Ange Postecoglou will step through the doors at Hotspur Way on Saturday for his first official day of work at Tottenham but he has already been making an impact on his players.
The 57-year-old begins pre-season with his new coaching staff and non-international players this weekend at the Enfield-based training complex. However, he has already popped into the training ground on a number of occasions since putting pen to paper on his move from Celtic. Some of those who have met him since he signed up have spoken of having brief but warm conversations with the new head coach and have described him as having an authoritative aura about him.
On Friday, Postecoglou was at Lord's enjoying the Ashes ahead of his first official day in the hot seat but he has already made his mark on those he will soon be working with. The Australian has a way with words. He doesn't use many of them but he makes sure that what he does say is motivating and it's often inspiring.
"Speaking to the manager was very important, how he’s going to be, with that little bit of the unknown, so to have a decent chat with him and to get his thoughts on things, how he sees Spurs going this season," said Spurs' latest £40million signing James Maddison this week.
"He said one thing to me on the call, I hope he won’t mind me saying this, but he said, ‘whether you come or not, you’re going to see a completely different Spurs team under me’, and that kind of stuck with me that he said that. I thought 'wow there's that same self belief that I've got in myself'."
Postecoglou also spoke to Tottenham's first signing of the summer Guglielmo Vicario ahead of the goalkeeper's move from Empoli and the 26-year-old's father Michele revealed just how important a simple bit of backing was.
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"A week ago, he had a video call with his new coach, Ange Postecoglou. They spoke in English and the coach told him that he had chosen him because Guglielmo worked his way up just like him," he said.
Postecoglou has previously spoken about finding ways to connect with younger players in today's game and he decided in this case that their shared tough journey through the game was the common thread.
Vicario admitted after signing for the north London club that he had been excited by the things the new Spurs head coach had told him.
"I spoke with him, and he told me the keeper is so important with his attacking mentality," he said. "He wants to dominate the game. I love this mentality. It will be a big chance for me."
Postecoglou has spoken about the way he communicates with his players and anybody expecting him to have long one-to-one heart-to-hearts with his stars will be disappointed.
"If you talk to all of the players that I've coached over the years they'll probably be consistent in saying that they've never had a conversation of longer than a minute with me in the whole time. It's just me as a person. I'm not a great social sort of beast in life in general, in terms of particularly my professional environment," he explained in podcast recorded three years ago for Anthony Hudson's Masterminds - Elite Coach Development series.
"I do keep a distance from the players and it takes a while for the players to get used to that for the most part. I understand that, they're human beings and they want that connection and that feedback. They want to know that you're engaged with them and my way of keeping my distance can be a little bit disconcerting.
"Over the course of time what I think happens is that the players and staff kind of understand that it's just me and they know that I treat everyone the same. They know I do care about them and I care about them in my own way. When critical times come I've got their back and I take that responsibility.
"After a while I think they appreciate that and they understand that 'ok there's no favouritism here, he treats everyone the same whether that's the president or chairman of the club or the boot man, or the first player on the list or the last player on the list'. I've always worked that way."
While some of Postecoglou's famed motivational team talks have gone viral, he explained where his distance with regular one-to-one conversations comes from.
"I was almost forced to do it in my first coaching job. I retired young and got into coaching early. I was 30-years-old and I coached the club I played for. A lot of the guys I was coaching were my former team-mates, one of them was my best mate. I had to separate myself one day to the next. It was tough, particularly for the guys I'd played with and that I considered mates, but as a manager I've got to make decisions every day," he said.
"The one thing about your existence in this job is that every day you're making decisions. People when they speak to you want decisions from you, whether it's about training, the schedule, the team and we need knowledge to make good decisions, more good than bad, and you need clarity of thought. Me keeping a distance from players or staff, whenever I make a decision whether it's about staff or the way we're going to play, it's almost unemotional in the way that I make it. I will make the decision that is best for the team and what we want to achieve.
"I've found that that works best for me as a manager. I treat everyone the same but I do feel that I wouldn't have had success if the players didn't feel close to me. It's just a different kind of closeness than maybe people see from the outside. I guarantee that if you interview any player that I've coached in the past 20 years they'll give you the same answer if you ask them what the longest conversation they've had with the boss.
"They'll say no more than a minute and if anything if I did catch up with them after they stopped playing and I did have a little bit of chat with them they found it a little bit disconcerting that I was now speaking to them because I wasn't their coach."
Many of the current squad are excited about the football to be played under Postecoglou with his relentless front foot style of possession and they are looking forward to the new season.
Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy and the club's players will be hoping that Harry Kane feels similar when Postecoglou speaks to the England captain on his return from holiday next month. Spurs' international players are currently set to return on July 12 ahead of the club's summer tour to Australia, Thailand and Singapore and Postecoglou's chat with Kane will be crucial.
Kane is the ultimate professional and if he remains at the club this summer he will still score goals aplenty regardless of whether he wants to leave or not, but an excited version of the club's all-time striker, feasting on chances galore created by a Postecoglou team, would be something extra.
"There is obviously a big summer ahead and there’s a lot that needs to change here to start being successful again," Kane said towards the end of last season. "There’s a conversation to be had anyway just in terms of some of the values of the club. We’ve had many conversations before like that on how we can improve."
In Postecoglou, Kane will find someone with shared values, similar beliefs and a self confidence to match. The Australian's words are powerful but it's what he achieves everywhere he goes that does most of the talking for him.
