I am sorry, but every time Ange Postecoglou enjoys a stunning success – as he did this week with his Tottenham Hotspur team winning the Europa League – I do wish he’d credit me.

Listen, Ange, I made you, and I can break you!

For, Mr Postecoglou has long insisted, it was a question that TFF put to the then Socceroos coach eight years ago on Channel Nine’s Sports Sunday, if you remember it, which became a catalyst for his decision to leave the post.

“I hope [the Socceroos qualify for the World Cup],” I began, “and I think you will get there – and I don’t mean this in a nasty fashion – but if you don’t get there and you don’t qualify, would you resign to save them the trouble of sacking you? No, seriously ... ”

(Oh, stop it. The Age’s soccer writer at the time, Michael Lynch, supported me. “I don’t think @Peter_Fitz knows a lot about football,” he tweeted, “and I don’t think he cares much about it either.” (To that point, I thought I’d pulled it off.) “But asking Ange if he would quit if they failed to beat the UAE was a legitimate question, if one that was, at that point in qualification, rather pessimistic.”

Well, Ange did see the Socceroos through to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and then he quit.

Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou holds up the Europa League trophy.Credit: AP

The way he told it to Fox Sports, the question I’d asked “jolted me a little bit ... I thought after everything we’ve achieved and the journey we’re on, qualification in our hands, I said, ‘I’m not going to go down that path again where I allow external forces to decide my fate’.”

So he was out, OUT, do you hear me?

The rest is history. A great one. Sincere congratulations to him. And Tottenham would be insane to sack him, after he guided them to the club’s biggest success in 40 years. I made no apology for the question then, or now, and would like to think it was his turning point to the stars!

You’re welcome ...

I am sorry everyone, I am just going to have to go with me on this one. My dear friend Malcolm Knox made a case for LIV golf being successful last week, writing, “The bonus for LIV is that it has proved its credibility as a sporting competition. You only need to watch it to see how seriously competitive the players are.”

Sure, LIV Golf is competitive. But credible? Yeah, nah.Credit: Getty

As courteously discussed with him – ‘cos I dinkum love Malcolm – I respectfully beg to differ. I’ll take Malcolm’s word for it that when you crunch the numbers, the players’ games haven’t fallen away, but don’t care particularly. That the LIV players are competitive and good is no surprise whatsoever. If you pay billions of dollars for the best players in the world in any sport, and put them together, then of course they’ll be brilliant – and seriously competitive. But to prove its credibility as a........

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