Pat Dolan: Ange Postecoglou is at a crossroads - if he does not seize control this summer then his Spurs days are numbered

Has Ange gone a little der-ANGE-d? Looking at the headlines on Thursday, angry Ange seemingly does not believe in set-pieces.

Seriously! Are you having a laugh? Being a professional footballer is a privilege. Scoring goals is what pros dream of. On the big days, they dream of getting an overhead kick or a screamer from 30 yards. But fans only dream about their team winning.

And if you don’t have the humility to work tirelessly on such an important part of the game as set-pieces then you are living in dreamland.

The truth is that Ange has something special in the way he coaches teams. He has proved that throughout his career.

But even special managers tried to sort out the Spursy mess before and it always had such a predictable ending.

Manchester City have won the last three League titles and are dreaming of a record fourth in succession. Yet Tottenham Hotspur are a bigger club than City.

And after receiving so much praise earlier in the season when they were top of the table, Spurs are now seven points off Aston Villa in the race for fourth place. Same old, same old Spursy.

Tottenham were absolutely useless in that first half at Stamford Bridge. They were soft, chaotic, a team of moments. And that is why Ange was going ballistic on the sideline.

How ironic it was then that again, it was a set-piece - which Ange feels is unimportant - that was despatched elegantly by Trevoh Chalobah.

According to Ange, the season is now about building. Well, good luck with that one, old son.

Because with the financial rules that are in place, if Tottenham don’t get Champions League money, they are in big trouble.

Looking at this Spurs team, I see problems all over the pitch. Guglielmo Vicario, in goal, is good, rather than great. Their left back problem continues.

And the defence are like the Inbetweeners with Spurs fans convinced that Ange-ball and the Spurs tradition should dictate that their defenders should also be great attackers. Get a grip.

The great teams - the successful ones, the winners - always have top defenders who first and foremost are brilliant at defending.

This Spurs team, this Spurs defence, is typically wobbly in the Spursy tradition.

At the start of the season, I said that the protracted nature of the Harry Kane exit would damage Spurs in the long-term while giving the new manager a honeymoon period because there would be such low expectations.

But while the Spurs owners are obsessed with finance, in modern football, the wealth of the big clubs is dictated by performances on the pitch.

Spurs have arguably one of the best stadiums in the world.

And yet here we are with Spurs apparently having a good ‘building’ season and yet they are a distance off the race to qualify for next season’s Champions League.

Against Chelsea in midweek, Spurs were a creative mess.

And you can imagine how positive James Maddison was - even though he was dropped for the first time since his arrival from Leicester City last season.

Ange had put Richarlison back up front and had moved Son to the left. But Richarlison, like so many in this Spurs squad, is good rather than great.

Son used to be great. But he will be 32 this summer. His best days are gone. In Europe’s top eight teams, he would be no more than a squad player. That’s a reality.

The culture of Spurs, from top to bottom, seems to ignore the reality that big clubs have to win the big trophies.

But Spurs have never won the Champions League, have not won the league since 1961, have not won the FA Cup since 1991 and have not won the EFL Cup since 2008.

Madisson is an example of what this Spurs team are. Is he a good player? Yes. But does he have that great speed and strength? Does he contribute adequately without the ball? Not really.

And when he came on midway through the second half to try and rescue a lost cause, you had to glance at the person next to him.

It was Pierre-Emile Hojberg. How is he even at that club? Spurs' best player is Romero.

He is as hard as nails and at a club that has failed to win a trophy in 16 years, they are blessed to have a World Cup winner.

What a signing he has proved to be, since he arrived from Atalanta.

Shouldn’t Ange build a team around him and stop the drivel that suggests that set-pieces are not important or that qualification for the Champions League does not matter? It does.

The Spurs fans loved it when Ange arrived. They loved this Australian’s straight talking.

But now the former Celtic boss is in danger of going down under if he fails to wake up to the reality that this is a club which might wear white but is always more comfortable as the bridesmaid rather than the bride. He is deluded if he thinks this is a building season.

Because some big clubs have been miles off it this year: Manchester United, Chelsea, Newcastle.

And the worry for Spurs fans is that those three clubs will spend heavily this summer whereas Tottenham will shop in market stalls rather than in high end stores.

It has been a horrific week for Spurs, a wake-up for the fans, and the first sign of the Tottenham fans doubting the manager.

They want him to succeed because he plays stylistically to the Spurs tradition.

But the reality is those fans need to change their attitude.

They need to stop comforting themselves by having a coach who advocates attacking football.

Instead they need to produce winning football.

For Ange to survive, he needs to take control of the next transfer window and bring in great, rather than good players.

Because unless they do so, they are going to continue being one of those teams who have the odd good day but who are never going to have a trophy parade.

Maybe Thursday night was a wake-up call.

And if Ange is as good as Spurs fans hope he is then that disastrous defeat to Chelsea will be used by the manager to get more control and dictate that Spurs invest not just in ‘maybe’ players but in guys who are the finished article.

That is the only way a good team can evolve into a great one. In truth, Spurs are really only impressive in balancing the books.

With Daniel Levy at the helm, that tells you why so many great managers have previously failed at the club. Ange will fail too if Levy stays.

Unless Levy gives the football boss control then this time next year we might not be surprised if those running Spurs end up telling their Australian manager to get on his bike.

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