'Don't settle for this': Postecoglou wants ambition from Tottenham after Europa League success

LONDON (AP) — Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou has urged the club to show ambition after ending its 17-year trophy drought as he awaits a decision on whether he will stay on for a third season at the English team.

Tottenham claimed its first piece of major silverware since 2008 by beating Manchester United 1-0 in the Europa League final last month, earning in the process a spot in next season’s Champions League.

Postecoglou remains in the dark about his future, though, with his status affected by Tottenham’s 17th-placed finish — its lowest since the Premier League was founded in 1992.

In an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corp. — published Monday — while on a family holiday in Greece, Postecoglou said he hasn’t wanted to let the club “just enjoy the moment” because he “wanted us to think about what’s next.”

“Don’t settle for this,” he tells ABC’s Australian Story. “We’ve got a taste of it now. My players have got a taste for it. The club’s got a taste for it. Well, let’s make sure we’re back here again.”

Those comments explain why, during Tottenham’s trophy parade, the 59-year-old Australian declared in front of tens of thousands of fans in north London: “Season three is always better than season two.”

However, away from winning the Europa League, Tottenham has been on a downward trajectory in the Premier League since the team’s strong start to Postecoglou’s first season in charge.

This season, he clearly made Europa League success the priority over results in the Premier League, rotating heavily and protecting the fitness of various key players.

Tottenham lost 22 of its 38 league games and that woeful record has increased the scrutiny and pressure on Postecoglou.

“That was when the laser focus came in,” Postecoglou said in Australian Story when explaining why he essentially sacrificed the league. “Every decision I made was around, ‘Well, how do we navigate this to get to where we want to?’”

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Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou on the open-top team bus during the Europa League winners parade in North London, Friday, May 23, 2025. (John Walton/PA via AP)

Tottenham's head coach Ange Postecoglou celebrates after the Europa League final soccer match between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United at the San Mames Stadium in Bilbao, Spain, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Breton)

Tottenham's head coach Ange Postecoglou celebrates after winning the Europa League final soccer match against Manchester United at the San Mames Stadium in Bilbao, Spain, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday fired off another warning to the government of Cuba as the close ally of Venezuela braces for potential widespread unrest after Nicolás Maduro was deposed as Venezuela's leader.

Cuba, a major beneficiary of Venezuelan oil, has now been cut off from those shipments as U.S. forces continue to seize tankers in an effort to control the production, refining and global distribution of the country's oil products.

Trump said on social media that Cuba long lived off Venezuelan oil and money and had offered security in return, “BUT NOT ANYMORE!”

“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA - ZERO!” Trump said in the post as he spent the weekend at his home in southern Florida. “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.” He did not explain what kind of deal.

The Cuban government said 32 of its military personnel were killed during the American operation last weekend that captured Maduro. The personnel from Cuba’s two main security agencies were in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, as part of an agreement between Cuba and Venezuela.

“Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years,” Trump said Sunday. “Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will.”

Trump also responded to another account’s social media post predicting that his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will be president of Cuba: “Sounds good to me!” Trump said.

Trump and top administration officials have taken an increasingly aggressive tone toward Cuba, which had been kept economically afloat by Venezuela. Long before Maduro's capture, severe blackouts were sidelining life in Cuba, where people endured long lines at gas stations and supermarkets amid the island’s worst economic crisis in decades.

Trump has said previously that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, would slide further with the ouster of Maduro.

“It’s going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It’s going down for the count.”

A person watches the oil tanker Ocean Mariner, Monrovia, arrive to the bay in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

President Donald Trump attends a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)