The non-league club fought valiantly to force a 0-0 draw from Premier League giants Spurs after 90 minutes, before conceding three goals in extra time to crash out of the FA Cup]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/13/16/94043013-14279177-image-a-17_1736784887366.jpg)
It’s one of the reasons I hope Spurs have the sense to realise what they’ve got in Postecoglou. Not the main reason, by any stretch. The main reason would be that he has given Spurs identity and style and defiance and panache and that he is clearly building something worth watching and sticking with until consistency improves.
![[With football chiefs having scrapped the tradition of FA Cup replays since the start of this season, Tamworth have been denied a lucrative trip to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/13/16/94043153-14279177-image-a-19_1736784984610.jpg)
There aren’t that many independent thinkers around in our game and so when we get someone like Postecoglou, he should be valued. Some people are unnerved by points of difference, of course, so they want him gone. They seek the easy sanctuary of a return to a drone.
![[The dumping of FA Cup replays and introduction of VAR (above) are example of how we have blemished our game, allowing football to be hijacked by charlatans and egomaniacs]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/13/16/94043185-14279177-image-a-20_1736785118743.jpg)
So I asked him about what he said last week about our cavalier attitude in this country to the loss of the game’s traditions and the bastardisation of its rules. His point had been about the vandalism wrought by technology, by VAR, but I asked him whether he would widen that.
![[Since the inception of the Premier League, English football has given to the richest clubs over and over again, to the detriment of the poorer teams. Pictured: Man City's owners in 2023]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/13/16/94043239-14279177-image-a-21_1736785359193.jpg)
