Forest job was the perfect birthday present for Ange Postecoglou 

Postecoglou wanted a new job as a birthday present and Nottingham Forest came knocking at the right time to add to his 60th celebrations.

PERFECT PRESENT: Ange Postecoglou wanted a new job as a birthday present and Nottingham Forest came knocking at the right time to add to his 60th celebrations.

When Nottingham Forest’s call to action arrived last weekend, Ange Postecoglou was about to kickstart 60th birthday celebrations that he envisaged would resemble a scene from The Hangover.

Some of his closest friends had flown in from Melbourne and his wife was annoyed by the timing having spent weeks planning the shindig. Then again, when she asked him for a gift suggestion he was clear: the only present he really wanted was another job.

Three months on from being divisively sacked by Tottenham Hotspur despite guiding them to a first trophy in 17 years, the affable Australian has been itching to get back on the carousel. There was no hangover and, aware of how difficult it is to remain on a Premier League hotseat, he had no hesitation when it came to taking charge at the City Ground.

After initial talks through Saturday and Sunday, the formal offer arrived on Monday morning. “The president (Evangelos Marinakis) caught me in a good moment. I'd just done the school run and that's a great reason to get back to work,” he said yesterday, wearing a grin the width of the Trent.

Postecoglou did not say so explicitly but the eagerness to return so soon is fuelled by the opportunity to right some wrongs. He still feels hurt by how things ended in North London but, admirably, steered clear of delivering an easy soundbite when asked about Daniel Levy’s recent departure as Spurs chairman.

The revelation that he was aware of Tottenham’s intention to fire him long before delivering silverware – and his subsequent decision to keep theirs to himself during the celebrations that followed – was the closest he came to firing a shot at his former club.

“It was tough, I'll be honest,” he said of a first sacking in 28 years of coaching. “It's never happened to me before because everywhere I’ve been, I've been a success. There hasn't been a reason for anyone to sack me or move me on.

“For all intents and purposes a trophy was what the club was craving. The football club hasn't won something for a very long time.

“But I knew it was coming. I knew it was coming a long way, a long time probably before most people. It wasn't the actual decision (that was difficult), it was just sort of things ending and you kind of go, ‘What do I do now?’"

Well, now he has a fresh challenge in meeting the demands of a club in a rush. Postecoglou anticipates no issue in getting along with the combustible Marinakis because they both want the same thing – even if it feels like their sharp rise from Championship strugglers back to European football after three decades away has still not satisfied the Greek owner’s appetite.

“I don't think I need to manage the president,” Postecoglou insisted. “And I don't feel like this job is any more challenging than any other job.

“It's a football club that has made great strides in recent times. There's an opportunity here to bring success.” 

As soon as this season? “Absolutely.” And ideally in thrill-a-minute style.

Then again the idea that Postecoglou is an immovable evangelist when it comes to all-out attacking football is nonsense. Spurs won the Europa League because he set his side out conservatively, shutting down a Manchester United team that is unwavering in their approach to Ruben Amorim’s flawed structure.

Throughout the second half of last season there was an immediately recognisable contrast in styles between domestic games and Europe because, as Postecoglou claimed in Bilbao, the injury circumstances left him to choose between competitions.

On the continent and in a knockout format, Tottenham were resolute and very smart in their decision-making. Expect Forest to do the same.

Yet how the key tenets of Angeball and a Forest squad built for his predecessor Nuno’s preference to sit back and counterattack fuse together will be fascinating. Nikola Milenkovic and Murillo are very good centre-halves but they cannot sprint and recover like Micky van de Ven, one of the fastest players in Premier League history. Will the risky high line remain or be tempeted?

“I really like the squad,” Postecoglou said, though he was never going to suggest otherwise. “It's got great balance in terms of being able to cover most positions for the rotations you need. There's a variance in styles in there that will allow us to play differently.

“There's no doubt European football has different demands on you than the Premier League and the cup competitions as well but it’s a squad that I think is ready to compete but also robust enough to handle the team.” 

The lack of a pre-season to embed his principles in theory makes his job in the short-term far more difficult and he immediately warned that it would be “crazy” to expect an overnight transformation.

Equally he felt the need to stress that he is more than a one-trick pony.

“I've always got to be careful how I frame these things,” he continued. “For some reason they get set in stone. I do like my teams to play exciting football and score goals, get fans excited. I make no apologies about that. That's just the way I am and the way I want to see my teams play. I want to dominate the ball, I want to put pressure on the opposition when I score goals.

“But all of it is with the end goal of winning football games because that's what excites me more than anything else. If you win football games, you can win trophies. There's no doubt that, from my perspective, I see a group of players and the opportunity to build something that I think, not just for Forest fans but for everyone watching the game, will be good to watch.”