Exclusive: Former Australian Internationalist gives detailed lowdown on Ange Postecoglou

The Celtic Star recently spoke to former Socceroo Scott Ollerenshaw about the imminent appointment of his compatriot Ange Postecoglou as the manager of Celtic.

Scott made fourteen appearances for the Australian National Team, scoring twice and was part of the side that destroyed Argentina 4-1 in 1988. Scott was able to reflect on Postecoglou’s career and give us the lowdown on what to expect from the 55-year-old.

Scott is currently Technical Director for Sabah FC, who play in the Malaysian Super League and played against Ange a number of times during his career. The pair also played together in the National Team camps in the 1980s. Before we began, Scott made it clear that he and Ange didn’t have a relationship and his views were form a neutral point of view but that he reiterated that Ange had his total respect for what he stands for and what he has achieved in the game.

Scott Ollerenshaw

What was Ange like as a player?

Ange was a very decent midfield player at South Melbourne Hellas FC in the old Australian National Soccer League (NSL) … from memory he was on the peripheral of the National Team; however, only played a handful of games for Australia. To be fair, Ange was probably one of those that might feel he underachieved as a player as he was an excellent player. Probably played in the wrong era for an Aussie footballer.

Ange and Puskas

Do you think having a career that was cut short by injury has spurred him onto achieving more as a coach?

I don’t think you can plan the evolution of Ange’s coaching career. I think he had unproven & untested principles of play which at Brisbane Roar were proven to provide astonishing results. Momentum is a huge thing in sport and I think since his time at the Roar he has been riding a huge wave every since. Combine the momentum with his hunger for success, relentless drive to raise standards, ability to get results & thirst for knowledge & self improvement and you have an unstoppable force.

What makes Ange such a good coach?

So many things but I’ll summarise…

  • Incredibly high standards … and an ability to keep pushing his staff & players to keep getting better & never be satisfied. This means that every day they go into work with a hunger to keep getting better & better.
  • An ability to get staff & players to buy into his methodology & buy into the project. This means that once they buy in they are totally loyal to his methods and beliefs on how he wants his teams to play. Bottom line is a coach cannot coach unless his players want to play for him and will run through a brick wall for him.
  • An ability to have total trust in his staff thus giving them the confidence to do there jobs without him constantly looking over there shoulders… i believe he delegates very well.
  • An amazing apetite to keep learning himself and keep evolving as a coach. He has complete tunnel vision and will do it his way no matter what. Any one who thinks Ange is a yes man is totally wrong, he is the opposite of a yes man.
  • His methods work. He is very attacking-minded, he makes progress up the pitch through combination play but as soon as they turn it over they will hunt & press as a pack to win it back asap. Always goals both for & against when an Ange team is playing. Fitness levels for Ange-coached teams need to be amazing. No luxury players.
Ange Postecoglou

Can you put into context for the readers his successes with Brisbane Roar and then Yokohama F Marinos?

Brisbane Roar was his breakthrough gig. He released a lot of experienced pros & completely changed the squad. Within 6 months they started to play a brand of attacking football not seen before in Australia and from 2010-2012 they dominated. This was the period when his own self-belief in his methodology would have been verified.

His time at Yokohama came after 4 years of great success with the Australian NT and at a time when he was criticised for the timing of his resignation. Took his players at Yokohama time to get used to the way he wanted them to play but when they did in 2019 it was beautiful to watch. Yokohama went on an amazing run played unbelievable high pressing attacking Football and came from behind to win the J League – in my opinion, his greatest achievement.

Celtic are obviously one of the biggest clubs in world football and it will likely be a different proposition to any club that Ange has been involved with, do you think he will be able to cope with the pressure of Celtic?

There is no doubt in my mind he will cope simply because he is so strong mentally & so convinced in his methods. Whether the club is huge like Celtic or Brisbane Roar in Australia it is still the same principals. It is still about the dressing room and convincing the players to buy in. Once that is done then Celtic are in for a great ride.

What can the Celtic support expect from Ange as a manager?

No nonsense. Just an honest guy who is straight down the line, who does not suffer fools & who demands nothing but the highest standards from his staff & players.

 Do you think Ange will bring his own staff in or will he accept staff being imposed on him?

I think he will want to bring his own staff if possible … I think any coach worth his weight wants to bring his own people in.

The Craig Fowler interview was an interesting watch, Ange is clearly quite a robust character, he has already been targeted by the Scottish media, do you think he will try and become a friend of the media or keep his distance?

I think he will be respectful of the media and be accommodating to them. However, as I said previously he does not suffer fools including the press and if the press cross the line he will tell them straight.

Why do you think that clubs haven’t taken a chance on a top Australian coach?

For exactly the same reason there is all this current controversy with his possible Celtic appointment. Human beings have a fear of the unknown and this is an example of that. But to those who know him especially in Australia & Japan, there is no unknown and we know what he has in his locker.

What’s important to remember is no matter how big or small the club, no matter what League we are talking about, it is still the same principles & methodology. It is still about getting 3 points on a Saturday.

I honestly believe that Ange could become the Arsene Wenger of Scottish Football. I also believe that WHEN he does well, just like Craig Johnston at Liverpool all those years ago with many players moving to Europe, it will be the catalyst for a number of young Australian coaches to make an impression in Europe.

Aussie journalist Scott McIntyre said that Ange was one of the best coaches in the world and that Celtic were lucky to have him, would you agree with this?

Absolutely agree with Scott Mcintyre.

Ange was involved in rebuilding Brisbane, the Socceroos and Yokohama – do you think he will need to get a lot of his own players in at Celtic or will he improve the players that are there?

Well he cannot change everything in one window – the mid-season window will be crucial to Celtic in this rebuild as by then who knows which players can & cannot deliver what he requires & obviously he will inherit a lot of contracted players …. but he will get it right & Celtic will be a force not just in SPFL but in Europe as well.

(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Will Ange have someone like Tom Rogic at the centre of his plans?

That will depend on Tom Rogic current levels of health & fitness …and whether he is prepared to work harder & get fitter than he has been recently & finally whether he buys into the Ange project.

Do you think Ange will be a success at Celtic?

I have no doubt!

Thanks to Scott for this incredible insight into Postecoglou and hopefully once Coronavirus finally blows over, he can come and visit Celtic Park to see how Ange is getting on.

About Author

Born just as Celtic were stopping the Ten, Lubo98 follows Celtic home and away and helps run his local Celtic Supporters Club. He goes to all the games and is a Law Graduate. Has a particular fondness for Tom Rogic among the current Celts and both Lubo and Henrik form his earliest Celtic memories.

1 Comment

  1. It seems that he does a lot of justifying his own position but he gets absolutely slaughtered here. He has no justification for poor results against Laos and China. He gets hosed here to be honest.