BILBAO – Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur fans have gone to all sorts of lengths to get to this final. Maybe they know something the more casual viewer of Wednesday’s Europa League final is unaware of.
One supporter The i Paper met on the Bay of Biscay had flown in from Canada, willing to sleep rough for two nights, just to be here. Ticketless, penniless but beyond happy. Another group chartered a boat from the UK and sailed to northern Spain themselves.
For United, it isn’t just a matter of winning a trophy, ending this wretched season with one final high that has driven such desperate desire. United fans are acutely aware of the financial peril their club are in, and how Ruben Amorim’s entire ideology stands on the precipice.
The club cannot afford a victory parade if they beat Tottenham. Amorim had to fund his trips for the families of his staff himself. A return to the Champions League means the penny-pinching can stop and Matheus Cunha need not be the only big-money arrival this summer.
Victory in Bilbao means Amorim can attract the kind of talent he needs to really begin his and Ineos’ United transformation. The ideas are there this year, but the components are missing to put the plans into action.
Entertaining controversial plans to sell academy graduates Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho need not be a thing should they retake their seat at Europe’s top table. Adding to the talent pool, not pulling gems from it, should be the order of the day.
Defeat essentially doesn’t bear thinking about. No summer overhaul. Competing with midtable Premier League sides for players. Potentially more redundancies. More heartache.
“It is hard to point to one thing [that is wrong at United],” Amorim said. “We have bigger things deal with to put this club back to the top.
“We already know the problems. There’s a lot of things that we need to change in our club. We do everything during the week to improve.
“I think people see what we are trying to do. The board know what I am trying to do, I explain everything to them.”
Fans, however, do not need reminding. That’s why so many have undertaken multiple flight changes, long buses and overnight stays in towns they never thought they would visit. Unable to give Amorim what he needs, another season of disproportionate failure would almost certainly lie in store without the funds to fend off another dystopian Old Trafford nightmare.
Any hope of United getting back to where they feel they belong, from top to bottom, however, hinges on one result.
Time to shed ‘Spursy’ tag and land key targets
For Tottenham, it has been almost two decades of hurt. That Moussa Sissoko handball in the 2019 Champions League final. A manager sacked six days before Wembley. Three League Cup final defeats, four FA Cup semi-finals. Heartbreak in two botched title races.
There were plenty of times this season when it did not look like Ange Postecoglou would be here to see it but in one sense, he is the perfect head coach to lead Spurs into battle for a moment like this. More than any other manager, he has lashed out vociferously at the idea that Tottenham should be a perennial punchbag, a laughing stock defined as nearly men who never quite seem to get over the line.
It is not just Postecoglou’s legacy that will be shaped in Bilbao, win or lose. This is about who Tottenham are, how they see themselves, and their status among the Big Six after a season of misery in which they are set to finish one place above the relegation zone.
To listen to Postecoglou 24 hours before the game, he did not sound like a man assured of his future. As much as he suggested “I don’t think my job is done here”, he also pointed out that he won a Treble at Celtic “and left”, enjoyed success at Brisbane “and left”.
“I wouldn’t be the first person that changes jobs, mate,” he quipped. “People change jobs all the time.” He added: “I’ve been in this position before where the big game was the last game I managed.”
There were spikier moments too, the Australian insisting he is no “clown”.
Postecoglou has been under so much scrutiny it is possible he will not be in charge next season even if he achieves in north London what Mauricio Pochettino, Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte could not.
The summer may represent a new dawn and, following an extraordinary 21 league defeats, Spurs are likely to be active in the transfer market. Son Heung-min admitted that “where we are is unacceptable” and a first trophy in 17 years would not hide that.
Yet they do not need the £100m associated with Champions League qualification quite as badly as their opponents. Daniel Levy has ensured Tottenham are in a healthy position when it comes to financial fair play and there are the bones of an impressive side there.
Central midfield is likely to be the priority, as well as another winger. The latter partly depends on Mathys Tel, as Spurs have an option to buy the forward and Bayern Munich will consider accepting a lower fee. There is going to be huge competition for ambitious targets like Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze.
Spurs have built up gradually rather than going big on a single major target but a Champions League budget would allow them to do both – and the trophy would make the sell a little easier. There have been plenty of great Tottenham sides that fell short – there will be a certain irony to it if they finish 17th but break the curse, but they could be 90 minutes away from doing just that.
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