While holidaying in southern Greece with his family, Ange Postecoglou has reflected on leading Tottenham Spurs to Europa League glory.
Postecoglou is driven by a dream and a will to win—qualities that have propelled him to the top of international football and cemented his place among Australia’s sporting greats.
”Something told me that this was going to be my destiny … this is what I was supposed to do,” he told the ABC’s Australian Story in an interview airing tonight.
He also remains defiant despite the criticism he has faced for the Spurs poor English Premier League season and the talk surrounding his potential exit, perhaps even this week.
“I have no doubt that for me the mission when I joined the football club was to win a trophy,” he said.
He’s done that, but the dream and mission is not over.
It’s been well documented that Postecoglou fell in love with the sport because of his football-loving father.
“The posters I had on my wall were all about the English First Division. It was where I wanted to see myself,” he said.
Little did he know as a child he would find himself one day coaching one of the big English clubs.
“A lot of people see Ange at the moment and see the massive profile globally, but humble beginnings,” said Nick Deligiannis, Ange’s friend who played alongside him as a teen.
When he moved onto coaching after his playing career, and eventually took the reins of the Socceroos, his goal was to take the team to the very top.
He won the Asian Cup in 2015, Australia’s first, and then set his eyes on the World Cup.
But he wasn’t happy with just making the finals, he wanted to win. However it wasn’t clear that the powers above shared that vision.
A few days after guiding the Socceroos to the 2018 World Cup, Postecoglou walked away, announcing his decision during an emotional press conference.
“I think ultimately my biggest driver was winning and I just didn’t see us winning a World Cup,” he explained.
“That decision is probably bigger than any other decision in terms of where I am today.
“Once I made that decision to cut that cord, it allowed me to go on with my career.”
Then he found success in Japan and Scotland with Yokohama F. Marinos and Celtic respectively.
His success with Celtic saw the Premier League clubs take notice and we know what happened next.
“The Premier League is the biggest league in the world,” Deligiannis
“Highest profile, huge amount of money, so that’s the cauldron that Ange has gone into.”
As mentioned earlier, Spurs had a poor season, it’s worst Premier League results ever in fact, so when it became apparent the season wasn’t going to be fruitful, Postecoglou changed strategy.
He went all in on winning the Europa League.
“That was when the laser focus came in,” Postecoglou said.
“Every decision I made was around, ‘well, how do we navigate this to get to get to where we want to?'”
The final was massive.
“There was a lot at stake for Ange because he put his reputation on the line,” said Deligiannis, who sat in the stands with Postecoglou’s wife Georgia, “kicking every ball with Ange”.
Postecoglou said the interest in the final was phenomenal: “This was the one game on the planet that night.”
As the Spurs hanged on to their 1-0 lead in the final minutes, Deligiannis said he leaned over to Georgia to say: “Have a look at Ange; I reckon he’s the calmest person in the whole stadium.”
While he appeared calm, Postecoglou knew he was feeling the weight of it all, and the pressure became worse when the referee announced seven minutes of extra time.
“I can tell you that seven minutes did not feel like seven minutes,” Postecoglou said.
“We’re so close to achieving the impossible … every 60 seconds was consequential.”
What happened next was history making, Postecoglou became the first Australian to win a major European club trophy.
In the aftermath during celebrations, he left a cryptic message.
“I’ll leave you with this: all the best television series, season three is better than season two.”
Explaining what he meant, he said: “I didn’t want us to just enjoy the moment. I also wanted us to think about what’s next, you know — don’t settle for this. We’ve got a taste of it now. My players have got a taste for it. The club’s got a taste for it. Well, let’s make sure we’re back here again.”
The 59-year-old feels like he has more to give.
“When we sat down 10 years ago and did the initial Australian Story, I think maybe even you guys thought that that was the culmination of what I was about to achieve,” he said.
“In 10 years’ time, if we sit down again, I’ve got no doubt in my mind that there’ll be more stories to tell.”
