The end looms for the former Celtic boss, the wrong man at the wrong club.

On the day the media first announced that Spurs were interested in Ange Postecoglou, I expressed my absolute disbelief that he would even contemplate that club.

His agent was a busy man during that time—lobbying like crazy for him to get the gig on one hand, and lobbying like mad to get him to take it on the other. In my view, his agent, out of personal ambition and greed, sold him the lemon of all time. And the thing of it was—it was perfectly predictable. We all said the same.

What always worried me about Ange was this: here was a guy who had come from lowly origins, who had clawed himself up the career ladder. He wasn’t someone spotted in a top five league and labelled the next big thing. He had been largely overlooked in Europe. My concern, always, was that we would give him a platform on which he could grandstand and that he would move on in from us in a way, and in a direction, he’d never been able to in his career up until then.

Ange himself certainly didn’t want any obstacles in his way.

That’s why he turned down a contract extension and a long-term deal time and time again. He knew he might only get one shot at the kind of club where he felt he belonged, and he didn’t want to make it difficult by putting himself in a position where his club and ours would have to negotiate over a fee—one that might prove too high or something they’d be unwilling to pay.

Spurs had the money. They could have paid whatever we wanted. They made an offer for Arne Slot which was through the roof, and they very nearly pulled that off. The collapse of that deal gave Ange his shot. And because of his age, because of his career profile, and because his agent was ever whispering in his ear, that was an opportunity he probably didn’t think he could afford to turn down. Spurs was a massive job to be offered—and I think he got blinded by the lights.

Because we all know there were many, many, many reasons to turn that job down. We all saw the red flashing warnings that it’s an impossible job, one that shouldn’t be considered by anyone possessing even a modicum of sanity. Look, I’m sure the money was life-changing. I’m sure he’s enjoyed being in London. I’m sure it has given him the stage he believed was always his for the taking.

But in a career built on making careful and smart decisions, and always knowing the right time to leave one club to move to another, he moved in haste. He didn’t think it through. Had he taken the time to consider all the options and likely consequences, he never would have gone to Spurs.

Was that move sold to him by the media? Of course it was. All sorts of people came forward to say Ange would fancy himself in that job and that he could do it; a lot of them simply wanted him out of Celtic Park, and he would have known that too had he really understood the way things work around here.

So, they said he would back himself to turn Spurs around and that he was more than up to the job. I’ve no doubt that was his own thinking too—but he only had to look at the long line of people who’d been in that job over the past 15 years and ask one question: did they not fancy themselves too?

That list includes managers like Pochettino, Mourinho, and Conte—guys who had won league titles in top countries. All of them believed they could turn Spurs around. Not one of them was equal to the task.

Because some clubs you just can’t do anything with. Whether that’s down to ownership, bad leadership from executives, or a baked-in culture that makes progress impossible, it’s real. Culture can be changed. Leadership can be replaced. But if those things are as deeply ingrained as they are at Spurs, there’s little light at the end of the tunnel. It can be very difficult—if not impossible—to turn things around in the short to medium term.

And Spurs is one of those clubs. It has both leadership issues and cultural rot. Everyone knows about the chairman. But the cultural rot might be even worse. There are people in and around that dressing room who’ve been there a long time, and they’ve seen managers come and go and be utterly destroyed. One more manager coming and going? So what? It means nothing to them.

Even the new signings can’t be relied on to dig you out of a hole or battle hard when the going gets tough. What do they care? Spurs have become so used to failure that nobody goes there to win trophies. The attractions for any player signing for Spurs include the money, the lifestyle, the London location and playing in the Premier League. None of them go to Spurs because they have a winning mentality. It’s not that kind of club.

Yet they’re followed by a support with a wildly overblown sense of where the club should be. That support has forced the board to fire more bosses than is healthy anywhere. Ange talked about getting a chance to stay and lay foundations. That doesn’t wash with a support that won’t tolerate finishing in the bottom half of the table.

They missed Europe last season. They’re on the brink of a European semi-final now. But they don’t look convincing in any way, shape or form—and a defeat in midweek could pretty much bring about the end.

Because this isn’t a club where anyone gets a chance. It isn’t a club building anything to last. It’s a club caught in an endless cycle of rinse and repeat when it comes to changing the team and sacking the manager. They are very much like the Ibrox club in that respect. All outward glitz and glamour. Inside? An absolute mess. And the thing of it is—we’ve all known that for years.

There isn’t a single person around Ange Postecoglou who can honestly say he wasn’t warned. He had to be aware of all of this. He had to have heard all the chatter about it being the wrong move at the wrong time. But he miscalculated. And for a man who had spent his career not doing that, it’s a genuine tragedy that he did.

Tonight, they sit 15th in the Premier League. Last season, when Ange took over, they went the first ten league games unbeaten. Eight wins, two draws. Twenty-six points. This season, with a handful of games left, they have just 37 points and a mere 11 wins in total. The regression is clear. The direction of travel is obvious. It’s crumbling. It’s falling apart. It’s almost over.

It’s not a nice thing to write. Not a nice thing to say.

It’s not a nice thing to think about a manager who brought us such pleasure in the dugout. A guy I once described as playing the most attacking football on this island. But no one can say he wasn’t warned. No one can say he wasn’t told this was the wrong club, and that he would regret going there.

They’ve an outside chance of winning the Europa League. I don’t think they’ll do it—but there is a chance. And that might grant him some sort of redemption. But the dangerous time for Ange is in the next two days. If you were the Spurs chairman and believed the Europa League was a real possibility, would you be confident in a guy who’s only managed 11 league wins to get you there?

They may just decide in the next 48 hours that their best chance of progressing is with someone else in the dugout. And that decision might be kept on ice until Thursday, just to see if Ange can steer them to the next round. But then comes the same dilemma all over again in the semi-final. So close to the summit—do you take the risk, or do you pull the trigger and bring in someone new?

It’s all up in the air for Ange. And after today, the peril he’s in is very real.

And the worst part? The English media. They’re all over him, and have been from the start. They never believed he belonged. They never thought he had the credentials to manage a top Premier League side. Now they look at Spurs in 15th and feel utterly vindicated. And whether he likes it or not, that impacts his chances of getting another job in that league—or at any top five nation club.

That was always the risk.

That after years of building your reputation, you pick the wrong club… and watch it shatter. And this shattering has been far more awful and far more complete than anything I ever thought I’d witness. I didn’t expect him to succeed—because what is success at a club like Spurs? Surviving two full seasons, maybe?

Looking at the league table tonight, this is a failure on every level—spectacular and awful. And it’s hard to see how this man can rebuild his reputation when it ends. The Europa League is his last realistic chance to turn it around and keep his job. And even that might not be enough.