Aussie’s Dream

There’s a picture of Bill Nicholson standing at the gates of White Hart Lane, opening them up with a ‘Tottenham Hotspur Football Club’ sign visible in the background. It’s a powerful image and one that evokes feelings as if Bill Nicholson is an angel from above inviting Spurs fans to step back into a time that really was a ‘Glory Glory Tottenham Hotspur’ era.

It’s clear after the last week that whether it happens imminently or at the end of the season, Antonio Conte’s reign at Spurs is coming to an end. It’s an all-too familiar tale for us Spurs fans, full of frustration from seeing yet another ‘win-now’ Manager arrive at the club and leave empty-handed like everyone else who has managed the club since Juande Ramos lifted the Carling Cup in 2008.

Nicholson left this world many years ago, but perhaps there is someone still around to reopen the gates and offer a better future for Spurs – it’s not our very own guardian angel, but instead an Aussie bloke called Ange.

Ange Postecoglu has been at Celtic since 2021, and has been successful in restoring Celtic’s dominance at the top of Scottish domestic football, following a brief period where Steven Gerrard led Rangers’ renaissance in the Scottish Premier League.

Postecoglu has trodden a fasinating managerial path where he has managed clubs in Greece, Australia, Japan, of course now in Scotland, but also on the international stage where he led the Socceroos to glory in the 2015 Asian Cup.

On the domestic stage, he has won the league in Australia, Japan and Scotland. There is no denying these are all leagues where the quality is no comparison to the Premier League, however it has to be noted this is a Manager who knows how to win, and the fact he’s done it across three leagues is undeniably impressive.

The way Postecoglu sets his teams up is also a massive tick in why Spurs should appoint Ange. At Celtic he sets up in a 4-3-3 formation so we could expect something similar if he came to Spurs. In addition, he has been known to play 4-2-3-1, and has experimented with a back 3 in the past too, so this is someone who is willing to be flexible. I think Conte’s unwavering loyalty to the 3-4-3 formation has merits when the team is doing well, however it’s clear the lack of imagination from Conte in times when we haven’t been playing well (most of this season, to be honest) has really held back the side.

It’s exciting that in Postecoglu you are guaranteed a team playing in a style of football more in tune with the ‘Tottenham DNA’ that Daniel Levy went on record to talk about, before typically appointing two Managers in Nuno and Conte whose style of football wasn’t anything but that.

The clear question mark over Postecoglu is the fact that managing Spurs would be the biggest step up of his career, and it is to some extent unclear whether he can handle the pressure of managing Spurs. However, one of the positives of the post-Pochettino era for our next Manager is we need to enter a rebuilding phase and the pressure to some extent is off. That’s not to say Spurs fans will be satisfied with not winning a trophy or finishing in the top 4, but it is evident that the ‘win-now’ approach adopted by Levy in appointing Mourinho and Conte just hasn’t worked.

When you also looked at the manager’s in recent years who have had the most success at Spurs, I would list Martin Jol, Harry Redknapp and of course Mauricio Pochettino. These names have two key things in common:

1. Being appointed as Spurs manager was the biggest job they had ever undertaken
2. They all played a style of attacking football that probably is what Daniel Levy is referring to as the ‘Spurs DNA’

Postecoglu’s style of football is not a carbon copy of those three other names (who themselves had their own unique ways of setting a side up) but the fact remains much like those before him this job offers Postecoglu an opportunity to take his managerial career to the next stage, and know that he style of play will buy him more time with the fans as it’s a positive approach we’ve been starved of in recent years.

Erik Ten Hag is a good example of someone like Postecoglu who had achieved success in a league with a much lower playing standard compared to the Premier League, but was able to join a club in a downward spiral, restore a more attacking style of football, weather an early storm, assert his dominance over unruly figures in the dressing room (Bye, Ronaldo) and ultimately (Liverpool 7-0 game aside) restore Manchester United’s reputation as a team to be feared. There are differences between Ten Hag and Postecoglu’s backgrounds, but I think it’s fair to say appointing Ten Hag is a punt that is working for United, and Postecoglu could represent something similar to Spurs, even if it might take a little longer to implement the changes – Levy won’t be spending in the same way United did which has given Ten Hag a clear advantage.

There’s also Postecoglu’s personality too. He’s not afraid to give his opinion and is known for having a great sense of humour. The recent years for Spurs haven’t been particularly funny so if our new Manager is able to get the team playing attacking football again whilst injecting a bit of fun into the club off the pitch, it feels like a winning combination to become popular amongst our fans.

Assuming for one moment that ENIC are not selling the club this summer, this move also makes commercial sense. Postecoglu managed in Japan for 3 seasons, and with that retains an impressive knowledge of both Japanese and Asian football in general. You can already see that some of the most influential players at Celtic in his reign are the likes of Kyogo Furuhashi, Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate – all players he came across during his time in the J.League.

Bearing in mind that AIA is the Global Principal Partner of Spurs and is focused on the APAC region, having a Manager that respects and utilises players from that region is likely to encourage AIA to further invest in the club, and attract further sponsors from Asia. It’s certainly not a reason alone to appoint Postecoglu, but thinking from Levy’s perspective (something I’d rather not do) it could well be an extra factor that weighs in Postecoglu’s favour.

Do not get me wrong, appointing Postecoglu doesn’t guarantee Spurs anything and it is unlikely to be the appointment that convinces Harry Kane to stay at Spurs, but there is just an instinctive feeling I have that Ange has a lot of qualities that resemble those of some of our better managers in recent times. Better not just in plain results, but in likeability as well.

There is clearly a lot of appetite for Poch to return home, and I get why fans want that, but I think Postecoglu actually has potential to ignite all the same feelings amongst our fanbase that Poch so successfully did. I’d rather look forwards for the time being rather than backwards too and that is where Ange feels more suitable than Poch.

He might not be an angel, but Ange Postecoglu was born in the country where Mount Olympus is located. We definitely need assistance from a higher power, and whether it’s from Bill Nick or elsewhere, the glory gates of Tottenham Hotspur must be reopened once more.