Ange Postecoglou cut a frustrated figure in his post-match press conference.
That's an understatement.
In fact, he was fuming.
The Spurs coach had just seen his side lose 2-0 to Manchester City, ending any faint hopes of making the Champions League spots for next season.
It was the latest in a run of disappointing results that has seen Spurs stumble towards the end of the season with just one win in the last six Premier League matches.
But that is not why Postecoglou was so angry.
At a tense press conference, the curt and terse Postecoglou was even morecurt and terse than normal as he was asked whether he had laid the foundations for a successful 2024/25 season in his team's performances this year.
"No, I think the last 48 hours has revealed to me that the foundations are fairly fragile mate," Postecoglou said.
"That's just what I think.
"I just think the last 48 hours have revealed a fair bit to me. That's alright. It just means I've got to go back to the drawing board with some things."
Spurs have won 19 games this season, one more than last, and need just a point in their last game of the season at Bramall Lane against bottom side Sheffield United to be sure of playing in next season's Europa League.
Throughout, Postecoglou has won praise for his philosophy and the attacking football he has played, albeit while fielding some criticism for an at-times unyielding approach to all-out attack.
It has been a brilliant antidote to the poisonously staid environment created by dour coaches José Mourinho and Antonio Conte.
And yet. And yet…
Talk of Spurs' revival has been inexorably entwined with Arsenal's charge towards a title challenge.
It highlights that, for fans, football's wider ecosystem is so often reduced to a far more simplistic and localised rivalry.
The rivalry between North London's two biggest clubs is no exception — a rivalry in which Tottenham have been second-best for decades.
So Spurs fans were, in theory, charged with an interesting philosophical dilemma on Tuesday night: Win and maintain a faint chance of achieving a top four finish, lose and deal Arsenal a hammer blow in their quest to end a 20-year title drought.
Mixed feeling for the supporters.
Unwavering incredulity from Postecoglou.
"If you go by social media there's probably 99 per cent of Spurs supporters who don't [want Spurs to win against City]," Postecoglou said pre-match.
"If that's your world, please don't tell me that's your world … we'll need to have a counselling session if that's your world.
"I understand rivalry,I was part of one of the biggest ones in the world in the last couple of years with Celtic and Rangers.
"I understand the rivalry. But I have never, and will never, understand someone wanting their own team to lose.
"That's not what sport is about."
Cut to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium on Tuesday night where, after three minutes, the chant "stand up, if you hate Arsenal," rang out from the stands.
Perhaps more galling amidst a strangely subdued atmosphere, was a chant of "are you watching Arsenal" after City scored their first goal, with TV cameras even cutting to a couple of Spurs supporters performing Manchester City's famous Poznan celebration.
Postecoglou was even filmed remonstrating with a supporter behind the Tottenham bench during the game.
Loading Twitter content
"I'm not interested mate," Postecoglou said when he was asked what he thought of that particular moment.
"I just don't care."
Revealing himself to be a terrible poker player, Postecoglou's annoyance was written all over his face, and every word he spat out was dripping with the emotion of a man thoroughly bewildered by what he had witnessed.
Postecoglou said noise had come from "outside, inside, everywhere" and that the last 48 hours had been "an interesting exercise".
"It's just my observations, mate," he said.
"You can make your own assessments of what's happened.
"I probably misread the situation as to what I think is important in your endeavour to become a winning team, but that's OK. That's why I'm here."
Postecoglou was asked whether the issue was "the Arsenal rivalry stuff".
"I'm just not interested mate.
"Maybe I'm out of step, but I just don't care, I just want to win. I want to be successful at this football club, it's why I was brought in.
"So what other people, how they want to feel, and what their priorities are, are of zero interest to me.
"I know what's important to build a winning team, that's what I need to concentrate on."
Postecoglou's annoyance is understandable.
He would likely feel that such a narrow-minded approach is holding Spurs back, an idea that being perfectly happy to fail as long as them lot down the road fail too as anachronous to long-term success as shooting yourself in the foot would be to successfully prepare for running a marathon.
Sure, things might have been easier to compute in the binary world of Scottish football, where success as Celtic coach is entirely defined as beating Rangers because in doing so, trophies will invariably follow.
That's simply not the case in the Premier League. But Postecoglou still sets his sights high.
"Real success looks like trophies," he said pre-match.
"Anything else in between, bragging rights, whatever, it is absolutely meaningless to me.
"What I love more than anything in the game is the competitiveness, challenging yourself to beat someone and coming out successful."
Success for Postecoglou in his first season in charge of Spurs will be reaching the Europa League — a feat that is within touching distance.
Long-term success at the club though, in the form of trophies, might be harder to attain.
As Postecoglou may have just discovered.
The ABC of SPORT
Sports content to make you think... or allow you not to. A newsletter delivered each Saturday.
Your information is being handled in accordance with the
ABC Privacy Collection Statement.
