Passion still there for Postecoglou
I don’t think the game ever leaves you. Just ask any manager who is kind of getting on in years. I certainly don’t feel like I’m in a space of winding down at all
The Herald - Herald SportMatthew Lindsay Chief football writer
TALK about learning at the feet of the master. The coaches from Belarus, Finland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Montenegro and Scotland who attended the UEFA Pro Licence Student Exchange this week were fully expecting, as previous alumni like Xabi Alonso, Raul Gonzalez, Roberto Martinez, Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Andriy Shevchenko all found, it to be an enlightening experience.
When Ange Postecoglou, who was appointed as a technical observer by European football’s governing body in January, turned up at Nyon in Switzerland to speak to them about his long managerial career and give his thoughts on the latest developments in the modern game, they were not disappointed.
The group, which included, among others, Charlie Adam, Scott Brown, Kris Doolan, David Gray, Jonny Hayes, Shaun Maloney and Steven Naismith, listened intently as their special guest provided detailed breakdowns of the tactics he deployed during his time at Spurs and offered other pieces of invaluable advice.
The Greek-Australian clearly enjoyed himself enormously. He was hopeful he was as inspiring as his own mentor Ferenc Puskas had been when he was an industrious defender with South Melbourne and the Hungarian legend was in charge at Middle Park Stadium back in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Yet, the former Celtic manager, whose love of the 4-3-3 formation, use of inverted full-backs and insistence on a high defensive line would have been well known to everyone who was present in the auditorium in the House of European Football, felt the last point he made, which had nothing to do with low blocks or counter pressing, was perhaps the most crucial.
“In the final slide, I stated that success is always important,” he said during a chat with Herald Sport following his presentation. “But I stressed the most important part is the stuff that you don’t see – the human relationships, the connection to the story, being able to drive people to go beyond the normal, the average.
“You can have the best tactics in the world, the fittest team and the best quality players, but if they’re not united then you won’t achieve what you want to. That is still the most important thing you can possess – the ability to unite people and get players to go beyond what they feel is their limit.
“Yes, Ferenc Puskas had a massive impact on me. But it wasn’t so much about his coaching, it was about who he was as a person. He was a guy who achieved everything in the game he could possibly achieve, but he was so humble about it. The way he interacted with people really made an impact on me.
“It wasn’t like he gave us a lot of guidance. He loved us to play attacking football and score goals, but we actually wanted to play for him because of the kind of person he was. I always figured if I could get people to believe in me as much as I believed in him when I started my coaching journey it would make an impact. I’ve tried to do that my whole career.”
Postecoglou certainly succeeded in that regard during his two unforgettable years in Scotland. He took over a club which had finished trophyless the previous season, quickly overhauled his entire squad, got a sceptical fan base firmly onside by playing an exciting brand of attacking football, won a double and then completed the treble.
They go down on one bended knee in the East End of Glasgow when his name is mentioned to this day.
The 60-year-old – who has been out of work since his 39-day tenure at
Nottingham Forest, the second shortest in Premier League history, came to an end in September – still takes a keen interest in how his former club are faring. He has been watching the three-way title race north of the border closely from afar.
It is fair to say the current Parkhead side is, with Cameron CarterVickers, Arne Engels, Alistair Johnston and Jota sidelined and Liel Abada, Kyogo Furuhashi, Joe Hart, Aaron Mooy, Matt O’Riley and Greg Taylor long departed, inferior to the one he led to a clean sweep of domestic silverware during the 2022/23 campaign.
However, Postecoglou believes that Celtic have an individual in charge who commands exactly the same total devotion from his charges that he has always strived for in Martin O’Neill and is convinced that will be key during what promises to be a tension-packed run-in.
“Martin is one in a million,” he said. “I was fortunate enough to bump into him a few times when I was up there and he was always very, very respectful towards me. What a man! What a great storyteller!
“I’m sure he’s one of these guys who has a dressing room full of players that don’t want to let him down. There has been a couple of different moments where you have seen that this season. He’s got them into position again where they can have success.”
Postecoglou was responsible for all kinds of noteworthy achievements at Celtic. The 114 goals his side netted in the league in his final term broke the post-war scoring record which the Lisbon Lions set in the 1966/67 season. The domestic treble he oversaw was a world record eighth.
Whenever he was asked about his accomplishments, though, he always had the same reply. “I’ll reflect on it when I’m an old man and I am sitting on a Greek island somewhere,” he would say. For him, the next challenge was always more important than basking in the afterglow of a triumph.
But has seeing O’Neill, who returned to the dugout in October after a six-year sabbatical, and who
turned 74 at the beginning of March, show that he can still excel in a demanding role both in Scotland and Europe well into his eighth decade not made him push back his retirement plans?
“Absolutely it has!” he said. “I don’t think the game ever leaves you. Just ask any manager who is kind of getting on in years. I certainly don’t feel like I’m in a space of winding down at all. I’m still really passionate about the things I want to do and things that are at the forefront of my mind.”
Postecoglou was far more concerned with helping coaches who are at the start of their careers than his own future this week when he turned up at the UEFA headquarters on the shores of Lake Geneva to give his talk.
He recognised a few of the faces in the crowd from his time managing in this country and was impressed they had taken time out of their busy schedules at their clubs and made the journey to the canton of Vaud. But their desire to further themselves came as no great surprise to him.
He told his audience at the UEFA Pro Licence Student Exchange that whenever they get the chance to speak to an experienced older manager about their profession they should “shut up and listen”. He recalled how the Scots who were in attendance always did exactly that when he encountered them.
“I’m really passionate about coaching,” he said. “But I’m also passionate about coaching education, the development of coaches. A lot of the assistant coaches I’ve had are now senior coaches. I believe the way I behave and what I say can have an impact on people in a positive way.
“Because of my journey, I’ve always tried to embrace and understand the landscape I’m entering wherever I’ve landed. I enjoyed my time in Scotland immensely because the people there are really passionate about their football and their football club.
“That passion permeates into the coaches. That’s fertile ground to produce top coaches. Because that’s where it all starts – having enthusiasm and passion for the game.
“They were always very respectful to me even though I come from the other side of the world. They were always asking questions and asking for guidance. There was a humbleness to them. That showed me there is the potential there to produce topclass coaches.
“I would talk to anyone who was genuinely interested, anyone I came across. Guys like Scotty Brown and Steven Naismith, who are both here, and a few others who were either assistants or coaches.
“You need to be really humble in yourself in that moment and understand that if you’re going to get anything out of the interaction, because obviously they’re usually brief, is to ask the right question and just listen. They always did that.”
He is confident that Celtic are, despite the turbulent season they have had on and off the park and the difficulties they are still contending with, well placed for quality coaching staff as they enter the business end of what has been a remarkable season. Not least their assistant Maloney.
“I came across Shaun a couple of times in Scotland,” he said. “He’s well connected at Celtic and is very passionate about the club. My understanding is that he’s a very good coach as well. Martin trusts him a great deal to drive a lot of the programme which is important. I think you should delegate to the people around you. Shaun’s a big part of it.
“Martin has Mark Fotheringham as well. They’ve got a good group there. The circumstances have been difficult because they’ve come in twice. That’s really hard as a management team, to drive a really successful club through a tough period. They’ve done an outstanding job and that’s a credit to all of them.”
POSTECOGLOU, who was sacked by Spurs last summer shortly after winning the Europa League, remains as ambitious as any of the 100 or so coaches who were on the course in Nyon this week despite his unfortunate spell at Forest.
Asked how much he had reflected on what went wrong at the City Ground, he said: “I’ve always been pretty good at sort of doing that anyway. What it has done for me, is just sort of reaffirmed certain things in me as a person. Namely, that I’m still very driven to do what I do. It would have been an easy time for me to relax because I’ve been doing it for 26 or 27 straight years. I had Celtic, Tottenham, Forest, all in quick succession. I’m starting to relax a little bit. But I don’t get that sense [of wanting to slow down]. After the first week I was ready to go again with a new energy.
“I’m at a point in my life where I know what’s important for me, what I stand for and what I believe. Forget about the current noise around football and the instability of it. The path that I chart is the one that I believe in and still believe allows me to have an impact wherever I am.
“It probably has helped me [to take stock]. Maybe it has. But I’m just grumpy so it doesn’t feel like it. But I know as soon as I get back into work it’ll be 100 miles per hour. You don’t ease your way back into it. So when I get back into it I’m probably
going to be thankful for the time I’ve had to re-energise.”
There has been no shortage of offers in the past six months. None of them, however, has felt quite right. He will be far more careful about what job he accepts next than he was last time around.
“The Forest thing?” he said. “That was on me. It wasn’t the right decision and I’ve got to take responsibility for that. I’m just the kind of person who is going to go for a challenge if you put a challenge, the biggest possible challenge, the challenge that I shouldn’t take, before me.
“I love a challenge. Everywhere I’ve gone I’ve faced a challenge. When I took over at Celtic, it was just after the season they didn’t win anything. But I loved the fact that I was coming in after that because I could make an impact. Tottenham obviously hadn’t won anything in a long time. Yokohama hadn’t won the league in 14 years.
“I love big assignments like that. There’s no doubt whatever I take on next, it has to have that element, it must be somewhere where hopefully I can make a big impact. The difference this time is I’ve got people around me who are going to stop me taking the wrong challenge.”
It will be fascinating to see where Postecoglou rocks up next. Whatever project he takes on, he is sure to have an interesting new chapter in his managerial career to tell aspiring coaches about in future.
