Australia’s most successful football coach Ange Postecoglou has ruled out a return to coaching the Socceroos and spoke, among other things, of his disenchantment with the game in this country in a wide-ranging interview with former Socceroo goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer that will air on the Optus Sport app next Wednesday.
Postecoglou whose Celtic team are leading the Scottish Premiership by three points and who have won the Scottish League Cup, took charge of the Socceroos in 2013. Postecoglou took them them to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. By the time he resigned, in November 2017, Australia were first-time Asian champions and had qualified for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
He went on to manage Yokohama F Marinos which he successfully steered to win the J. League in 2019. He told Schwarzer that he felt more respected in Japan than he did in Australia.
“I think for me, it’s funny, how we think as Australians, sometimes we don’t want to elevate our own too high. We want to just keep everyone on an even keel. And I think me going back there is not going to change that. It’s not going to do anything different.
“Even now, I feel more respected in Japan than I do in Australia. Even though that’s not to say the people in Australia, I understand they’re following particularly my journey now and everyone takes great (pride). I get all that.”
He praised his predecessor Guus Hiddink for the job he did coaching Australia but he also noted how he was treated compared to Australian coaches like Frankie Farina who had preceded Hiddink.
“Same position, yeah? Same position, but the way they treated him (Hiddink) and what was given to him to succeed. And that’s why we did succeed and good on him, but that’s never given to an Australian. I don’t think we’d ever go down that track” Postecoglou said.
“If Marcelo Bielsa (influential former coach of Leeds United) offered himself to Australia, I think we’d open our doors and give him everything he wants from youth development to whatever. If I went back there, I would still have to start at sort of spot one to convince people to do things a certain way. And because of that, I think I’m better off having done my stint, I’m proud of everything I’ve achieved in Australia and I’m an Australian, so I’ll always support it and leave it at that.”
He cited in-fighting as one of the reasons that national managers had a hard time coaching the Socceroos.
“I still haven’t found one person who’s managed to outlast the wars in Australia.
“For the most part, it finishes two ways. There’s been so many great people come through our game, who either leave it and go ‘I never want anything to do with it’ or leave it and go just, ‘I’m just tired, I can’t do it anymore’.
“No one’s been able to stand up … the only person I give great credit to is … Sir Frank Lowy got back up on his feet and even after the first time being knocked down and he had another crack at it, to try and sort of lift the game in Australia in his own way.
He said that everyone sought a magic solution when the reality was that some basic things needed to happen if the national game was to evolve.
“It’s just the basics, mate. It’s a lot of funding, a lot of resources, a lot of time and effort, a common goal, it’s no great secrets, but people don’t want to hear that.
“They want to hear that there’s something magical you can bring in – that’s the frustrating bit.
“I don’t know, like I said, I’m hoping that an individual or people, who are younger than me, come in with that energy that can break it down and turn the game around for us.”
