Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou exclusive on his idols, philosophy and ‘sacrifices’ – ‘He was king for me’

From Australia, to Japan, to Scotland, to Spurs. Ange Postecoglou has taken the road less travelled to the Premier League, but it hasn’t taken him long to settle.

Just a few months into his time in charge of Tottenham he has already won over the fans, not just with results and performances on the pitch, but everything he has done off it too.

Moments like that have seen supporters quickly warm to Postecoglou, who as a youngster himself in Australia used to idolise Liverpool’s Kenny Dalglish.

“I was a massive Liverpool supporter. Every week, we’d get one or two hours of English football. We’d just take it all in, that would be our buzz for the week. That was the football we grew up on.

“Kenny Dalglish was king for me, I just worshipped everything he did, from Celtic to Liverpool, for Scotland. Then he became manager of Liverpool, so he was the one for me.”

If Dalglish was a far-flung hero for Postecoglou growing up, then another legend of the game had an impact closer to home when he started coaching.

During his time at South Melbourne Hellas, Postecoglou worked closely with former Real Madrid and Hungary striker Ferenc Puskas.

Postecoglou describes the time with Puskas as “invaluable”.

“I made sure that I listened to everything my coaches said, particularly with Ferenc,” he said.

“He taught me as much about being a person as a coach or managing. He was one of the world’s greatest footballers but he was the most humble person.

“When you see that in someone who has achieved so much, there’s a great lesson there because we all wanted to play for him because of the kind of person he was, more than the manager he was.”

Postecoglou arrived at Spurs this summer from Celtic. His front-foot approach has helped breathe new life into the team after several largely underwhelming seasons.

He has joked this season about “just copying Pep” with his approach to tactics, but he said his philosophy comes from his “upbringing and what I loved about the game”.

“I’ve tried to maintain that and sometimes, I guess, when you get into the professional aspect of it and so much depends on being successful and winning games, whether that’s a manager or as a player, it can sometimes take you away from what you actually love about the game.

“I’ve tried to stay true to that my whole career, and what I’m really passionate about in the game is the joy and excitement it brings to supporters and people who love it. That is the way I want my teams to play and that is the way I want players to play.

“From that perspective, it is sometimes not easy because you usually just get judged on one thing and that is winning games of football. But I’ve tried to sort of stay true to that core of why I love the game.”

It wasn’t just when he became a football manager that Postecoglou started travelling the world. At the age of five, he left Greece with his parents to travel on a boat for a month to Australia, where he grew up.

He said he learned plenty of life lessons from seeing what his mother and father went through as they settled in a new country.

“I can’t remember it being hard, but now as an adult, as a parent, I look back and realise just how tough it was, particularly for my parents. We went to Australia, we had no family, no friends, we were literally refugees.

“People talk about refugees going to a new country for a better life, but for my parents, it wasn’t a better life. Probably if they’d stayed in Greece, where they had family and friends, whatever struggles they had, they may have coped.

“All I remember is both my mum and dad working, just non-stop, day and night, not having too much in terms of enjoyment in life for themselves.

“So when you understand that, you realise they made the ultimate sacrifice. It stays with you and you want to honour that, you don’t want at any point to take that for granted.

“Where I am today, I’m privileged because of what my mum and dad did. You want to pass that on. I learned hard work from my father and that compensates for a lot of things in life if you’re prepared to work hard. From my mum, [I learned] unconditional love and support. You carry those lessons with you in life.”

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