Ange Postecoglou relects on long journey as he sets about Spurs rebuild

The Greece-born Australian reflected on his journey from a schoolboy in Melbourne watching Spurs win the FA Cup, to taking tips from Alex Ferguson in Rio and Pep Guardiola in Japan

DEEP THINKER: Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou during a press conference at Tottenham Hotspur Training Centre. Pic: PA

Ange Postecoglou has travelled around the world in order to reach the Premier League, which is any ambitious manager's ultimate destination, so maybe it's no surprise he has met some of the game's foremost minds, albeit in some of the most unlikely places.

Looking out from Tottenham's state-of-the-art training centre in north London after a week at the helm of one of English football's sleeping giants, the Greece-born Australian reflected on his journey from a schoolboy in Melbourne watching Spurs win the FA Cup, to taking tips from Alex Ferguson in Rio de Janeiro and Pep Guardiola in Japan.

He says travelling is in his blood, his kids have grown up away from their native country, and like that most Australian of animals the shark, he needs to keep moving in order to survive.

Swapping Glasgow for London this summer has been his most recent move, taking over a tough gig at Tottenham after two successful seasons with Celtic. Previously he managed at club and international level in Australia, with Yokohama in Japan and then in Glasgow, always with success, and regularly going out on a high, as he did when Celtic won their fifth trophy under him last month.

“For me to come from where I’ve come from and be sitting here today, I needed to have that instinct inside me, to know when to move on because I’ve had to be faultless in my career to get to this point.

“That’s because no one’s going to rate an Australian manager, are they? So if I had any significant failures along the way I was never going to get here.

“Part of that process is knowing that I need to keep moving to be at my best. I’ve got two young ones and they’ve lived abroad their whole life in four different countries.

“We made the decision as a family that wherever my profession took us, we’d go and we’d experience that. My wife knows better than anyone, I can’t resist a challenge.

“That’s when I’m at my best and my history is I’ve never stayed too long at too many clubs. I’ve always left when clubs are successful.

“All I’ve tried to do whenever I’ve been, like most managers, is leave the club you’ve inherited in a better place than where you picked it up and hopefully make a positive impact.” 

His meeting with Fergie came about at Manchester United's controversial appearance at the Club World Cup in Rio over 20 years ago, when he was in charge of South Melbourne, where he played as a non-nonsense defender before leading them to the Australian league title twice as a young manager.

“I coached against Sir Alex Ferguson in 2000 in Brazil. We did a press conference together and he then gave me 15 minutes of his time. It was gold for me. I was 34 at the time and I was coaching a team from Australia against Manchester United in the Club World Cup. I spent 15 minutes with him, which was gold.

“All the great managers in the world have that great trademark. When I came across Pep in Japan he was great, very generous with his time. There are people you eye from afar and plenty after I met them, I wish I hadn’t. But he is not one of them. You want to be kind with your time and he certainly was.” 

But he played down the influence of Guardiola, who talked glowingly about Postecoglou recently.

“It was very gracious of him but I really spent only about 20 minutes in his company. If you are asking me if he will go down as one of the greatest managers of all time, I'd say yes. He has had an unbelievable influence on football, all of us involved. Whether I was consciously or unconsciously influenced by him, absolutely.” 

Another huge influence was his late father Dimitris, who fled his native Greece when he lost his business after a military coup in the late 1960s. Ange was only five when they arrived in Melbourne, and one of his fondest memories was watching Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa when the two Argentinians joined Tottenham after winning the World Cup in 1978. 

Asked about his memories of Spurs as a youngster, he said: “Yes plenty. If you grow up on the other side of the world, you don't have it on your doorstep. So for us it was the English Premier League or the First Division when I was growing up and I remember Ricky Villa and Ossie Ardiles in that FA Cup final absolutely. They were my best childhood memories, I’ve said it before, because it was me and my Dad at 2am, me as a young boy, sitting on a couch watching football.

“Glenn Hoddle was another, an absolute master and those kind of players resonate around the world. Sometimes I know it’s hard for you to understand because you’ve had it right in front of you your whole lives, but when you’re living on the other side of the world it’s a real investment to get up in the middle of the night, so it stays with you. There are plenty of Tottenham players from that era that I have strong memories of in my childhood.” 

It is impossible to escape the fact that Tottenham have not won a trophy for 15 years, however, and even serial winners Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte failed to end that drought. Now Daniel Levy has changed tack and asked Postecoglou to rebuild the style and culture of the club. “I love building, I love a rebuild,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s a shortcut to success. I doubt Antonio or Jose would say that. If people think it’s just a matter of plugging in something special and it happens, that’s not how it works. I’ve got this process that starts with the way we play. That’s everything. It can’t just be: we want to win, we need one more player or one manager to be a winner. It’s quite obvious that there won’t be many on this planet that think just bringing me in will bring us success. What is going to bring us success is building some strong foundations in how we want to play.” 

His style is what Spurs fans have been craving, attacking, aggressive football, playing on the front foot rather than the turgid defensive style served up by Mourinho and then Conte.

“That’s what I’m going to try and deliver. That seems to be the right fit for this club in terms of the fans’ expectations. We call it entertainment but also win games of football, score goals, be exciting. They don’t want to see their team sit back. There are different ways of winning games but the intent for us will be to try and make sure this football club are a compelling watch for everybody.” 

At the moment all eyes are on Harry Kane, who returns to training this week after an extended break, with Bayern Munich keen on the England captain. Postecoglou will appeal to the team player in Kane, in an attempt to keep him on board. 

“He’s been very, very successful individually for a long time, pretty much from when he first started at this football club. He would be the first to say that we need a strong team and that’s where my focus is. To build a team will reflect the same sort of individual excellence that he’s had in the team context. I’m certainly big on team ethos and making sure we need a strong unit if we are going to be successful and I’m sure that Harry would be the first to voice that needs to be the case.” 

Postecoglou is certainly up for the challenge. 

“It’s the bit I love best. Whenever I reflect on any job I’ve had, it’s not the success that I look back on, it’s the build that I look back on because I know it’s not always going to be smooth, there’s going to be plenty of doubters which is when your belief and resolve gets doubted. Not just for me personally, but the whole club. I love working through that, getting out the other side and that’s the biggest attraction for me in this position. Aside from being in a massive football club and the premier competition in the world, this is the opportunity to do something that people will see in many respects unsurmountable. I love that.”