OLIVER HOLT: What Ange Postecoglou reminded me about how many kills we had in our national game and how dangerous the consequences would be – that’s a much broader concept than cup replays and VAR

After Ange Postecoglou’s draw on Sunday afternoon, he quickly returned to the Lamb Ground pitch to begin a round of post-match interviews. The light of the watery sun began to fade. Several Tamworth players who were still talking to the media began shivering as the adrenaline wore off from the overtime defeat.

Some Tamworth fans in The Shed, a corrugated iron terrace, sang that they had been cheated during the replay. Postecoglou walked over to where we stood in our semicircle. The Tottenham Hotspur manager kept his head down during his speech, as is his custom. He spoke well, concisely and without artificiality, which is also his habit.

That’s one of the reasons I hope Spurs have the sense to realize what they have in Postecoglou. This is by no means the main reason. The main reason would be that he has given Spurs identity, style, defiance and panache, and that he is clearly building something worth watching and sticking with until consistency improves.

There aren’t many independent thinkers in our game, so when we get someone like Postecoglou, we should value him. Some people get upset about their differences so they want it to go away. They look for the easy refuge of returning to the drone.

So I asked him what he said last week about our cavalier attitude in this country about losing the game’s traditions and defaming its rules. He was referring to vandalism caused by technology and VAR, but I asked him if he would expand on that.

What about the fact that Tamworth had just taken Spurs to a draw in normal time and that last season, before the FA folded and changed the rules, that achievement would have earned them a replay in north London, which could have earned them a million pounds and changed their future?

“I understand that opinion,” Postecoglou said, “but at the same time I was focusing on fewer games, so it’s a balancing act.

– With the current state of the calendar, it would be almost impossible for us to fit in another match.

“We are already trying to reconcile it all. I understand the sentiment around it and I certainly believe in competition and what it offers to every part of the football pyramid, and I think it needs to be protected.”

I’m glad Postecoglou said what he said last week. Someone had to. Because he’s absolutely right. We have neglected the traditions of our game. We slept. We have allowed the game to be taken over by charlatans and egomaniacs.

He’s right about our carelessness. There is so much good in our game, but we have also allowed so many things to ruin it that it’s hard to know where to start when making a list of things we should never have allowed to happen.

I suspect my list would be longer than Postecoglou’s.

Yes, VAR would be ready for that. We should never have agreed to implement it until we were sure the technology – including semi-automatic offsides – was ready for it. And that the officials who ran it also took care of it.

It’s a good idea in principle, but in practice it outgrew itself and destroyed the game’s precious fluidity and spontaneity.

We should have opposed the idea of ​​nation states owning our clubs. It is too late to stop this, but issues relating in particular to Abu Dhabi’s takeover of Manchester City and the threat this poses to competitive balance have torn the league apart.

Our fans have stopped Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs from killing English football by moving to the European Super League, but we have allowed UEFA to expand the Champions League to the point where it becomes a de facto Super League that clogs the calendar and eats up the Cup. England.

We have allowed skyrocketing ticket prices to disenfranchise an entire swath of fans. We continue, step by step, to take the game back from loyal fans and make it available to day trippers. Because they spend more.

We have allowed teams to use five substitutes, which benefits the richest clubs and disrupts the flow of the game. We listened to the arguments that it was because it was good for the players’ welfare, while at the same time seeing the approach to concussion remain medieval and former players such as Dean Windass being diagnosed with dementia at the age of 55.

We did this and allowed for kick-off times that prevent traveling fans from getting to or from games. We may soon abandon the Saturday TV blackout at 3 p.m.

We have allowed the FA Cup third round weekend to be spread over five days, diluting its enjoyment and impact. The FA Cup final is no longer the highlight of our season.

We have allowed our big clubs to organize lucrative summer tours to Australia and the American West Coast, Singapore and China, and in one fell swoop we have allowed them to complain that they are playing too many games and that FA Cup replays have to be sacrificed to keep them fed. monster.

We watched the football establishment steal and cut the income streams of lower league teams, then condemned clubs like Tamworth for jacking up prices to play Tottenham. As if we expected their funding to come out of thin air.

The smug and patrician walk along with dollar signs in their eyes and “greed is good” signs hanging in their offices. Just a few years ago, the biggest clubs tried to break away and join the Super League, which could have killed the game in this country. How is it possible that this is anything other than a dysfunctional sport?

Is it really any wonder that some are tempted to see the emergence of an independent football regulator as a panacea? Unfortunately, there is no chance that this will be the case. This would not stop state ownership of clubs. It wouldn’t have stopped VAR. There are still many things that are beyond his competence

But as the Governance of Football Bill makes its way through the House of Lords and gets closer to becoming law, it’s hard not to think that an independent regulator will free the game from at least some of its complacency.

The fact that West Ham vice-chairman Karren Brady is so vehemently against it can only be a good sign.

Especially since the inception of the Premier League, English football has consistently benefited the richest clubs. And time and time again they were taken away from poor clubs.

A whole host of things we valued so much were destroyed in the name of appeasing the elite. And then, as Postecoglou reminded us, we looked the other way.

Don’t criticize Darren Ferguson… praise him

It would be wonderful if Ashley Young, a player I admire, and his son Tyler became the first father and son to play against each other in the FA Cup when Everton and Peterborough met in Round 3 last Thursday evening.

This did not happen as Tyler was on the bench and Peterborough manager Darren Ferguson did not bring him on.

Some idiots criticized Ferguson for this, as if he was deliberately depriving father and son of their moment. Some idiots criticized him for ruining the romance of the Cup.

The truth is that Ferguson was just doing his job. Everton only led 1-0 going into stoppage time and with Peterborough still in the game and chasing an equaliser, Ferguson brought on the striker as his fifth and final substitute.

It’s also not like Tyler is a regular in the Peterborough squad, being benched as a vindictive decision. He has played 27 minutes of senior football in his career while coming off the bench in the EFL Trophy.

Thursday’s occasion was an FA Cup match, not an episode of Love Island. Football is a meritocracy, not a reality show.

All Ferguson did was keep the competition legal. He deserves our thanks for this, not the abuse.