With the tie over, Ange Postecoglou quickly returned to the Lamb Ground pitch on Sunday afternoon to begin his round of post-match interviews. The watery sunlight was beginning to fade. A couple of Tamworth players who were still speaking to the media had begun to shiver from the cold as the adrenaline of their extra-time defeat wore off.
Some Tamworth fans at The Shed, a terrace covered in corrugated iron, sang about being tricked out of a replay. Postecoglou approached our semicircle. The Tottenham Hotspur coach spoke with his head down, as is his custom. He spoke well, succinctly and without artifice, as is his custom.
It's one of the reasons I hope the Spurs have the sense to realize what they have in Postecoglou. It's not the main reason, by any means. The main reason would be that he has given Spurs identity, style, challenge and panache and is clearly building something worth watching and following until consistency improves.
There aren't many independent thinkers in our game, so when we find someone like Postecoglou, we should value him. Some people, of course, get nervous about points of difference, so they want it gone. They seek the easy refuge of being a drone again.
So I asked him what he said last week about our cavalier attitude in this country toward the loss of the game's traditions and the bastardization of its rules. His point had been about the vandalism caused by technology, by VAR, but I asked him if he would expand on that.
What about the fact, for example, that Tamworth had just drawn Spurs in normal time and that, last season, before the FA backed down and changed the rules, that achievement would have earned them a replay in North London that could have brought them £1 million and transformed their future?
Ange Postecoglou reminded us how much we have killed in our national game.
Tottenham's trip to Tamworth offered a stark reminder of how football has abandoned its roots.
The non-league club battled valiantly to force a 0-0 draw against Premier League giants Spurs after 90 minutes, before conceding three goals in extra time to crash out of the FA Cup.
“I understand the feeling,” Postecoglou said, “but at the same time I've been talking about fewer games, so it's a balancing act.”
“The way the schedule is right now, it would be almost impossible for us to fit in another game.
“We are already struggling to fit everything in. I understand the feeling around this and I certainly believe in the competition and what it offers to each part of the football pyramid and I think it should be protected.”
I'm glad Postecoglou said what he said last week. Someone needed to do it. Because you are absolutely right. We have been negligent in the traditions of our game. We have been asleep. We have allowed charlatans and egomaniacs to take over the game.
You are right about our carelessness. There is so much good in our game, but we've also allowed so many things to ruin it, that it's hard to know where to start with a list of things we should never have allowed to happen.
I suspect my list would be longer than Postecoglou's.
Yes, the VAR would be on it. We should never have agreed to its implementation until we were sure the technology, including semi-automatic offsides, was up to par. And that the officials who ran it were also up to the task.
It's a good idea in principle, but in practice it has gone too far and destroyed the precious fluidity and spontaneity of the game.
After football bosses scrapped the tradition of FA Cup replays from the start of this season, Tamworth have been denied a lucrative trip to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The removal of FA Cup replays and the introduction of VAR (above) are examples of how we have tainted our game, allowing football to be hijacked by charlatans and egomaniacs.
Since the creation of the Premier League, English football has time and again conceded to the richest clubs, to the detriment of the poorest teams. In the photo: Manchester City's owners in 2023
We should have opposed the idea of nation states owning our clubs. It's too late to stop that now, but the issues surrounding, in particular, Abu Dhabi's ownership of Manchester City and the threat it poses to competitive balance have torn the league apart.
Our fans stopped Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs from destroying English football by moving to a European Super League, but we allowed UEFA to expand the Champions League to the point where it is a de facto Super League that clogs the calendar. and devours the FA Cup.
We have allowed skyrocketing ticket prices to disenfranchise an entire swath of fans. We continue, little by little, taking the game away from the loyal fans and giving it to the hikers. Because they spend more.
We have allowed teams to use five substitutes, a move that benefits richer clubs and ruins the flow of the game. We've heard arguments that it's because it benefits players' wellbeing as we watch attitudes towards concussions remain in the Middle Ages and former players like Dean Windass being diagnosed with dementia at the age of 55.
We have expanded and allowed start times that make it impossible for traveling fans to get to or from games. We may be about to abandon the Saturday 3:00 p.m. TV blackout.
We have allowed the FA Cup third round weekend to stretch over five days, diluting its joy and impact. The FA Cup final is no longer the highlight of our season.
We have allowed our big clubs to organize lucrative summer tours to Australia and the west coast of the United States, Singapore and China and then allowed them to complain that they play too many games and that FA Cup replays must be sacrificed to feed the monster.
We have seen how the football establishment has undermined and undermined the revenue streams of lower league teams and then criticized clubs like Tamworth for increasing their prices for the Tottenham game. As if we expected their funds to come out of nowhere.
The fans may have stopped the European Super League, but we have allowed UEFA to expand the Champions League to the point where it is a de facto calendar-clogging Super League.
Postecoglou said he wants to “protect” the football pyramid in an honest confession
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The complacent and the patricians walk around with dollar signs in their eyes and “greed is good” signs hanging in their offices. It was only a couple of years ago that the biggest clubs tried to break away and join the Super League, a move that would have put an end to the game in this country. How is it possible for a sport not to be dysfunctional?
Is it really surprising that some are tempted to see the arrival of an independent football regulator as a panacea? Unfortunately, there is no chance of that being the case. It would not have stopped state ownership of the clubs. The VAR would not have stopped. There are still many things that will be outside of your purview.
But as the Football Governance Bill moves through the House of Lords and inches closer to becoming law, it is hard not to think that an independent regulator will free the game from at least some of its complacency.
The fact that West Ham vice-chairwoman Karren Brady is so relentlessly opposed to it can only be a good sign.
Since the creation of the Premier League, in particular, English football has given the richest clubs time and time again. And he has taken from poor clubs time and time again.
A lot of things we have held dear have been destroyed in the name of appeasing the elite. And then, for the most part, as Postecoglou reminded us, we have looked the other way.
Don't berate Darren Ferguson…congratulate him
It would have been wonderful if Ashley Young, a player I admire, and his son Tyler, had become the first father and son to play against each other in the FA Cup when Everton and Peterborough met in the third round on Thursday night. evening.
It didn't happen because Tyler was on the bench and Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson didn't bring him on.
Some idiots have criticized Ferguson for that, as if he was deliberately denying father and son their moment. Some idiots have chided him for ruining the romance of the Cup.
Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson (above) should not be condemned for his decision not to include Tyler Young against his father Ashley Young in the FA Cup third round last weekend.
Everton veteran Ashley (left) posted that he was “gutted” not to make FA Cup history by playing against his son Tyler (right), but the truth is the Peterborough manager was just doing his job.
All Ferguson did was defend the legitimacy of the competition, and he should be praised.
The truth is, Ferguson was simply doing his job. Everton were only leading 1-0 well into added time, Peterborough were still in the game and chasing an equaliser, so Ferguson brought on an attacker as his fifth and final substitute.
It's not as if Tyler is a regular Peterborough starter, benched as an act of vengeance. He has played 27 minutes of senior football in his career, during one substitute appearance in the EFL Trophy.
Thursday's occasion was an FA Cup tie, not an episode of Love Island. Football is a meritocracy, not a reality show.
All Ferguson did was defend the legitimacy of the competition. He deserves our thanks for that, not abuse.