A lot has been made of the reaction from Tottenham fans in midweek against Manchester City and Micah Richards has explained his experience of being around the stadium.
Richards was in attendance working the game as a pundit and was given the full experience of the atmosphere in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Of course, there’s been so much coverage of it, we’ve now all seen the images of certain Tottenham fans celebrating and even Ange Postecoglou arguing with one supporter.
READ MORE: Sky journalist on why Postecoglou snapped at one Tottenham fan
And speaking about what he experienced on the night, Richards has explained the vibe he got from both speaking to Spurs fans and being at the game.
Micah Richards explains what Tottenham fans really thought about losing to Manchester City
Speaking on the Rest Is Football podcast, Richards explained what he’d noticed about the Tottenham fanbase after being around the ground hours before.
“Obviously they wanted to be in the Champions League, even though it was a small chance of them getting there because of the result of Villa and Liverpool on the day before,” Richards said.
“But it was a weird environment which seeped on to the pitch, I thought. I thought Spurs in the first half were very good, I thought they defended quite well. They nullified the threat of Man City, especially in the middle of the pitch, it was just waiting for that first goal and once that went in it was like it’s done now.
“I would say it was split [before the game]. I spoke to a couple of fans and they were like we’ve still got a chance, we don’t approach the game and want to lose the game, we don’t think like that. And the other fans were like a bit of banter, saying if there’s one team that we are supporting today it’s Man City.
“But it was more nervous energy, I would say. They didn’t know what the outcome was going to be, were the players going to turn up, was it going to affect them.
“There was part of the fans who were really loud and cheering and part of the fans who were just sitting there, where the atmosphere was nice and relaxed, that’s how it was.”
Tottenham may end up benefitting from this messy night
Clearly, Ange Postecoglou was not a happy man this week.
His interaction with the supporter from the touchline and then some fiery comments in his press conference showed that ‘Big Ange’ was not impressed with what he saw.
However, this might end up turning into a positive for Spurs as a club.
Postecoglou admitted he’d seen some things he didn’t realise in the build up to the game and in the long-run, if Spurs stick to the plan under him, they might come out better for it.
The Aussie was fuming at the idea of wanting to intentionally lose a game and he’s clearly going to weed out those who were happy to go along with that idea.
In the end, then, this might well turn into a positive.
