Ange Postecoglou [Will-Palmer/SPP]

THERE was a section of the Spurs support – and you may be one of them but don’t tell anyone – that believed Ange Postecoglou should have been kept on as the Tottenham manager.

It is a measure of how badly dazzled so many have been by winning a second-rate trophy in the Europa League.

We’ll always have “that night in Bilbao”, we heard – as too many Spurs fans accepted their awful 17th place in last year’s Premier League as a deal for at last seeing a medal around the players’ necks.

The clued-up ones could see the format of that competition had changed and no big teams were dropping down from the Champions League – even an average manager should have been able to win it with Tottenham’s resources and still post at least a mid-table finish.

It’s been a strange arc for Postecoglou, who began his time in the Premier League as the good bloke ready with all the anecdotes and similes in never-ending press conferences.

But then he wouldn’t stop and soon became a one-man PR consultancy for himself, banging on about ancient success in leagues well below the standard of English top flight football.

And so it was again with Nottingham Forest. No manager should be judged after less than 40 days in the job – but last week, again, Postecoglou was blathering on about his unimpressive CV and how his story always ended up with a trophy. It meant sympathy was short.

Now he’s not the man with Aussie witticisms in the pre-match interviews, but a guy obsessed with an illusion. It’s been so unlikeable.

Postecoglou, bragging on about himself after two clubs and just four league wins this year, said again last week that he had shed Tottenham’s tag of being “Spursy” and delivered on the promise of silverware. Yes, by making every fan buy endless high price tickets to see their team lose every week in the league. At some stage, that’s personal selfishness over the paying fanbase.

It’s a shame, if you’re an Arsenal fan, that sanity prevailed and Thomas Frank will no doubt iron out some of the difficulties at Tottenham. He’s a sensible guy who makes things work. Whatever happens, both Spurs and Forest will be better without the big man.