Normally I am only a follower of Adelaide United and the Socceroos. However, this year has finally given me a reason to support an English Premier League side which is Tottenham Hotspur predominantly due to the presence of Ange Postecoglou. It is great to see Tottenham have such a good start to the season and although there have been recent struggles due to the injury crisis of the Chelsea game I am sure it will be viewed as the 3-0 lost to Melbourne Victory moment. The lost
that cement Ange style of play and Ange leadership of the club.
The first time I saw Ange Postecoglou was on SBS during the TV show The World Game and saw him self-destructing on live TV during his infamous interview with Craig Foster after failing to qualify Australia for the U-17 and U-20 World Cup which led him be unemployable in Australian professional football. My main impression was that Craig Foster was behaving unprofessionally, but Ange lost his cool. I can’t imagine at the time that he will become my all-time favourite Football manager.
The first time I began to appreciate Ange Postecoglou as a manager was watching my side Adelaide United play Brisbane Roar on 6 November 2010. Adelaide United were a decent side that season and finished 3rd in the ladder. However, Brisbane Roar led by Ange Postecoglou made my team look like a joke dominating the match 4-0 with only 10 players. It was the best football I have ever seen an Australian side play where I was witnessing attacking Tika taka possession-based football. When we were 1-0 down Reinaldo received a red card which gave me hope that Adelaide United could come back from the game but instead of that, Brisbane Roar played better and continued to attack without any fear of conceding a goal and scored 3 more goals to demolish our side. When Tottenham was down to 10 men against Luton, I had absolute confidence that Tottenham would still win the match. Due to the brilliant style of football, I started watching Brisbane Roar play in conjunction with Adelaide United and they became my second team. This was the start of my joining the cult of Ange Postecoglou which was finalised when Australia won the 2015 Asian Cup.
Ange Postecoglou has now developed a devoted cult-like following among Australian football supporters. It's not just because he is a successful Australian manager or the first Australian to coach in the EPL. Graham Arnold, Patrick Kisnorbo, or Kevin Muscat would not inspire a similar following. Ange Postecoglou is not just a manager but also a symbol and representation of the hopes and dreams of Australian football fans. He embodies our dream that one day, Australian football will reach its potential, win the World Cup, and dominate the sporting landscape instead of AFL or Rugby Code.
The legendary Australian football figure Johnny Warren had the famous quote, 'I'm sick of us saying, 'When are we going to qualify for the World Cup?' When are we going to win the World Cup?' which captures the frustration and dreams of football fans in Australia. However, this was an expression from a retired player who was now a pundit. Ange Postecoglou is the first Australian manager with any degree of success who represents the ambition, dreams, and, unfortunately, the frustration of that quote. He has tried to fulfil Johnny Warren's dream.
To set the cultural context of the Brisbane Roar's success, there is a nationwide inferiority complex regarding Australian football. Australia doesn't win by dominating the game and playing attacking passing football. Australians win with fighting spirit and heart, but not with skill. Beautiful football is what we watch overseas at 4 a.m., not in Australia. Australian football is simply not skilful enough to play like Barcelona. The Golden Generations made some inroads in that belief, it was largely the prevailing belief among Australian football fans.
Ange Postecoglou's philosophy, which he maintained throughout his career, is that to be the best team in the world, you must play like the best team in the world. He would show footage of peak Barcelona dismantling Real Madrid 5-0 and tell the Brisbane Roar players that this is the standard he expects. If the team failed and lost playing that style, then the players could learn how to improve to become the best. Ange learns as the manager how to improve the team through recruitment, and later with the Socceroos, he learned how the nation has to improve to develop players to become the best in the world.
Ange Postecoglou was considered, quite frankly, naive and insane to challenge the cultural inferiority complex of Australia that Australian players aren't good enough and this showed that in his first season, he finished second bottom and he received significant resistance within the club and criticism from the public. However, he was able to win over the players and prove the critics wrong by becoming the greatest A-League team in history. The quickness of his success in implementing the style at Tottenham is not a surprise to me because it is easier to implement an attacking football style in the elite end of the game compared to the culturally entrenched barriers, he faced with Brisbane Roar. This is what people overlook when dismissing his CV based on the league he is in. While it’s not easier to win the A-League compared to EPL. It is harder getting an A-League side to play like peak Barcelona and win compared to coaching an elite well-resource EPL team. It is of note that whenever he "steps up" in league quality, the time it takes to implement his style becomes shorter.
When he coached the Socceroos initially, he felt that he was part of a movement to reinvent the way Australia plays the game of football and to reach the goal of winning the World Cup by playing like World Cup champions. If he didn't succeed in that goal during his coaching career, at the very least, he would create the framework that the Australian national team can play in that World Cup-winning style. His success would lead to the wider football community in Australia developing players who would thrive in that style so that future generations could win the World Cup.
Now the narrative among Ange Postecoglou fans was at the first sign of poor results, there were calls from critics, fans, and board members to play more 'pragmatically,' and he realized he wasn't in a movement but on a personal crusade, which he wasn't interested in and was taking a toll on him. He completed his job of qualifying for the World Cup and then resigned. His replacement by a pragmatic, defensive manager in Bert van Marwijk from the FFA essentially represented the death of Ange Postecoglou and Johnny Warren's dream for Australian football. The intention shifted from developing a framework to win the tournament to merely being competitive in it. Ange Postecoglou became a martyr of Australia’s hope and dream to become a dominant football nation.
Although there is truth to that narrative it does obscure the reality that performance had deteriorated towards the latter stint of his coaching period with the Socceroos. The team struggled to adapt to him changing his system middle of the campaign and part of the deterioration of the performance is due to the pragmatism of him having a double pivot of Jedinak/Milligan (essentially two defensive players) and benching the Asian Cup best player Luongo resulting in Australia dominating possession but lacking cutting edge. However, the fact that this narrative persisted represents Ange’s strength in creating a narrative and myth greater than himself. Ange has explicitly stated that it is not enough to win as everyone wants to win. That special team have to play for something bigger than just winning.
So, he creates a narrative that the team is not just aiming to win but to revolutionise the way Australia play football and that one day Australia can not just beat the best team in the world but outplay them. This inspires the fans to accept this narrative and create a myth and legend out of Ange as he is not just a manager but a person who represents the "something bigger” principles which at times can obscure the truth and cover up his flaws. This helps inspire the team but helps relieve pressure and protects himself as well.
So, what now for the true believers of football in Australia now that Ange is gone and there is some pessimism regarding professional football in Australia due to the struggle of the A-League and that his dream seems so distant. Ange Postecoglou may have failed to 100% complete his dream, but if he succeeds in the EPL and becomes one of the greatest managers in the world, perhaps this will inspire future Australian coaches to complete his dream. This is why Ange Postecoglou isn't just a manager for Australian football fans but a myth and legend and why Australian football fans will follow him wherever he goes.
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