Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou accepts the general feeling within English football is he will be ditched as manager even if he steers them to victory in the Europa League.
On the eve of his potentially make-or-break quarter-final tie against Eintracht Frankfurt, Postecoglou sounded almost resigned to that narrative at Spurs as he reflected on what he believes is a continuing "negative" agenda against the club.
But the Australian is adamant nothing's going to stop his "burning ambition, desire and determination" to lead Spurs to success whatever the doomsayers are predicting for him.
Amid their poor Premier League campaign, the speculation about Postecoglou's position has only mounted week on week, leaving the widespread prediction that success in Europe's second-tier competition is his only chance of saving his job.
But on the eve of Frankfurt visiting the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, it was Postecoglou who brought up the subject of a British national newspaper article which suggested he'd be out of a job with Spurs even if they win in Europe.
"Someone wrote that even if we win it, I'm gone anyway," he told reporters on Wednesday.
"That's not having a go at you, that's just saying the general sentiment of people. So if you're trying to use that as a motivation (to win the Europa League), you're not going to win that anyway.
"I came to this club with a clear purpose and vision of what the club needed and what I could offer.
"That is to change the way the team plays, to obviously rejuvenate the squad because it was a squad that was coming towards the end of a cycle and to bring success.
"As long as I'm in this position, that's always my focus, irrespective of whatever noise there is or what there may or not be in the future. I don't see that that should diminish my burning ambition, my desire and my determination to make that happen.
"Anything you achieve in life usually comes with a struggle. Certainly, everything I have achieved in my life has come with a struggle from a professional perspective.
"This is just another struggle, but never through this struggle have I lost the will to fight for what I think is the right thing to do and I'll continue to do that."
His feeling of an anti-Spurs agenda was highlighted at the weekend when after their win over Southampton, the spotlight was turned on Mathys Tel taking their added-time penalty rather than letting Brennan Johnson attempt to complete a hat-trick.
"I just think we're in that position now where even the good stuff we do is going to be turned into a glass half-empty rhetoric," said Postecoglou.
"The one slight against this club is that it hasn't been a winner. The winners' mentality in the last minute is to score. We scored and, somehow, in this alternate universe, everything Tottenham does is negative."
For their tough tie against a side who lie third in the German Bundesliga, Spurs won't have Dejan Kulusevski, who's out with a foot injury, but they're boosted by being able to field nearly a fully-fit squad.
