sport news Ignore the doom-mongers, Ange Postecoglou can be Tottenham's Jurgen Klopp trends now
After a series of marriages made in hell, Tottenham’s appointment of Ange Postecoglou might just be a marriage made in heaven.
The doom-mongers will look at Postecoglou’s arrival from Celtic and say Scottish football is low rent and that he is beneath Tottenham but that is a load of nonsense.
I hate to make Australians a homogenised group but Postecoglou appears to have all the substance you would expect from your average Antipodean — steeped in decency, hard work and a no-frills approach. He is a balanced, calm, focused, determined, no bluster, no bull****, not-about-me manager who won’t turn everything into a sideshow.
Some will say he was not the club’s first choice but neither was Mauricio Pochettino and that worked out OK.
And after the managerial blunders of Jose Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo and Antonio Conte, Daniel Levy might just have alighted on the perfect man to lift the club from what many perceive to be rock bottom. In a departure from those recent appointments, he has gone all in by handing his new man a four-year deal.
Some fans have criticised the appointment of Ange Postecoglou, but his no-nonsense style could be exactly what Spurs need
Daniel Levy may have finally got an appointment right after previously turning to Nuno Espirito Santo, Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte
There is a danger, though. A vociferous minority among the Tottenham fanbase have made Levy the focus of their considerable ire and if he gets this one wrong, that discontent could spread like wildfire.
If he falls out with Postecoglou, or his latest appointment comes out with the same gripes as previous managers, then Spurs will be in a world of pain.
Mourinho and Conte behaved like spoilt children in the dugout, a pair of prima donnas who, seemingly, felt they were too big for the job and spent most of their time moaning about one thing or the other.
But if Postecoglou, someone who wants to work for Tottenham and sees the job as a wonderful opportunity, comes out with similar complaints about the playing squad lacking the necessary desire to succeed then Levy has a massive problem on his hands, perhaps even an existential one for the ownership.
I am often accused of being on Levy’s payroll, his personal PR machine, because I try to put a balanced argument forward on the nature of the club’s ownership. None of that is true, of course, but I do happen to think this appointment is a really good fit.
Tottenham need an effective manager who can work in three spaces — someone who can work with the ownership model, work with the players and appease the fanbase who want a certain style of football.
The balance and dynamic in this appointment is right because Tottenham want Postecoglou and he wants Tottenham. This has all the makings of another Pochettino — except I think this guy can actually win. If he is steeped in as much substance as I think he is, then he could even be like Jurgen Klopp in terms of the galvanising effect he can have on the whole club.
Postecoglou will bring the fanbase to Levy and a tacit acceptance from the dissenting voices that he can be left in the background as he was with Pochettino so that ultimately the manager and the team become the focus again. Postecoglou has the life experience to be at a stage of his career where he is in the right place with the right opportunity and he can become Tottenham’s Klopp.
Jurgen Klopp had a big jobs on his hands when he joined Liverpool but he has led them through a hugely successful period in their history
Mail Sport columnist Simon Jordan believes Postecoglou can have a similar effect on Spurs
Spurs thought they were appointing two nailed-on winners in Mourinho and Conte but they did not get the versions we had seen previously at Chelsea and Inter Milan. Levy tried to placate his audience and made the mistake of cocking an ear to the necessity to win something by getting these ‘winners’
