Tottenham Hotspur will face fellow English side Manchester United in the UEFA Europa League Final tonight at San Mamés Stadium in Bilbao. The Premier League’s 16th and 17th-placed teams will contest an unlikely shootout for a Champions League spot.
Both clubs are seeking a solitary bright spot in what have been equally disastrous, humiliating campaigns.
Spurs haven’t lifted a trophy since 2008, and their long wait has been punctuated by false dawns and managerial churn.
In September, following a North London Derby defeat to Arsenal, manager Ange Postecoglou made a bold claim that he “always wins things in [his] second year.”
The quote, widely mocked at the time, has only looked more absurd as Spurs’ domestic form has spiralled into farce. Yet, remarkably, with just 90 minutes separating them from silverware, that prophecy could still come true.
The cocky Australian and his side have been woeful in the league, but so too have Manchester United, and tonight’s final could offer one of these fallen giants a European lifeline, and perhaps even a shred of vindication for both under-fire managers.
It begs the question: have other managers made such audacious claims and actually backed them up?
Jose Mourinho – “I am a Special One” (2004)
José Mourinho swaggered into Chelsea in 2004 with the footballing equivalent of Liam Gallagher’s Britpop bravado. He wasn’t just a manager; he was a statement.
Brash, cocky, arrogant, and, above all, effortlessly cool, Mourinho epitomised a new era of modern, media-savvy, self-assured management.
Arriving in England fresh off back-to-back European triumphs with Porto, the 2003 UEFA Cup and the 2004 Champions League, he brought with him an aura of inevitability.
Despite Chelsea’s newfound riches under Roman Abramovich, the club hadn’t won a league title since 1955. That didn’t bother Mourinho. He was full of confidence, and soon, so were Chelsea.
He wasted no time proving his pedigree. In his debut season, he outmanoeuvred Premier League giants like Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger, guiding Chelsea to the title with a then-record 95 points, along with a League Cup victory.
Mourinho didn’t just succeed; he dominated. He went on to win league titles in Italy and Spain, add more silverware during a second stint at Chelsea, and claim further European honours with Inter Milan, Roma, and Manchester United.
While his powers may be waning in the modern game, one thing is beyond dispute: he was right. He was a Special One.
Brian Clough – “We’ll win something” (1975)
Brian Clough arrived at Nottingham Forest in 1975 with the same sharp tongue and unshakeable belief that had made him a legend at Derby County, whom he had taken from the Second Division to champions of England before poor spells at Brighton and Leeds.
Taking over another middling Second Division side in Forest, Clough didn’t bother with modesty. He made it clear he was going to win something soon.
At the time, it sounded like typical Clough bravado. Forest were floundering, their potential modest at best. But Clough wasn’t interested in potential, he was interested in history and another chance to stick it up to the English game that he felt had tried so hard to keep him down.
What followed is arguably the most astonishing ascent in English football, perhaps matched only by Leicester’s incredible title win in 2016. Clough took Forest into the First Division, won the title at the first time of asking in 1978, and then pulled off the unthinkable: back-to-back European Cups in 1979 and 1980.
A club with no previous European pedigree had suddenly become kings of the continent, under the management of a man who didn’t just talk the talk, he walked the walk and lifted the honours.
In an age before oil money and tv rights, Clough built his empire with belief, man-management, and a refusal to accept limits. His claim to “win something” wasn’t just bravado, it was a prediction come true.
Harry Redknapp – “He will go right to the very top… right to the very top” (1996)
Back in 1996, a young and relatively unproven midfielder named Frank Lampard was beginning to break into the West Ham United first team.
Fans raised questions at a fan forum attended by then-manager Harry Redknapp about whether Lampard genuinely deserved his place or if his inclusion was simply down to family ties.
After all, Redknapp was his uncle, and his father, Frank Lampard Sr., was the assistant manager.
Accusations of nepotism hung in the air, but Redknapp didn’t bite. Instead, he launched into what would become one of the most iconic and prophetic defences of a player in English football history: “I’m telling you now, he will go right to the very top.
“Right to the very top. He’s got everything that’s needed to become a top-class player.”
It sounded like blind family loyalty at the time. In hindsight, it was the clearest of visions.
Lampard would go on to become a modern great. At Chelsea, he won every major honour, including the Champions League, and became their all-time leading goalscorer, from midfield.
He became a central figure in England’s so-called ‘Golden Generation’ and earned widespread respect for his intelligence, professionalism, and goal-scoring prowess.
Redknapp didn’t just defend his nephew; he backed his player as a coach who recognised greatness and potential. In doing so, he delivered one of the greatest mic-drop moments in the history of English football.
Jürgen Klopp – “We’ll win a title in four years” (2015)
When Jürgen Klopp arrived at Liverpool in 2015, he inherited a sleeping giant, a club of enormous history, mismanaged into one that hadn’t won a league title in 25 years and had become defined by promises of glory and bottle crashes.
The German didn’t promise instant miracles, but he made one quiet, confident prediction: “If we sit here in four years and we haven’t won anything, we’ll have to win something.”
It wasn’t the brashness of Mourinho or the fire of Clough, but it was said with the kind of self-assured steel that made people take notice.
What followed was a steady, relentless transformation. Klopp rebuilt the squad, reinvigorated the club’s identity, and gradually turned Liverpool from English footballs biggest joke to an all-action juggernaut.
They reached the Champions League final in 2018, won it in 2019, and then, true to his word, ended a 30-year wait for a league title in 2020, almost four years to the day after his comments.
Klopp didn’t just deliver silverware; he reawakened belief on Merseyside. His prediction wasn’t a boast, it was a roadmap, one that has continued into Arne Slot’s time as Anfield boss, with Liverpool crowned champions again this year, something that would not have been possible without his German predecessor.
We will find out tonight in sunny Spain whether Ange is right or Manchester United has ended his credibility in England.
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