Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou has been mentioned of late as a “surprise candidate” for the vacant Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur jobs. The surprise should be that such links have not materialised sooner, but it is hard to battle the assumption that the best coaches are European or South American. Arsène Wenger came from Japan to take over Arsenal and had a huge influence on English football. Postecoglou, who unlike the Frenchman won the Japanese title, could also be a game changer internationally if he heads to the Premier League and succeeds.
There is no reason why he would not, provided the right club was chosen. The journey from Australia has been long, hard and impressive. “I didn’t get to this position out of luck,” he said earlier this week in response to a jibe from Rangers boss Michael Beale, who said that he was fortunate to have money to spend. “I’ve worked 25 years of coaching to be entrusted at a club like this. This isn’t my first job. If it was my first job maybe I’d be lucky, but it’s not – it’s 25 years of hard work.”
Postecoglou was already experienced when he led Brisbane Roar to the A-League title in 2011 and 2012, and then delivered the 2015 Asian Cup for Australia, before moving to Japan to make Yokohama F.Marinos champions for the first time since 2004. Then came the call from Celtic, a league title in his first season and a potential domestic treble this year. Just as impressive is the style of play and fearlessness he encourages, and the way he conducts himself. To say he has won over fans in half of Glasgow would be an understatement.
There was quite a reaction in some quarters – even misplaced hilarity – when he arrived in Glasgow two years ago, one that was borne out of ignorance and prejudice. Winning in Australia and Japan was not seen as enough, despite the fact that Japan’s league is a good deal more competitive, and of a higher quality, than Scotland’s. The only doubt was whether Postecoglou could handle the pressure at Celtic which exists on a level not seen in Japan or Australia. It turns out he could.
Postecoglou is a man who does things his own way but not even the 2015 Asian coach of the year can change how modern European football works. There is a limit to what anyone can do in Scotland, even at a huge club like Celtic and even with top-class recruitment. If the ambition is to work at the highest level of world football, the Premier League offers the best opportunity with cashed-up clubs, elite fellow coaches and worldwide attention.
A move south of the border may result in an echo of the reaction heard in Scotland in 2021, especially if the 57 year-old arrives at one of the bigger clubs. Some would be unable to see previous success as enough and his lack of major European experience, despite a quarter-century long coaching career, could be used against him. Famous former players in Europe are given big jobs as soon as boots are hung up, but it is the successful and ground-breaking Australian who is the dark horse candidate behind the likes of Vincent Kompany and Frank Lampard, whose coaching CVs do not compare.
Pitso Mosimane would sympathise. The South African led Mamelodi Sundowns to five league titles in his homeland from 2013 to 2020 as well as the 2016 CAF Champions League. He then moved north to Al-Ahly in Cairo, where he secured two more continental titles in 2020 and 2021 and three other cups. He didn’t even make the Fifa shortlist for coach of the year. “I just believe that a medical doctor who is from South Africa, is the same medical doctor in Europe. I believe an architect who has qualified in Africa is an architect in Europe,” said Mosimane. “So, I just don’t understand when it comes to football coaching, why these things get looked at differently.”
Morocco’s Walid Regragui led the Atlas Lions to the last four at last year’s World Cup, just months after winning the continent’s Champions League yet still barely gets mentioned when top European jobs become available. “I think it’s impossible that Manchester City or Barcelona will bring an African or Arab coach, they don’t even think about it, as if we’re not worthy, as if we are ignorant in football, or we’re incapable of such a task,” he said in December. There have been many African players who have starred at the top levels in Europe but their talents in the dugout are not in demand.
If Postecoglou were to win a major Premier League job, it would not only help change attitudes in Europe but in Africa and Asia too. Mosimane was the first foreigner not from Europe and South America to coach Al-Ahly and battled from the beginning against those from his own continent who doubted his credentials based on nothing more than his nationality. Such fights are not going to end soon but Postecoglou, an Australian, going to the biggest league on his own terms would be a huge step forward.
