MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

YOU know it is over for a manager when you start to feel sorry for him.

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In this context, right now I don't just have sympathy for Ange Postecoglou - but absolute pity.

The Spurs manager is good at his job, yet that hardly matters at White Hart Lane.

Remember when Jose Mourinho was there.

His win ratio was the seventh highest in the club's history. He took a club that has won just one trophy so far this century to the League Cup final.

And on the week of the Wembley decider, he got the sack.

In came Ryan Mason, an anonymous one replacing the Special One.

Then there was Antonio Conte, like Mourinho, a serial winner.

As head coach, he has won Serie A four times, the Premier League once. Right now he has Napoli battling away for glory.

At Spurs, he was also a success, his win ratio the fifth best in the club's history.

Inevitably he got the chop too.

They used to say the England job was The Impossible One, but that was before Daniel Levy came along.

Yes, he is talented at overseeing the construction of new stadiums and training grounds, but Spurs want a new team, not just the new ground they have.

And until they get a new chairman, they really haven't a hope of experiencing sustained success.

That's partly why I feel pity for Ange.

The Aussie is a good guy, a fine coach, a battler.

Yet he was fighting against so much on Thursday.

The ref gave a decision which cost Spurs the game; VAR didn't do him any favours, either; the Spurs fans gave him the bird and then the Sky interviewer Patrick Davidson gave him the Spanish Inquisition.

I listened to Davidson's questions and the manner he spoke to Ange and it reminded me of the time I was in primary school.