Ange Postecoglou’s surprise and what he’ll do next after green-lighting Tottenham transfer plans

Post-season tours are set to become the norm for most clubs as they look to push an extra million or two or three into their bank accounts just before they have to be submitted for the various financial fair play reviews.

That they will become more common place will not dull the criticism of the cash-generating exercises, whether it be through the immediate short term financial gain from the match or the long-term gain from expanding the fanbase across the globe.

It was the last thing the Tottenham players needed as they flew off on their 24-hour flight straight after their 3-0 win at Sheffield United on the final day of the season. James Maddison admitted he woke up in the early hours of Wednesday morning, on the day of the game in Melbourne, and was left staring at the ceiling for hours as his body refused to adjust to the new time zone.

Even Ange Postecoglou only just managed to stifle a yawn at his pre-match press conference the night before the game, having touched down that same day on the long-haul flight, admitting the jet lag was “as you’d expect”.

Amid the criticism back home of the trip, not to mention the environmental aspect, the one thing – away from the financial benefits – that showed another side to why it happened was the Australian fans.

On the night, 78,419 of them packed inside the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground and for just one evening it was their chance to see the stars that they only normally see in the early hours of the morning on their television sets.

Melbourne is a sporting city. It’s Olympic Boulevard houses multiple stadiums from the MCG to the Rod Laver Arena, to AAMI Park while Marvel Stadium is not too far down the road among others. There are sports clubs galore across the place and Ange Postecoglou is one of the city’s favourite sons, for his journey as a child immigrant from Greece to the top of the game in the world famous Premier League has captured the imagination.

Football still remains below AFL – their football – as well as cricket in the food chain – yet on Wednesday throughout the city’s streets, restaurants and coffee shops were Spurs and Newcastle shirts aplenty.

This was their chance to have their day and the question marks back in the UK about the trip meant precious little to them as they gathered around the remarkable bowl of the MCG to watch their teams coming together on the huge cricket pitch.

For Postecoglou it was life coming full circle as he returned to the city where he grew up in south Melbourne in the district of Prahran as a child and now he was leading his world famous team out inside its most famous stadium.

“It is [fitting]. I guess the last few years have kind of moved along it seems pretty rapidly to where I am today, but yeah it was nice today because it wasn’t that long ago, in an alternate universe I would have been on the other side of the fence watching the game because that was my kind of existence for a very long time,” he said.

“To be in charge of one of the biggest clubs in the world, bringing them back to my home town in front of 80,000, it’s pretty special and I feel pretty blessed to be in that position.”

The game itself was mostly what you would expect from a group of jetlagged players taken to the other side of the world just hours after having competed in the intensity of the Premier League’s final weekend. It was disjointed for long periods and lacking in intensity.

Most of that came from Newcastle though as to Tottenham’s credit, they still mostly played the energetic football Postecoglou asks of them. They pressed high up the pitch and the scoreline should have been well in their favour before the game went to a penalty shoot-out that completely surprised their head coach, who had already shaken hands with his opposite number Eddie Howe, before the two men shared a chuckle.

For what it’s worth from a post-game friendly, the stats show how much Spurs dominated the encounter with 63% of the possession and 18 shots to Newcastle’s four, forcing Howe’s men into making 12 clearances to their four. The key stat, as has perhaps been too often the case in the regular season, is that only three of Spurs’ 18 efforts on goal were sent on target.

There’s not too much you can take from the performances of the senior players. Son Heung-min put on a determined show for the many Korean fans that had made the trip to watch him in action.

James Maddison netted from a jinking run, albeit after looking like his interception of Nick Pope’s pass bounced up on to his hand, while Radu Dragusin put in a solid stint to set him up nicely for the Euros with Romania after his recent game time and we got to see him alongside Micky van de Ven for a while.

Emerson Royal played for much of the match as he’s had relatively little football and isn’t going to the Copa America with Brazil. The full-back showcased all of his endeavour and energy, while also allowing Jacob Murphy to get past him to cross for Alexander Isak to eventually poke home after Brandon Austin has pushed the ball his way.

Dejan Kulusevski was busy and suited the central attacking role again while Brennan Johnson showed once more that while he has contributed plenty in his debut season at the club, his finishing needs to become more lethal as he passed up another big chance when toe-poking a great Son low ball straight at Pope from about four yards.

Bryan Gil’s likely final touch in a Tottenham shirt before he departs this summer was his penalty that was saved and proved to be the only one missed in the shoot-out, handing Newcastle the victory which brought slightly sarcastic celebrations from a couple of their players, one of whom raced across the pitch.

Postecoglou was happy on the whole, even if that penalty shoot-out did catch him by surprise.

“I thought the first half was really good. It was a decent game. I thought we played really well actually. It was important because as I said to the lads before the game, it’s 80,000 people here and it wasn’t that long ago I was on the other side of the fence. I used to get hugely disappointed if I felt overseas clubs came here and went through the motions,” he said.

“I felt in the first half it was a decent game and both teams were at it. I thought we played really well. Second half obviously we both made some changes. Some young boys got experience and the game sort of tailed off, which is kind of expected. Considering the boys literally 48 hours ago were playing on the other side of the world, and we lost in a surprise penalty shoot-out, so yeah disappointed.”

On the first half he added: “I thought first half we worked really hard and our pressing was really good, which is has been all year. Our football was really good as well though and we had some passages where we got through Newcastle and created some good opportunities for ourselves.

“I just felt the lads were really, really disciplined and tried to the best of our ability to play our kind of football, rather than just play a game with no real purpose. A lot of the stuff I saw in the first half was the stuff we’ve been working on all year, which was really important.

“The game being so close is not ideal, but we made a commitment to come out here and once you make a commitment you’ve got to follow it through and treat it in the right manner. We’re representing one of the biggest football clubs in the world and you make a positive impression tonight and our fanbase grows even further which is important.

“So I thought the players handled it really well and I’m really proud of them. They deserve a break now and that’s what they’ll get.”