Ange Postecoglou

Agree with most of this with the caveat that he could leave at any time if a ridiculous offer comes in that he simply can't ignore. He is 57 so won't have a lot of time at a mega-cash club - and he is a family man after all.

Thing is, I doubt whether a mega-club will come in for him until he does something big in Europe so whatever happens, he'll leave Celtic with plenty more decent memories.

 

The "rolling 12 month contract" he is said to have with Celtic is reminiscent of his contract at Brisbane. If the club's going to give him free reign like it has, I'd be looking to tie him down for longer than the next 12 months, subject to performance targets.

 

Scott Brown has praised the tactics of Celticboss Ange Postecoglou, stating that watching the way the Hoops play allows him to "better himself" as a coach.

The 37-year-old old is currently in charge of English League One side Fleetwood Town and recently had the best FA Cup run in the club's history.

And now, while promoting a night with former team-mate Mikael Lustig at the OVO Hydro, the ex-Parkhead captain lavished praise on the style of play the Australian has implemented at the club.

He said: "When I see the system Ange plays you see the rotations as well, I am always looking to try and better myself and get a better understanding of how Celtic play.

"It is not for me to come up here and watch Celtic train. This is Ange's place and it is not mine but for that 90 minutes on a Saturday I can sit back and watch them.

"I can get that understanding of how Cal (Callum McGregor) goes out wide to receive the ball and the wingers gow high up the park.

"There are great ways to focus on all different formations and systems as well




Brown also picked out Hoops midfielder Reo Hatate as someone he would have loved to have played with.

The former Scotland international identified the 25-year-old's energy as a particularly important factor.

"Definitely (I would have liked to play) with Reo in the middle of the park," he continued.

"He has great energy and definitely as I got older it would be have been great to play alongside him so he could have done some of my running.

"Kyogo always plays with a smile on his face. I just enjoy watching their energy. Jota seems to be enjoying his football as well.

"It is good that they have got that turnaround and the board have backed the manager which is fantastic.

"You back the manager and he has the quality to come in as well. His recruitment has been exceptional."

 

This tweet aged very nicely...

 

I remember seeing that at the time. The support for him from Oz did make me feel slightly more optimistic but I still didn’t expect it to go as well as it has.

 

The first pages of this thread are hilarious

Got to admit l was one of the doubters

 

Celtic's Ange Postecoglou on earning his stripes with the Zebras 'at bottom of food chain'
Chasing trophies and playing Champions League football with Celtic is a far cry from Ange Postecoglou's humble beginnings coaching in Australia's lower leagues.



The 57-year-old has put in the hard yards to get where he is today, even overcoming a relegation in the semi-professional ranks early in his career to become a top flight title-winning boss in Australia, Japan and now Scotland, as well as twice leading his country to the World Cup.

Postecoglou was out of work and still looking for his big break in management when he accepted an offer from Whittlsea Zebras – a club rooted to the bottom of the Victorian Premier League – in 2009.




He was unable to save them from the drop, winning just two of his 16 games in charge against a backdrop of limited resources and off field issues, but according to the club's former president, Joe Sala, he "still managed to leave a legacy in his short time here". For Postecoglou, the experience was just as important as the successes that followed.




You’re going a long way back there, mate!" the Celtic boss replied as he was reminded of his Zebras days. "You’ve dug up the one little stint where I didn’t win any silverware! It’s fair to say I started on the factory floor.

“When people talk about me at the moment, they see where I am, at a fantastic football club, with great resources, where I have the biggest spend of any football club… I’ve been at the bottom of the bottom of the food chain.




I worked my way up so I know about every level of the game. It’s kept me sort of grounded and on the course I’ve been on. It’s this game of football. Everything you get along the way, you need to earn it. You need to work hard.

“That was back then and I was young and it was pretty much a semi-professional team and they had their problems. It didn’t mean I was any less passionate than I am now about what I wanted to achieve.

“There’s nothing wrong with that. Sometimes, particularly in today’s world, people want to skip things, you have players who want to become managers straight away. I kind of like the fact I’ve done it at every level. I am where I am because of hard work and the success achieved along the way.”

Revered at his previous clubs, even those who were relegated under him, Postecoglou is now well on his way to legendary status at Celtic after transforming a side that finished 25 points behind Rangers in a trophyless season before his arrival into one that has become all-conquering.


After winning a double in his first campaign, a treble is now in his sights in season two – all while playing an attacking brand of football that is attracting near sell-out crowds to Celtic Park on a weekly basis.




All I’ve done wherever I have been is I’ve tried to make an impact. If, when it comes to the times to go through those doors at the end that you are always welcomed back, that means you have been appreciated.

"It doesn’t always involve success. For the most part I’ve managed to have that, but even when I haven’t I think people will know I tried to do the best I can for their club.”

 

Alastair Clarkson sits down with Riley Beveridge to discuss his appointment, what's ahead and why he chose the Kangaroos

"TAKE the biggest challenge."

When four-time premiership coaching legend Alastair Clarkson was locked in one of the most difficult decisions of his career, choosing between North Melbourne and Greater Western Sydney as his next destination, it was that piece of advice from Celtic manager and Australian football great Ange Postecoglou that helped him settle on Arden Street.

Postecoglou, the one-time Australian national team coach, two-time A-League champion and a manager now renowned as one of the best tactical minds in Europe thanks to his work at Celtic, has been a long-time confidante of Clarkson. They have shared messages and advice along their journey as both have come to be recognised as masters of their respective fields.

During a 12-month sabbatical where Clarkson toured the United States and Europe following his departure from Hawthorn in 2022, he spent a week with the Scottish champions, a club now moulded firmly in Postecoglou's image. It had followed stints with modern NBA powerhouse the Golden State Warriors and NFL giants the Green Bay Packers during his time overseas.

But before Clarkson had even arrived in Glasgow last October, Postecoglou had already helped shape the AFL great's coaching future. Deliberating on offers from both the Kangaroos and the Giants at the time, Clarkson turned to the Celtic manager for one last piece of advice. It proved pivotal in his ultimate return to the club where he had first started his football journey as a player almost 40 years ago.

"What I didn't fear one iota was North Melbourne's position on the ladder. If anything, that was what presented such a challenge and such an opportunity. I spoke to Ange Postecoglou and he said, 'Take the biggest challenge', and this is a great challenge," Clarkson told AFL.com.au in an exclusive interview at Arden Street earlier this week.

"As was GWS, I might add. To take on that challenge to try to be the first team from the new sides to win a flag, in that type of market – a really difficult market, a rugby league market – that would have been a huge challenge. But this one is a different sort of challenge, one that touches my heart pretty closely because this was the club that gave me my start as a 17-year-old way back in 1986.
Clarkson, a premiership coach at Hawthorn in 2008, 2013, 2014 and 2015, had spent almost an entire 12 months as the AFL's hottest commodity. Carlton had made a significant push to lure him as its next senior coach in September 2021, only to be told of his wishes to spend the next year of his life overseas.

North Melbourne and GWS were then locked in an even more intense battle for Clarkson to replace their previous leaders, David Noble and Leon Cameron respectively, towards the end of last season. Essendon made a late dash for his signature, having parted with Ben Rutten last August, but the 54-year-old reiterated this week that the Bombers had barely factored into his decision-making process at all.

INS AND OUTS Every club’s full list changes ahead of 2023

Instead, as well as Postecoglou's advice, it was the location of the two clubs – and a desire to remain in Victoria – that had played a significant part in his final decision to sign for North Melbourne and not GWS. With the Clarkson family already spread across the country, keeping 'home' in Victoria was always at the back of his mind.

"It was really only two clubs that had coaching positions available at that point in time and they were the only two that I really explored, and that was North Melbourne and Greater Western Sydney," Clarkson said.

"I was so impressed with the GWS organisation. (Chairman) Tony Shepherd, (CEO) Dave Matthews and (football director) Jimmy Bartel, I had a lot to do with those guys over a period of time. It was a really tough decision, but in the end the whole move to Sydney for my family at that point just wasn't the right one for us. I had a son that was going to live in the Northern Territory, I had a daughter in Queensland, my other daughter was going to be here in Melbourne, then we'd be in Sydney. Where was home going to be?

"At the end of the day, despite our love for footy and our passion to be involved in the game, we couldn't put that ahead of our family. We wanted Melbourne, just at this point in time, to be our family home. Once we came to that decision, and it took a while to come to that because we were just so impressed with GWS, but there was only really one club here that was offering an opportunity and that was North Melbourne.

"That doesn't mean they were the last man standing, so that's all we took. I was enormously impressed with (president) Dr Sonja Hood, enormously impressed with the board, and I knew the history of the club."

Clarkson's appointment continued a period of total change sweeping throughout North Melbourne. In the last 12 months alone, the club has appointed a new president in Dr Hood, a new CEO in Jennifer Watt, a new coach in Clarkson, a new football boss in Todd Viney, a new football operations manager in Cam Matthews, has welcomed 10 new players through the door – including two top-four draft picks in Harry Sheezel and George Wardlaw, as well as Fremantle recruits Griffin Logue and Darcy Tucker, and ex-Hawthorn pair Liam Shiels and Dan Howe – and has also appointed two new captains in Jy Simpkin and Luke McDonald.

It comes amid an on-field stage of the club's redevelopment where it has claimed two straight wooden spoons, has won just nine of its last 61 games, and last October lost its prized former No.1 draft pick Jason Horne-Francis to Port Adelaide barely 12 months after he had first arrived at Arden Street.

It also comes during an off-field period where Clarkson remains at the centre of an independent investigation into allegations that Indigenous players were mistreated during his time as Hawthorn coach, where young star Tarryn Thomas was forced to step away from the club after allegations emerged of threats of violence against women last month, and where Clarkson was forced to apologise to a TV news reporter for a comment made outside of the Kangaroos' headquarters recently.




So, given all of the uncertainty posed towards the football club this summer, what does a good season look like for North Melbourne in 2023? And how can the club's return to the top be measured during Clarkson's first campaign in charge?

"It's just showing the whole football world, but also our supporters, that there's some stability and continuity with what we're putting in place here. For a whole number of reasons, whether it's to do with our footy club or whether it's the wider world, there's been a fair amount of instability around football and our lives for the last two or three years. Mainly because of COVID-19," Clarkson said.

"Our footy club, in particular over the last four or five years, has had significant instability. Whether that's been at board level, administration level, or at coaching level, it's very hard. Whether it's a business, whether it's a sport, whether it's religion, whether it's the government, whether it's a family, if you haven't got continuity or stability, it's very difficult to have success. That's the main thing we're going to be working on.

"We know there's going to be a period of time where we need to gel together and work out how we can go on this journey together. But we've all got a really clear vision for what we want to do at this club and that's to take it back to the promised land of trying to win some silverware. We're all really strongly aligned on that.

"How quickly that happens is going to be anyone's guess. We've seen it happen very quickly, and we've also seen it not happen at all. In some instances, it takes a fair period of time too. We're under no illusions. We're prepared to roll our sleeves up and get to work."


Alastair Clarkson looks on during a North Melbourne training session on January 23, 2023. Picture: AFL Photos
Clarkson had arrived at Hawthorn in 2004 following a period in which the club had found itself in serious strife, having just finished second-bottom on the ladder with a dismal 4-18 record. But, over the next 17 seasons, he transformed the Hawks into one of the League's modern success stories, and one of its most feared teams.

Nearly 20 years on, he's back in a similar position. At a club that is languishing, desperate for success. Whether he can work his magic again, and how quickly it will take him to conjure better years at Arden Street, is a different question. But the motivation for Clarkson, and the energy and inspiration to start his work, remains on par with what it had been like nearly two decades ago.

"I'm really excited," Clarkson said.

"I'm right back at the coalface of coaching, which is really exciting. Over a period of time, you end up delegating. It's like being a parent, you end up delegating some of your responsibilities to your older children and for them to look after their younger siblings. It's a little bit like that at a footy club. You end up handing over so much responsibility that you actually hand over some of the things that you really love.

"What I love is the strategy of the game, the game itself, I love the relationships with the players and the coaches, and I love teaching the game. Over time, they were the things that you delegated to others. But being here at North Melbourne, right at this point in time, right at the coalface again, that's a great place to be."

https://www.afl.com.au/featured/882...4OlFwlh9dL008P9D3G8-j9-bTJ28v7690-LMHkd8mv0zw

 

Laughable how some have gone back and deleted what they wrote. They should be embarrassed that they tried to delete what they wrote

 

Too much ego to admit they made a mistake, pitiful

 

Howe can you tell what’s been deleted?

 

From a manager's point of view, it's just waaay more fun to be having a crack at the CL each year (plus winning leagues and cups) then sitting in a mid table EPL team winning eff all. If we had qualified for CL more with Rodgers, I guess he'd still be here - good job we didn't!

Also, when you're in charge of everything, it's a lot more fun being 'the boss', than just being a tiny cog in a big wheel (say Chelsea) and then getting humped out asap. He's defo got the future to be a top EPL manager but reckon he's here at least two more seasons - maybe more - Sorry blue chaps pretending to be green chaps!

 

Don't forget the blow jobs too!

 

Whereas these replies didn't age quite so well...

 

I see what you did there

 

I know! How hard is it to just laugh at how wrong you were and then say thank * I was this wrong Pride is a sin

 

Smsm: aye ye were relegated, ah, gee, girfuy. Tell us about that Ange!

Ange: aye no trophies on that wee stint. but now I've got the biggest transfer budget in world football aye? How far you have dig for that one ya tramp?

"I started on the factory floor" ... Translates as "I wasn't given this job because I had a famous name, or because I pandered to a bunch of mutants. I got this job because I worked for it. And I'm still in this job because I win trophies.


I * LOVE this man. Everytime the media try to drag him down he takes their lunch money off them and makes go stand in the corner.

Media wise; I used to think O Neill was far too diplomatic. That wgs should've been less "honest" with them, that Lennon was too forgiving of their filthy tactics, that Ronny should've put a * leash on Collins, and that Rodgers should just stfu.
But this fella? Oh my days. He's perfected the art of the manager interview; you'll get what I give you and if you try to chase headlines you'll be chasing your tail instead.

 

Ange went back in time and punched * out of a tyranasaurus rex.