Northcote City has appointed former South Melbourne FC coach Con Tangalakis as caretaker coach to fill in for senior coach Peter Tsolakis.
Before embarking on his 10 week break with family overseas, Tsolakis will hand over the reins to his close friend after this weekend’s home game against Langwarrin.
Speaking to Neos Kosmos after the club announced his appointment earlier this week, Tangalakis said he never contemplated walking away from the game after he was replaced as South Melbourne coach earlier this year by his then assistant Esteban Quintas.
“I just want to keep active until I settle myself in another position next year. Can’t give it away completely. Soccer, once it’s in your system, it’s hard to let go,” he said.
For Tsolakis taking on the role at the Northcote is not about proving anything to himself or others. Rather it’s about continuing to pursue his love for the game, and sights the positive club culture at Northcote as a big motivator.
“I love the challenge. I love having success with young players and young talent that want to prove themselves. I’ve always had that ambition in my life,” he said.
“They’ve got a very good culture down there, and I’m helping out Gus (Tsolakis) and the boys down at Northcote because they’re all good friends of mine. It’s worked out well.”
Tangalakis is also looking forward to working with players he has dealt with in the past, including James Karvelis, Medhi Sarwari, Anthony Rizk and Leo Athanasiou.
“It’s always an advantage when you go to a club and you’ve had some sort of experience with boys in the past because you know their habits, their qualities. You know their positives and their negatives … The analysis and the brief towards getting to know a player becomes 50 per cent easier,” he said.
Having monitored the team’s training over the last few weeks, Tangalakis says he is confident he and the team will jell quickly.
Northcote City has won its last two matches to recover well from a recent lean patch, and is now sitting in third place on the league table just one point behind the play-off spot.
Tangalakis acknowledges he’ll be taking on a different challenge to when he took on the South Melbourne coaching job last year, when South were battling to survive.
“The challenge is totally different. My work is going to be tackled totally different to the way I went into Oakleigh and South. But once again, it’s to get results and get the best out of the boys,” he said.
“I don’t really want to change much of what Gus has set up there … We both as players and as coaches, we’ve worked together for many, many years, so our philosophy is very similar … I want them to continue their winning stride and continue getting good results, and obviously get their mind set to find all those little one percenters that they need to keep winning. Because overall, as a team, the basis is very positive. Gus has done an amazing job to turn this young team around because he inherited a brand new young squad this year. He’s done an amazing job to get them forward to here and I want to continue in his footsteps. I’ve got (assistant coach) Mark Tsiorlas with me; we’ve worked together for many, many years. Looking forward to the challenge.”
