October 30, 2021. Tottenham hosted Manchester United in a match dubbed by the media as 'El Sackico'. New Spurs boss Nuno Espirito Santo had made a poor impression after accepting the job that summer, while Red Devils legend Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had taken the team backwards despite a promising 2020-21 campaign and the additions of Cristiano Ronaldo, Raphael Varane and Jadon Sancho to his squad.
The premise was simple: If there were to be a loser in north London, they would inevitably be fired and replaced by Italian coach Antonio Conte, who was keen to return to the Premier League. United ran out 3-0 winners and Nuno was given his marching orders.
Nearly four years on, a somewhat similar but completely different scenario is in play. Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham and Ruben Amorim's United will face off in the Europa League final on Wednesday in what has been billed as one of the lowest-quality European showpiece events of all time. They sit 17th and 16th in the Premier League, respectively, heading to the Estadio San Mames in Bilbao and would be facing far more scrutiny had their continental exploits been less fruitful and fortuitous.
Postecoglou, irrespective of what happens in Bilbao, ought to be a dead man walking, while Amorim has minimal excuses left to lean on to keep himself in the Old Trafford job.