Ange Postecoglou has always done things the unconventional way.
He was harangued in a national TV interview over his record with the Australia Under-20 side, took jobs in the lower amateur leagues of both Greece and Australia, was handed the Brisbane Roar gig at the worst point in club history and arrived at Yokohama F Marinos with the side on the verge of relegation.
But yet he was a back-to-back champion and history maker with Brisbane, took the Marinos to a first league title in 15 years and earned successive Scottish Premiership successes with Celtic. And at every turn he has dealt with doubters, believed in himself and his philosophy, and made great things happen.
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Even now he has reached the modern-day pinnacle for any football manager that is the Premier League, the new Tottenham Hotspur boss has found himself with the exact problem many of his predecessors have managed to swerve over the past decade. He has to do the rebuilding job on a Spurs squad shorn of Harry Kane following the England striker’s €100 million move to Bayern Munich.
Big Ange had made it clear over the course of his first pre-season in charge that he wanted Kane to stay rather than be given the keys to the war chest his sale would allow.
“He’s one of the premier strikers in the world, and I want him involved here,” he said in one press conference. “My conversation with him will be about how we can make this club successful.”
But just because the Lilywhites’ all-time greatest goal scorer has fled the nest, that doesn’t mean that target cannot be reached. Of course, his output in front of goal has been crucial since the day he made his first-team debut, but Kane’s presence was never necessarily fundamental to Spurs finally bagging another piece of silverware.
Arguably, when you look at their very varied careers over the past 15 years, it is Postecoglou, and not Kane, who has the extra something that will take Spurs over the line in a major competition. That success that the pair had a conversation about can still happen even after the star striker’s departure, if only the former Australia national coach can have the same sort of impact at White Hart Lane that he’s had pretty much everywhere else.
“The core component of it is, they have to believe in me,” he recently told Men in Blazers regarding his ability to get the buy-in of players wherever he goes. “Like anything in life, you can have all the knowledge in the world and all the greatest intent in the world but if people don’t believe in you as a person they’re unlikely to jump on board.”
And while Kane has left the building, it is fairly common knowledge that his decision to leave wasn’t a comment on his faith in Postecoglou. Kane had been itching for something new for at least two years, and he was also widely believed to be well bought in to what Ange has in mind for Spurs. But having finally got the opportunity to play for serious trophies with Bayern, there was only ever likely to be one decision.
It might not be ideal timing that all this has happened in the final 72 hours before the season starts, but Postecoglou has a fine squad and a pretty penny to play with. They head to Brentford on Sunday without their former talisman, but with a clean page turned. The manager will get more time, the players further freedom. Because for all that Kane offered, his presence also threatened to cast a shadow over what the rest of the team could do.
Now there’s a sense of carte blanche about Postecoglou’s task. It is his club to mould his way, not Harry Kane’s club for the manager to build around within some pre-existing vision. And that knack for coaxing belief and creative expression out of players might be just what Spurs need at a time like this.
*18+ | BeGambleAware | Odds Subject to Change
