It was around five years ago that Ange Postecoglou’s agents thought the Australian could land a job in England.
Postecoglou had coached his country to Asian Cup glory in 2015, while he had enjoyed successful stints domestically in Australia and Japan.
Given his attractive style of football too, the 57-year-old looked like an exciting hire for someone.
“I walked into a lot of corporate boxes, met a lot of CEOs of English Premier League clubs and Championship clubs,” recalls Postecoglou. “They had no idea who I was mate. It was a waste of time.
“I used to tell them (my agents): ‘Mate it’s like you’re taking me for auditions in Hollywood and I’m getting rejected all the time’. It was doing nothing for my self-esteem.”
Postecoglou has made it to the big time now, though, after being hired by Tottenham this summer.
It is in appointment that has largely been well received by supporters, who are excited by the Australian’s plans for attacking football, but there are those who are sceptical.
“I still think people will underestimate me,” says Postecoglou. “People have underestimated me my whole career, and I don’t want to change that – that’s good for me.
“I think the more people underestimate me, the better a chance I have of getting under their guard, because what I do, I’m always well prepared, I don’t underestimate anybody.”
The early signs have been promising for Tottenham on their pre-season tour of Australia and Asia.
They suffered defeat to West Ham in their opening game, but recorded 30 shots on goal and their attack was transformed.
Postecoglou’s style is born out of his upbringing. His father loved attractive football, revering the great Ajax teams of the 1970s and the Dutch side who made the 1974 World Cup final.
“He hated Italian football - it was the era of Catenaccio,” says Postecoglou. “Whenever it came on he would turn it off: ‘I’m not watching this’.
“But if somebody exciting was playing - like Ajax or at that time, Liverpool were a fantastic passing team, an attacking team, or if there was a player in there that he really liked - like a Glenn Hoddle at Spurs - he would point him out and so that resonated. That’s why he loved the game.”
That love of attacking football grew over Postecoglou’s playing career, with a stint working under Real Madrid legend Ferenc Puskas at South Melbourne Hellas a defining time.
Puskas coached the club from 1989 to 1992 but, with Puskas speaking better Greek than English due to a stint at Panathinaikos, Postecoglou became his translator - as well as being the team’s left-back and captain.
“He was the most humble of people, which resonated with me,” says Postecoglou. “Just because you’ve achieved, if you can be kind to people, the effect it has can be unbelievable.
“Anyone would say his teams just wanted to outscore the opposition, that’s all he wanted to do. He goes: ‘We will win 5-4 every week and I’ll enjoy it’.
“I was a defender, so we copped four goals and I was like ‘s***’, but he was buzzing because what a game.
“We loved playing like that because we weren’t worried about making a mistake or conceding a goal. I just thought to myself, what a fantastic outlook to have. We ended up being champions that year.”
Postecoglou’s relationship with Puskas extended to him being the Hungarian’s chauffeur, driving him around in a banged-up Datsun 200.
“I had the s***** old car, because I was on hardly any money,” he recalls. “So I’d be literally pulling up and putting a guy in my car, which was worth £500 at the time, didn’t have a window winder because my mate had broken it the year before, so he couldn’t even wind his window, and I’m driving one of the world’s greatest players around in this car that’s bloody embarrassing.
“We went to one game, I was driving him to the airport and I got a flat tyre on the freeway and had to pull over to the side.
“So here I am, in the club tracksuit, driving one of the world’s greatest footballers to the airport so we don’t miss our flight, I get a flat tyre, and I’ve got the jack and I’m on the middle of the highway.
“He didn’t get out of the car. He stayed in the car. I’m going: ‘Boss, d’ya mind just…’ – because he was a big guy at the time – ‘d’ya mind getting out?’
“And he goes: ‘No, I’m not going anywhere’. I think about it now and think: ‘Man, I would have done things differently, I would have paid for a taxi for the man’.”
Postecoglou’s is a long way from those days changing tyres on the side of a road and he is instead doing his own rebuild at Tottenham.
It is early days and at present he is now trying to overhaul too much, as he works out what needs to be done.
“You listen a lot, don’t do a lot of talking,” he says.
“I haven’t got a full picture of everything I need to have real clarity about what we need to do but in the 12,13 days I’ve been at the club, the fog is lifting. I can see more of what needs to be done.”
Postecoglou has been well received by the Tottenham players, with midfielder Yves Bissouma calling him a father figure earlier this week.
The Australian often keeps conversations with players short, partly because he is “terrible” at small talk, but he has still built connections at whatever club he has worked.
People have underestimated me my whole career, and I don’t want to change that – that’s good for me.
“It’s just not me as a person. I’m not someone who is going to sit down with you and have a chat about things,” says Postecoglou.
“It’s not who I am. Even with my friends, they know me, I’m like that. I think the way you connect with people is if people know you and understand you and that’s you as a person, they’ll accept that. I just try to be me.”
That is certainly how Postecoglou comes off during this intimate roundtable in Perth on Tottenham’s pre-season tour.
He is honest and tells it like it is, providing engaging company over a 40-minute period where the stories range from tales of Puskas to Sir Alex Ferguson.
“We (Sir Alex and I) were walking to a press conference, and he said: ‘You’re never going to like this stuff. I hate it’,” says Postecoglou.
“I kind of hung on his every word [when I met him]. Like I said it was only 10 minutes, and I remember I had his book as well, because one of my best mates is a massive Man United supporter and he said to me if you meet Fergie get him to sign this for me.
“I said: ‘I can’t do that. I’m managing against them, that’s pretty embarrassing’. To be fair he signed it for me.
“And I said to him: ‘It’s for my mate’. Because he wrote: ‘To Nick,’ he went: ‘Yeah right it’s for your mate’. I went: ‘Yeah it is’.
“But more important was the impression he made on me that if you can do that to a person, that person then leaves thinking or feeling like you’ve given them that time of day, and that that has an unbelievable effect.”
