Ange Postecoglou - Confirmed as Spurs New Manager

[Spike]

I will say it again, I think he is too good for how Spurs will treat him. That's just how Spurs treat their managers though. They always seem to be the club that will lowball transfer at every opportunity and bites them in the arse because they go out and spend that money anyway on a worse player because they start panicking.

[Inverted]

13 hours ago, 6666 said:

Not sure you can really tell much about a manager that does well with Celtic.

He also won several league titles in the Australia, which by all accounts is a more financially balanced league. Took a Japanese team from mid-table to title winners. 

And for what it's worth, he took over a team at Celtic that had lost the league by a massive margin and gone completely trophyless the season before, lost multiple key players, rebuilt the squad with a bunch of guys nobody had ever heard of (while the league and european play-offs had already begun), and within a season had closed the gap again.

By all accounts he has massively exceeded expectations at almost every job he has ever had.

[Harry]

On 04/06/2023 at 18:07, JoshBRFC said:

I can’t believe people are raving about him… what am I missing?! He’s nearly 60 and has managed at a low level all of his career. 
 

Well done on winning one of the worst leagues in world football. 

He's been the best manager in every competition he's partaken in for his entire career. And to those following those competitions it's obvious. But when you start out managing in Australia it takes ages to make it to the highest level.

[Harry]

11 hours ago, Spike said:

I will say it again, I think he is too good for how Spurs will treat him. That's just how Spurs treat their managers though. They always seem to be the club that will lowball transfer at every opportunity and bites them in the arse because they go out and spend that money anyway on a worse player because they start panicking.

I completely agree. 

He doesn't want that huge transfer market backing that Spurs never do, but he does want more control than I think he'd get from Levy. Would have been perfect for Liverpool post-klopp if he'd just stayed another year at Celtic.

[Harry]

3 hours ago, Inverted said:

He also won several league titles in the Australia, which by all accounts is a more financially balanced league. Took a Japanese team from mid-table to title winners. 

And for what it's worth, he took over a team at Celtic that had lost the league by a massive margin and gone completely trophyless the season before, lost multiple key players, rebuilt the squad with a bunch of guys nobody had ever heard of (while the league and european play-offs had already begun), and within a season had closed the gap again.

By all accounts he has massively exceeded expectations at almost every job he has ever had.

When he was appointed at Celtic my immediate reaction was "fuck. Steven Gerrard needs to get the hell out of Rangers before Ange gets settled in".

[Stan]

I think he'll do well at Spurs. All this chat about 'he only managed in Australia, Japan and Scotland' doesn't get very far, really. Plenty of managers have managed in lesser-known (for lack of a better word) leagues, learnt the best way to manage to get them successful, and gone on to have decent careers where their reputation increases. Postecoglou has done that, too. 

I think if he's allowed to settle then he'll be fine. Spurs need trophies to match up to the wealth and their presence in 'the big six'. Perhaps Postecoglou can do that. 

[Inverted]

2 minutes ago, Harry said:

When he was appointed at Celtic my immediate reaction was "fuck. Steven Gerrard needs to get the hell out of Rangers before Ange gets settled in".

Tbf Gerrard's title winning season was basically perfect in the league, to a degree that I think it was basically un-replicable.

The difference is that Lennon's team was inconsistent from the get-go, and then completely crumbled once it became clear what the standard was going to have to be to win the league that season. 

Ange's team on the other hand had a shaky start and then seemed to pick up momentum as the season went on. Rangers still had quite a strong season in the league, but I think lost a bit of confidence when Celtic didn't fall away, and they themselves couldn't produce another season quite as good as the one before. 

I think people underrate early on how little people believed that a manager nobody had heard of, with a squad that had been totally rebuilt with a load of unknowns, could overtake a team that had just won the league by 20+ points, unbeaten. 

 

[Toinho]

Just insane news. Very proud of big Ange. However, Spurs seem like a poisoned chalice. He could've stayed in Glasgow and continued to wipe the floor with that Rangers side. He is ambitious, he backs himself. And this opportunity is huge. If Kane leaves, he needs to be given extra time and patience by all because Kane is Spurs as far as I am concerned. If he is backed in the transfer market and the players are on side, I think he will do well. I do expect a really tough first 3 months, and he needs to be supported as building a side, especially at a club where essentially THE WORLDS BEST MANAGERS have done FUCK ALL, only fair to give time to a relative unknown. But, oh boy am I proud, right now. Spurs are my soft spot as my grandad was a huge fan, just wish he was alive today to see this monumental moment for the EPL and Australian Sport. I don't think non-football people here realise how utterly huge this is.

[Toinho]

25 minutes ago, Inverted said:

Tbf Gerrard's title winning season was basically perfect in the league, to a degree that I think it was basically un-replicable.

The difference is that Lennon's team was inconsistent from the get-go, and then completely crumbled once it became clear what the standard was going to have to be to win the league that season. 

Ange's team on the other hand had a shaky start and then seemed to pick up momentum as the season went on. Rangers still had quite a strong season in the league, but I think lost a bit of confidence when Celtic didn't fall away, and they themselves couldn't produce another season quite as good as the one before. 

I think people underrate early on how little people believed that a manager nobody had heard of, with a squad that had been totally rebuilt with a load of unknowns, could overtake a team that had just won the league by 20+ points, unbeaten. 

 

It was essentially two years ago people were saying he's sacked by Xmas, and now he's in the prem. Amazing.

 

What's the general Celtic vibe with this news? Sadness? Or meh?

[Inverted]

34 minutes ago, Toinho said:

It was essentially two years ago people were saying he's sacked by Xmas, and now he's in the prem. Amazing.

 

What's the general Celtic vibe with this news? Sadness? Or meh?

Overall sadness but mostly people can accept it, I would say. Everyone knew from the off that he was an ambitious guy who had been gradually working his way into bigger jobs his entire career. 

Pretty big difference from Rodgers I would say. Despite being people being far more attached to him, there seems to be more good-will towards him leaving, probably for several reasons:

1. He left at the end of a season and didn't put the club in a position where they needed to get Lennon in (which in hindisght ultimately cost 10 in a row).

2. He left a much better-balanced squad, without any serious problem positions and mostly full of players with plenty of upside.

3. He isn't a psychotic narcissist who went on a speaking tour about being a Celtic man from the cradle and made up a bunch of nonsense stories, like Rangers fans running through traffic to shake his hand, Danny McGrain kissing his feet, or the ghost of Brother Walfrid appearing to him in a vision.

Beyond the usual sound bites about being focused purely on the job at hand etc, Ange never really made out that he is more committed than just wanting to do a good job and entertain the fans.

[Spike]

Brendan Rodgers lying about the Rangers fan shaking his hand is my favourite 

[ScoRoss]

I believe, given time and control, he could be a success for Tottenham. At least success for Tottenham, I don't see them suddenly being title challengers.

However, some critiques (or stuff he needs to prove) for him to be good for Tottenham.

His record with Celtic in European competition is poor at best. With his shaky start at Celtic, came along with an early exit from the Champions League qualifiers to FC Midtjylland (who were then swatted aside easily by PSV in the next round). And then followed that up with a pretty mediorce Europa League group stage, before being easily beaten home and away by FK Bodø/Glimt. This season, although with a pretty decent showing against Real Madrid for about an hour, they finished bottom of their Champions League group with 2 points. It's not great, no matter how you dress it up. 

Secondly, and probably more importantly. His recruitment has been exceptional at Celtic, with almost all of his signings being an improvement to the team and quickly rebuilding a team that had fallen apart by the time he had taken over. Hatate and Kyogo, being the clear stand outs (and could be targets for him to bring with him). However, he is clearly now going to be shopping in a much different market. And whether he even gets the same power at Spurs is an even bigger question. But he has spent a lot of money recruiting from a very underutilized market for European teams, Japan. 

He's basically admitted as much, but he basically had the opportunity to buy all the players that he faced in the J League that were standouts in that league. The amount of players that could be signed and improve Celtic is going to be bigger than the amount of players that can make Tottenham a team capable of competing in the EPL and the top of the European game.

 

That's a lot of negativity, but to balance it out... I'm just glad he's out of Scotland, and Celtic can bring back Neil Lennon for a laugh again.

[Harry]

Yeah I think the big challenges for him are:

The (Im)patience of spurs administrators

The need to source players from a higher standard, rather than from a league he comes with ready made knowledge about

The challenge of managing big egos

[Dr. Gonzo]

To dare is to didgeridoo 

[OrangeKhrush]

maybe spurs are opting with a project manager, to lay down foundations, the win now managers have failed to get the success needed to justify the outlay.

[Tar-Mairon]

He is exactly the kind of manager we need.

Someone who wants to be here and not someone who thinks he's lowering himself to do all us a massive favour by managing the club and that we should all praise him for simply enduring it.

An attack minded manager whose MO is rebuilding struggling sides and making them challenge, who has a unifying personality that will unite the fanbase and have players going the extra mile for him.

This is Ange.