Micky van de Ven happy to play ‘painful’ part as Ange Postecoglou extends record | OneFootball

Micky van de Ven was delighted to help Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou keep up his record of winning a trophy in his second season and silence the club’s doubters after they clinched Europa League success.

Spurs ended a 17-year trophy drought with a 1-0 win over Manchester United in a tense all-English final in Bilbao, which was settled by Brennan Johnson’s 42nd-minute close-range finish.

Postecoglou made headlines at the start of the season when he declared that he “always wins things” in year two of a job – a feat achieved at South Melbourne, Brisbane Roar, Yokohama, Celtic and Australia’s under-17, under-20 and senior sides.

The bold remark came after a slow start to the Premier League campaign and has been regularly referenced as Tottenham have slid down the table to 17th, but a disciplined display at San Mames ensured Postecoglou succeeded where many high-profile predecessors have failed.

Van de Ven’s incredible clearance on the line to thwart Rasmus Hojlund after 68 minutes played its part in securing Spurs a first European trophy in 41 years and only the fourth in their history to keep Postecoglou true to his word.

“The gaffer said this and I think he proved he’s done it,” Van de Ven pointed out.

“He won again something in his second year and everyone who was doubting him, everybody that was doubting us, we all proved them wrong this year.

“Of course it was a really tough season. In the league we didn’t perform well, it was really poor from us. I can’t say anything else but that, but in Europe we did so well.

“To be honest I’m really happy he said he always wins something in his second year. We made sure he can keep saying this. We’re happy for him and happy for the team.

“Probably (critics) will continue but I don’t care anymore. We proved them wrong. We won a trophy so they can say whatever they want.

“We’re here, we’re lifting a trophy and have made some history, so of course that’s an unbelievable feeling.”

It could have been different had Hojlund scored after Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario spilled Bruno Fernandes’ free-kick, but Van de Ven went flying through the air to clear before crashing into the post.

He added: “I can tell you it was painful!

“The ball came to Hojlund and I was like, ‘I need to go to the goalline because if he heads over Vic, that’s going to be a goal.’

“I saw the ball coming and to be honest the ball was high and I was like, ‘I don’t know how I’m gonna do this,’ but I just tried everything I could and I saved it.

“It was all worth it because we kept the clean sheet.”

While Postecoglou’s own future remains uncertain, he did back Tottenham to win further trophies after they “climbed the mountain” to finally clinch eagerly-awaited silverware.

“Of course we want to build on it,” Van de Ven insisted.

“Every time we played in Europe, we showed our quality, we showed how we can play.

“The gaffer had a big role in this. He kept believing in us, the whole staff kept believing in us. He just made sure we stayed together and as a group we stayed together.

“We kept believing that we could create history with this group and we did it.”