Spurred on: What Postecoglou’s past tells us about his Premier League future

Save articles for later

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.

Two days after winning the 2012 A-League grand final with Brisbane Roar, Ange Postecoglou and his players were feted with a ticker-tape parade through the city.

Thousands of fans lined the streets to celebrate their second title in a row – but they all had knots in their stomachs because rumours were rife that he was about to leave the club.

Postecoglou sat in a sports car with skipper Matt Smith and the team’s precious silverware on a melancholy drive down the Queen Street Mall and then to a public reception at King George Square.

Two days after celebrating Brisbane Roar’s second A-League title with skipper Matt Smith and assistant Rado Vidosic, Ange Postecoglou quit as coach.Credit: Getty

“Why not? Let’s make it three,” Postecoglou told the crowd.

Then they returned to the club’s headquarters at Ballymore and he broke the news they were all dreading: he was leaving.

Some players had already guessed as much by his body language on the day. Only two of his assistants, Rado Vidosic and Ken Stead, knew it was coming for sure because he’d given them the heads up.

Two days later, he was unveiled as Melbourne Victory coach, and by the end of the week he’d spilled his guts in a newspaper column about how he’d wrestled with his emotions in the build-up to the grand final, and how hard it was to keep his cards close to his chest.

“I knew the news would make an impact, but I did not want it to take away from the celebration of the win, and it is why I left it until after the parade,” Postecoglou wrote in the Sunday Mail.

Will Ange Postecoglou be packing his bags at the end of the season?Credit: Getty

“It was tough to say goodbye to the players and staff, so I kept my message to them as short as possible. No words could explain my feelings. Obviously, I understand that some were disappointed in my decision but, ultimately, I felt it was the right time for me to move on.”

Sometimes, try as you might, there is no easy way to say goodbye.

None of this will do anything to calm the nerves of Celtic fans, who are bracing themselves for the end of an era once their bid for a rare domestic treble concludes with the Scottish Cup final against Inverness Caledonian Thistle on June 4 (2.30am, AEST).

Postecoglou is being hunted by Tottenham Hotspur. It remains to be seen if they will offer him the job, or if he’ll take it. But while most Celtic supporters have long since come to terms with the reality that he’ll eventually go south of the border, such is the level of his managerial genius, this has all come a bit too soon.

After the previous front-runner for the Spurs job, Feyenoord’s Arne Slot, ruled himself out, Postecoglou has reportedly become their No.1 target. In responding to the intensifying links, he affirmed his commitment to the “here and now” without committing to Celtic – or anyone else –after that.

Asked by Sky Sports if he’d thought about his future beyond this season, he said: “No, because I know that’s not how football works. You can’t, as a manager, chart a course for yourself to be in a certain position in a certain time.

“The one thing I do know for certain is that if you’re not concentrating on the task in hand, your destiny gets taken out of your hands. I’ve worked really hard in my career not to be in that position and the way I’ve done that is to make sure, beyond what happens this week, I’m not going to think about anything else.

“Whatever happens in my career from here will happen because I’m doing really well.”

In fairness, it’s exactly the same sort of thing Postecoglou has said for not just the past few months – as he’s been tossed up as a candidate for a variety of EPL jobs – but for many years, from when he was first linked to Victory, to the Socceroos, and then during the months of speculation about whether he’d stay on after Australia’s 2018 World Cup qualification campaign.

He always chooses his words carefully – with the exception, maybe, of that ticker-tape parade in Brisbane – but realistically, he can’t say much else.

Whenever he turns his mind to it, Postecoglou will be facing a serious dilemma. It will be hard to turn down Spurs, one of the EPL’s “big six” teams who have arguably Europe’s best stadium – the 62,850-seater built only five years ago in north London – and an excellent team despite their recent struggles. They also have a huge global fan base – albeit not as big as Celtic – and competed in the UEFA Champions League final in 2019.

The difficulty will be in addressing Tottenham’s perennial underachievement, which other high-profile managers such as Antonio Conte, Jose Mourinho and Mauricio Pochettino have not been able to resolve, and unpicking the difficult politics of their football department, where Daniel Levy is said to be a notoriously meddlesome and overbearing chairman.

Then again, all of that is what makes it a “perfect Postecoglou challenge”, as one of his former Brisbane Roar stars Erik Paartalu put it on Twitter – because so many others have tried and failed, and because it looks so tough on paper. Celtic, remember, were also a mess when he took over, and that’s worked out well. Each one of his jobs has been a fixer-upper, to varying degrees.

But Spurs have not yet qualified for Europe next season – the best they can hope for is the third-tier Conference League. Celtic, meanwhile, are in the UEFA Champions League group stage and, during the past two years, the club has been moulded around Postecoglou. Fans revere him. Everything there is set just how he likes it, and if given a big enough transfer budget for the coming off-season, he can have a crack at etching his name even deeper into the club’s storied history. He likes to leave behind a legacy, and it will only be enhanced with further success in Europe, which he has repeatedly pointed to as Celtic’s next big mission.

If they can get out of their group, his reputation will grow, to the point where bigger, better clubs than Spurs – like Liverpool, perhaps, who he has followed since he was a boy – might consider him one day. But if he holds out now and Celtic struggle next season, his reputation will drop and those bigger opportunities may never come.

Either way, Postecoglou would be betting on himself, and that’s something he’s never been afraid to do. What that bet looks like, only he knows.

Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.

Watch every match of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League on Stan Sport. All the action streaming ad-free, live and on demand, with select matches in 4K UHD.

Most Viewed in Sport

From our partners

Source: Read Full Article