Jet-lagged and less than 72 hours after concluding his maiden Premier League campaign, Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou will make a head-spinning return to action in his home town.
Spurs and Newcastle United play a friendly match at the MCG on Wednesday night in a rapid-fire turnaround from their respective seasons, which finished in the early hours of Monday morning AEST.
"Yeah, look, it's not easy because we played Sheffield on Sunday afternoon and we virtually got straight on the plane to come out here," Postecoglou said on Tuesday of his first trip to Melbourne since 2019.
"So we've all lost Monday the 20th (May) from our lives.
"But we're here now and the boys will have a bit of a run this afternoon and hopefully sort of get lightened up a bit.
"But when you walk out tomorrow night, it's gonna be 80,000 people at the 'G, so I think those things are irrelevant. I'm sure the boys will be looking forward to it."
Superstar captain Son Heung-min admitted he'd barely had a chance to soak in Melbourne after arriving in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
But he has a familiar face of his own in town to catch up with: Melbourne City star Tolgay Arslan, whom he played with in Germany.
"My friend is playing here so he wants to see me," Son said.
"One of my best friends, actually.
"He's been playing in Melbourne.
"This is the last game of the season so I want to go home as well as soon as possible after we finish the game. So any chance if I can see him around would be good."
Spurs finished fifth in Postecoglou's first season at the helm and will play in the Europa League next season.
"That's the reward for finishing strong this year," Postecoglou said.
"We're looking forward to that. It's another challenge for us. We'll be ready for it.
"Not having European football this year probably hurt us a little bit in terms of our development.
"This club deserves to be in Europe. And hopefully we can make an impact next year."
Spurs will hope the friendly can prove a high note to send off the year, before improving next campaign.
"We've been talking about this quite a lot after (Postecoglou's) first season and obviously we could do so much better. We see that. But I think we look forward," Son said.
"Obviously it's (the season) gone and we should learn that there's so much room for improvement. Next season will be so much better and the players will take responsibility for being (able to) step up and being disciplined.
"Where we finish, it's because of us. Not anyone else. So we need to think about it and for next season we can't make the same mistakes."
