The halo which has accompanied the ex-Socceroos coach since his arrival in north London is barely flickering now, as dark tidings roll across the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

When you become the first team in the Premier League era to lead in five successful games and ultimately win none of them, it’s clear something is amiss.

And all that off the back of a whirlwind unbeaten 10 game run to start the season which saw Postecoglou almost suffocating under an avalanche of adulation.

Postecoglou’s grim countenance following Tottenham’s latest self-inflicted wound - the 2-1 home loss to London rivals West Ham - spoke louder than any words the Australian  could utter, though he did offer a few choice observations post another damaging defeat which leaves Spurs with just one point from a possible 15.

Taunts of Spursy are predictably bouncing around the interweb, with Postecoglou himself labelled by some as the curator of his team’s misfortunes.

Reality is more nuanced than that, of course, though it’s clear Spurs - despite all the early season fanfare - are at best a work in progress.

Having lost their only truly creative player, James Maddison, to injury a month ago, along with key defender Micky van de Ven, it was obvious that a squad devoid of depth would struggle to adapt, especially when you include suspensions for the likes of Christian Romero.

However, what will worry the former Socceroos boss more, whilst he awaits the return of his star duo in the new year, Is how wasteful, and naive in terms of game management, his team has become.

Three successive manager of the month awards seem an awful long time ago now for Ange, who despite the mitigating factors of his crippling injury list, wasn’t looking for excuses after being mugged by David Moyes and his highly disciplined troops.

Some of the fans who eulogised Postecoglou’s unlocking of the club’s swashbuckling attacking spirit vented their displeasure with boos at the final whistle against the Hammers, whilst others left the stadium early.

These rumblings of displeasure may give way to strident disapproval should Spurs flop again when Newcastle United come calling on Monday morning (AEDT).

Postecoglou, has of course seen it all before in his long coaching journey, and never never sought to hoodwink fans that there wouldn’t be turbulence along the way.

That said, his demeanour was at its darkest yet in assessing Spurs’ latest lament.

“It's just not having that conviction in front of goal to finish teams off. As simple as that,” he said of the West Ham debacle.

“If we weren't creating chances, if we were out on feet then those kinds of things you could factor into it, but I don't see that because all our chances, especially in the first half, have nothing to do with fatigue. It's to do with lacking conviction, at the moment we're just going through this spell where we're playing so-called good football but I don't see that.

“There's no point in feeling sorry for ourselves, looking for a cuddle anywhere. There's only one way to change our circumstances and that is to come here on Sunday and put in a performance, not just play good football but go out there and show some conviction about ourselves as a team.

"Sometimes we can disguise how we're going by playing some nice stuff but like I said from day one, that's not what I'm about. I want to win and that's why I came to this football club and that's the message.

"We've still got a long way to go, I've said that from the start, we're still right at the beginning of what we need to create and days like today just give me further evidence and fuel of how much we need to do."

The season of glad tidings has a distinctly hollow ring right now on the white side of north London.