EXCLUSIVE: ANGE POSTECOGLOU INTERVIEW on his Tottenham love affair, Rod Stewart asking for his wine back – and why he hates chit-chat: ‘The scrutiny may be coming now… but perversely I love it’

• Aussie coach Postecoglou has re-energised Spurs since arriving in the summer 
• He has proven himself ready for the big time after being overlooked in his career 
• Inside Ange’s Spurs: Listen to It’s All Kicking Off on how he transformed the club 

On a ledge in the foyer of the first team entrance to Tottenham’s training ground, just before the corridor that turns left and takes us down to Ange Postecoglou’s meeting rooms, is a small black and white photograph in a modest frame. 

It shows Ricky Villa scoring the goal to beat all Tottenham goals against Manchester City in the 1981 FA Cup Final replay at Wembley.

‘Yeh I have seen it,’ smiles Postecoglou, the Tottenham manager.

‘I am still like a kid half the time. I got introduced to Ossie Ardiles and I was buzzing, mate.

‘Even in Australia he had a massive impact. When I got the job here one of my two best mates said I had to meet Ardiles and Villa.

‘So I have ticked half of that off, yeh..’

Tottenham Hotspur head coach Ange Postecoglou sat down with Mail Sport’s Chris Sutton and Ian Ladyman for an exclusive interview this week

Postecoglou and Sutton on one of the training pitches at Tottenham’s Enfield base

Postecoglou’s Tottenham come into this weekend fourth in the Premier League table – just two points off leaders Manchester City despite a couple of recent setbacks

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Few Spurs managers have so energised and lifted this great London football club like Postecoglou. Few, if any, have been able to tap so naturally in to its very soul.

A 58-year-old Greek-born Australian, Postecoglou has waited 27 years to get to England. At times that wait disheartened and upset him. Along the way he has felt overlooked, prejudged and patronised.

By now that he is here, he has shown himself ready. Two Premier League manager of the month awards are testimony to that. But then maybe he has always been ready.

‘We were obsessed with English and Scottish football,’ Postecoglou tells us as the mowers etch perfect lines in to the training pitches behind him.

‘The big matches were marked on our calendars. When you love football in Australia there is a big commitment because you are talking about 2am in the morning.

‘My early FA Cup Final memory was 1974 and Liverpool against Newcastle. Then 1975 would have been West Ham and Fulham. All these things stay with you. I remember Trevor Brooking scoring [in 1980] and I remember Alan Taylor scoring [in 1975]. Villa scoring for Tottenham.

‘It was something that took us away from our existence. We were a migrant family trying to adjust to life in a country where they loved sports we didn’t understand. ‘

As a kid it was easier for me to understand cricket but my dad lived in Australia for 50 years and still didn’t understand it for the life of him.

Ricky Villa celebrates after scoring his immortal goal for Spurs against Manchester City in the 1981 FA Cup final replay at Wembley

Postecoglou was ‘buzzing’ to be introduced to Ossie Ardiles (pictured) after arriving at Spurs

Postecoglou has fond memories of watching English football in the middle of the night growing up Down Under

‘I took him to the MCG in Melbourne one day and he lasted until lunch. Chris Tavare was batting so maybe it was understandable. Not a great choice by me…

‘But because we were struggling with so many things, the football was great. We understood it. Dad understood it. Everything we experienced with my family or friends in terms of football made a massive impact on us.’

Now it would appear the balance has changed. It is Postecoglou who is leaving a mark. 

Postecoglou is pictured as a child, holding his immigration number upon arrival in Australia after reaching the country by boat

Until recent defeats at home to Chelsea and at Wolves, Tottenham were unbeaten and top of the Premier League. They will try to restart with a victory at home to Aston Villa on Sunday.

Spurs finished last season in a post Antonio Conte funk. Harry Kane was leaving and with him Tottenham’s last hope of any kind of relevance. Or so it seemed. 

Postecoglou has changed all that after being lured from Celtic with whom he had just won a domestic treble.

Postecoglou’s football speaks for him. It is played at speed and on the front foot. It entertains and, as his CV suggests, it wins.

When Chris asks if he feels he is at a club that fits his style, Postecoglou replies: ‘I certainly feel very comfortable with it, mate.

‘Its origins, its history, how it looks at itself.

‘I really felt that if I came in and made the kind of impact I really wanted to, it would resonate with the people who really love this football club because historically that’s what it’s been based on.

‘I try to create football teams that make an impact. But what does that mean? In our game, you have to win things otherwise it’s not sustainable. But it’s also teams that make an impact because the way they play, the memories they leave.

‘That’s my goal here, you know?’

The Postecoglou family (pictured) came Down Under to escape a military junta in Greece 

Postecoglou (middle of the centre row, with beard) has a long-lasting legacy at South Melbourne, where he was a champion player and coach

The Tottenham boss is pictured lifting the trophy as a player and then again as a coach for South Melbourne FC during the NSL days

The weeks ahead will present a challenge. A goal up at home to Chelsea in early November, Tottenham were running hot across the green acres of their beautiful modern stadium. But a red card for defender Cristian Romero changed everything.

Tottenham, down to nine in the second half, chose not to sit deep and hang on. Instead they tried to press Chelsea high up the field in a manner perhaps never seen before in such circumstances. 

They lost 4-1 and on Sunday Postecoglou will face Villa without key players. James Maddison and defender Micky van de Ven were both injured against Chelsea while Romero and Yves Bissouma are suspended.

So, we both feel compelled to ask: ‘Any regrets, Ange?’

‘I don’t know any other way,’ he counters.

‘In the broad church of football philosophies, I have stayed really strict to one religion. I went into a library of football books and got stuck on one section that was about attacking football.

‘It’s the only space I feel comfortable in. If you asked me to set up a team to get a point by playing defensive football I could probably do it but I wouldn’t have anywhere near the conviction as if you asked me to try and win 3-0.

‘I actually understand what people are saying about that night. If I was on the outside I would be saying the same thing.

(Left to right) Goalkeeper Bruce MacLaren, Postecoglou and Steve Blair in their playing days for South Melbourne FC

Postecoglou, Matthew Smith and Dario Vidosic of the Roar hold the winners trophy after the 2012 A-League grand final

Postecoglou celebrates with Brisbane Roar fans after revolutionising their style of play with ‘Roarcelona’, based on the tactics used by Barcelona 

‘But this is the test for me isn’t it?.

‘The amount of times I hear managers saying: ‘I would like to play this way but I don’t have the players…’

‘I just think: ‘Just do it mate…’.

‘All eyes are on me now. The scrutiny will come but more importantly the players will see and the staff will see that I am not changing.

‘Yes we have players missing. But we are gonna go out there whether it will be Villa or Manchester City and we are gonna play our football.’

When he first spoke to Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy, Postecoglou warned him the changes he would look to make would be ‘scary’. From the outside it hasn’t looked that way.

‘Well the scary bit may now be coming you know,’ laughs Postecoglou.

‘When I said that I meant that when you want to change the course of what you do then actual change is really important.

The 57-year-old got to enjoy a homecoming in Australia when he was appointed Melbourne Victory coach in the A-League

Postecoglou proved his success was not isolated to Australia, delivering Yokohama F. Marinos their first title in 15 years in Japan

Postecoglou delivered Celtic a Treble in Scotland last season before heading to Spurs

‘Too many people want change but don’t really want to do anything about it.

‘I meant we were gonna make some major decisions around staff, around players, around how we play, how we train, how we behave and whenever change is that drastic its gonna upset the equilibrium of some people.

‘We have had a great start which has helped us accelerate certain things. But perversely this now is the bit I love. It tests me as a person. It tests my belief.

‘What’s he gonna do under the harsh spotlight of the Premier League? Let’s find out.’

One of Postecoglou’s quirks is that he doesn’t take his coaching staff from club to club. He arrives alone and starts interviewing.

At Tottenham, the change in playing personnel has been equally startling. This is a new Spurs team in every sense and if Postecoglou feels he has earned the right to make an immediate impact on the Premier League then it’s understandable.

His CV as a manager is stellar and goes back to his early days with South Melbourne in 1996. It features titles in Australia with Brisbane Roar, Japan with Yokohama and Scotland with Celtic. 

Postecoglou punches the air in delight after Spurs defeated Liverpool back in September

James Maddison (left) and Son Heung-min (right) have been in stellar form this season

Their goals have helped compensate for the departure of Harry Kane, already in prolific form for Bayern Munich after his £100m move

In 2014, he led Australia to the World Cup Finals in Brazil and lifted the Asian Cup a year later. He resigned shortly after qualifying for the World Cup in 2018.

Despite all this, Postecoglou’s voice could not make itself heard in Europe and Chris – who first met him during his first year in Glasgow – asks him if he is motivated by rejection.

‘I never used it as a drive to prove people wrong but I did get frustrated,’ he replies.

‘Because I knew, with the all the work I had done and the experience I had, that I deserved an opportunity and really the one reason I wasn’t getting one was because I was Australian.

‘People were dismissive about my success. I didn’t think it was fair because whatever competition you win, it’s still a competition right? You still gotta be the first team. Even Celtic gets dismissed a bit.

‘So I enjoy the fact I am here because hopefully it breaks some stereotypes and lets people open their minds. I am not here because of my playing career, my profile or my connections. I am here because of my work.

‘I still do feel like an outsider but maybe that’s a bit of a protection I have put there for myself. It’s a space I feel comfortable in.

‘I think I am different. I certainly am when I look at Premier League managers but I don’t mind that.

‘I don’t think it means people are disrespectful towards me. What I do want to do is show I am worthy of this level.

Postecoglou says even his considerable achievements with Celtic still get dismissed 

Postecoglou hopes he has challenged some stereotypes about Australians in football 

‘If this was a disaster or Celtic hadn’t worked out, to open the door for another Australian would have been very difficult.

‘All the frustrations I have felt would have effectively passed on to another three generations. So there is a burden there, you know, but you are hoping now that people will look at things differently.’

Some of the stories swirling around Postecoglou in England have served to intensify the interest. A Robbie Williams classic has already been rewritten in his honour while Spurs fan Sir Kenneth Branagh invited him to the theatre. He accepted.

The father of three has absorbed all that comfortably but the real Postecoglou is different to the one who often looks as though he could sit behind a press conference table all day. He says he doesn’t do small talk, for example. Nor does he get too close to his players.

‘I don’t take that other stuff too seriously,’ he says.

‘Rod Stewart used to love me too [at Celtic] but now he’s asked for his wine back. So I know it’s fleeting. It doesn’t really permeate my home life. I am still dad, I am still a husband, somebody’s mate and that doesn’t ever change.

‘I can sit here with you two and talk about football all day. But we go out there in the foyer and you start talking to me about what I did yesterday and I will start to get really uncomfortable. It’s not me.

‘With the players and staff I don’t spend a lot of one on one time with them but that doesn’t mean there is not a connection there. It wouldn’t work if they didn’t feel connected to me but how I show that is probably different to many.

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Postecoglou mentions famous Celtic fan Rod Stewart asking for his wine back when he left

‘We have so many people here. My goal is to make every single one of them feel valued so I try and get across as many as possible. But if I had coffee with every single one of them I would do nothing else but have coffee.

‘Most of the chats I have with the players are as a group. Of course players can come to me with issues. It’s just that I won’t be sitting down with them and asking how their day was.

‘I have to make decisions and some of them are hard.

‘It’s human nature that if I like one person more than someone else then I ask: ‘Why am I making this decision?’

‘But because I have the same relationship with everyone, I make these decisions on the basis of what’s best. I don’t have anything nagging on my conscience.

‘The key is that the players know this is who I am as a person. I am not putting this on. So they can live with that.’

One of Postecoglou’s key relationships was with his father Jim who died in 2018. When he finally got his move to Celtic, he was able to suggest to his wife Georgia that he had finally made it. He didn’t get to do that with his dad.

Postecoglou adds: ‘All that stuff we used to watch together in the middle of the night. Father and son.

Postecoglou speaks to Mail Sport’s Chris Sutton (middle) and Ian Ladyman (right) this week

‘So just to see me out there now. Yeh, he would be proud but he would have been giving me clips round the ear, mate, for doing things wrong because that was his way of complimenting me.

‘But it’s not lost. One of my best mates lost his dad recently. We are at that age.

‘The only words of comfort I can give is that I see my father in me. I look in the mirror and see him. That’s his expression or I say something and I know it’s him talking.

‘We carry them with us. I have no doubt about that. He’s on the journey but it would have been nice to give him a bit of a glimpse of what his boy became…’

And what did his boy become? A winner. A man of conviction. A Premier League manager of standing. And he’s definitely not for turning. His father probably would have been proud of that, too.

Spurs have slipped back following defeats to Chelsea and Wolves but will hope to return to winning ways when they play Aston Villa on Sunday

‘If we are gonna grow and be the team we want to then we will have to expose ourselves and we exposed ourselves that night against Chelsea,’ Postecoglou reflects.

‘Part of me felt a perverse pride because it showed these players are all in. Now it’s up to me to show them the way forward and I will.

‘The beauty of it is that I had nine men out there who totally believe in something. For me that’s the biggest part of the battle. That’s gold.’

IT’S ALL KICKING OFF! 

It’s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football, launching with a preview show today and every week this season.

It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube , Apple Music and Spotify

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