Ange Postecoglou Interview - 'We Want To Achieve Things That Have Never Been Achieved Before'
Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglu speaks exclusively to FourFourTwo's Adam Clery on his move to North London, how he's revolutionised the club, and his philosophies for life in general.
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00:00Ange, very nice to meet you.
00:15The first thing I wanted to ask you is, not really a week's going by at the minute without
00:19there being some kind of analysis or discussion or examination of Ange Ball as a concept.
00:24Is that something that exists to you, like is it a definable thing or is it just something
00:28that people see?
00:29No, I think there's definitely, I'd like to think there's something there that we work
00:34on on a weekly basis.
00:35It's not just random sort of events, but at the same time, it's what I love about football.
00:42It's kind of a, it's got its own life and I often say to the players that what we do
00:50during a week and the information we give them is kind of preparing them for an exam.
00:54But like all exams, you don't know what the questions are going to be, so a game of football
00:58throws up things, but there is a structure.
01:01We try and allow players then to find solutions within that and there are some disciplines
01:08that we need to have as a group for the sort of individuals to function within it.
01:13When you're coming into a group, obviously there's quite a lot you've got to sort of
01:16like get on board with them and you've got to get them up to speed.
01:18What are like the personality traits you look for in players that sort of say to you straight
01:21away, this is going to be a good fit for that player or I'm going to have a lot of work to do?
01:25Yeah, look, I mean, firstly, I don't see them as players, they're people, you know, and
01:30particularly when you get to this level, there are so many wonderfully talented footballers
01:35around the world, you know, people talk about recruiting, you know, it's pretty hard to
01:40get it wrong.
01:41They're all pretty good, but it's more about then the fit, you know, do they fit A, into
01:44the football we want to play and B, are they the kind of personality character and I think
01:49that's a big one for me because the way we play, you know, you need to have a certain
01:54mindset as an individual, as a person, you know, to be brave, to want to sort of challenge
02:00yourself on a daily basis and, you know, that's why, you know, before we sign anyone, I kind
02:05of always have a little bit of a chat to the player just to get a feel for the kind of
02:11person they are and not pass judgement on them, just think, you know, do they really
02:16understand, what's their motivation for coming to us and I think it's an important part of
02:21what we do.
02:22You were a left back, I'm right in saying, how would you have found playing in the kind
02:26of football you like to coach, would you have enjoyed it?
02:29I would have enjoyed the training because, you know, I hated running, mate, you know,
02:34which is not great for a footballer and don't look at me now, I was a decent runner, I was
02:39in decent shape, I was a full-back, you know, that loved to get forward, but I could never
02:43understand why we used to run at training without the ball, just run for kilometres
02:46and kilometres and I hated it, you know, and I've kind of, I've taken that into my sort
02:50of coaching philosophy that, you know, everything we do at training is going to be around the
02:54way we want to play our football and so I would have enjoyed training but, fair to say
03:00as an inverted full-back, I'd be lacking a fair bit of the qualities needed, I probably
03:05would have ruled myself out.
03:06Just to flip that question on its head then, if you were given Ange Prostokoglou the player
03:10as a coach now, what would you have made of him?
03:12Doesn't like running enough?
03:13No, I enjoyed running in the game, I just didn't enjoy running sort of for no reason,
03:17you know, and I still do it today, like all my teams, you know, you see the way we play,
03:23it's high energy, high tempo, we want to press and that means a lot of running and that means
03:27you've got to be really fit, so we work hard at training but all of it is with the motivation
03:33of playing our football, so it's with, there's a reason we do it, you know, and I come from
03:38an era where we didn't question those things, you know, if somebody said to you, look, training
03:42today is a 10k run, well we just go off and run, you know, I mean, some of my coaches
03:46would have loved seeing all these woods and fields and just tell us to run until they
03:50can't see us anymore but, you know, that wasn't the point for me and, you know, that's why
03:57I've tried to take it to my sort of coaching and management style is to give people a reason
04:03to do what I want them to do.
04:05I'm going to apologise in advance for the pronunciation here but I was reading that
04:08there is a Greek sort of term, katibala, is that right?
04:12Yeah, that was...
04:13That's wrong?
04:14No, no, no, it's close, it's good, it's what my father used to tell me all the time, right,
04:19katibala, which means...
04:20I was close!
04:21Yeah, you were close, not bad, it just means keep the ball on the deck, you know, keep
04:24the ball on the ground, you know, he just said to me, you know, that was his philosophy
04:28around football was that if the ball's on the grass that's when the magic happens, you
04:32know, why you've got to kick it long and, you know, put the ball in the air and, you
04:38know, that was constantly a phrase he'd tell me even, you know, when I'd already sort of
04:43established myself as a manager, that's the only piece of advice he'd constantly give
04:46me.
04:47Was it sort of like, does it go sort of beyond being a football mentality, because I read
04:50somewhere that it's actually got like a slightly deeper meaning to it, like it's a good way
04:53of sort of approaching life, just try and keep it simple and do your best work?
04:57Yeah, I think so, I mean, football's kind of been the conduit to everything meaningful
05:03in my life and all my relationships have stemmed from the game, obviously my career is sort
05:09of entwined with the game and I do, I use it as a metaphor for life, you know, we train
05:15every day as if we feel lucky to be doing what we're doing and I treat life the same
05:20way, I don't take it for granted, you know, I want to try and, you know, achieve, you
05:26know, things that haven't been achieved before in my professional life and I want to take
05:29that into my personal life and try and live every day to its fullest with my family and
05:34so there is, for me, there is a synergy there and I think that helps because ultimately,
05:40you know, when I talk to a group of players, wherever I've been, I think the one thing
05:44they come away from is that what I say, I mean, you know, it's me, it's genuine, I'm
05:51not saying it just to get a reaction or because I've heard somebody else say it, you know,
05:56when I talk to them, I talk to them, you know, from deep inside me so they know that
06:00that's me saying those words.
06:02You were saying before that you want to achieve something for yourself, for your family, do
06:06you feel like you're in the right place now to go and do all that, is this the club where
06:09you can achieve the things you want to achieve?
06:11I think I've done it my whole career, mate, you know, I've never felt the need to sort
06:16of validate it because I hadn't done it at a level people think you need to do it, you
06:21know, all the football clubs I've been at, I can comfortably say, you know, if I go back
06:26there, I'll be welcomed back because I've made an impact and this is another opportunity
06:30to do that, you know, again, obviously, one of the biggest clubs in the world in the major
06:35competition in the world, so I get that, you know, there's more of an emphasis around it
06:39but, you know, everywhere I've been, I've tried to do the same thing is, you know, leave
06:44a mark and, you know, so far, wherever I've been, I've done that.
06:47Has it been difficult, has it been different to settle in in this job as it has been to
06:51others or have you done largely the same things?
06:52No, it's pretty much the same, mate, I mean, every club that I've been has kind of been
06:56a different challenge, don't get me wrong, but the way I go about it is pretty much the
07:01same, is, you know, to come in and, you know, as quickly as possible, try and gain the trust
07:08of all the people involved, you know, players, staff, the supporters, you know, everyone involved
07:13in the football club, you know, how quickly can I get them to believe in me, because that's
07:18where it kind of begins and ends, because you can have all the knowledge in the world
07:21but if people don't really resonate or believe in you, mate, it's a lost cause, so, you know,
07:28everywhere I've gone, that's always been my major sort of priority and focus at the beginning
07:35is, you know what, get people to believe in me and then the rest will come.
07:39How have you found that challenge of getting them to believe in you with this group in
07:41particular, have they been easy to work with?
07:44Not dissimilar to in the past, because again, there's been a kind of, you know, consistent
07:49pattern in that I've always gone into clubs after, you know, some pretty disappointing
07:54times which, and for the most part, people are looking for something in that moment,
08:01it's about sort of me trying to, you know, whatever sort of dark cloud may be over the
08:06place to try and lift that, and it's been no different here.
08:11The players have been outstanding, the staff have been brilliant, I mean, we've obviously
08:14brought new staff in as well which has helped, I think, because you do have to change things,
08:18you just can't go in, even though I pretty much go in on my own, it's to still bring
08:24some new faces into the environment and, you know, everyone at the club's been great, just
08:28sort of at least having an open mind to listen, that's all you can ask for, you can't just
08:33expect people to follow you from the first day when you say what you want to do, if you're
08:37prepared to listen, then, you know, you've got a sort of starting point for everything
08:42you want to do.
08:43Final question then, how far do you think this group can go?
08:45Obviously it's early days, but the start's been really good.
08:48Who knows, mate, why would I bother putting a limit on it, you know, it's just, you know,
08:54again, when I started 26 years ago, if somebody said to you, you know, even yourself, you're
09:00probably, what, five at the time, but anyway, somebody a bit older, you know, this bloke's
09:04going to end up managing one of the biggest clubs in the world, after managing one of
09:08the most famous clubs in the world, and he's going to have all this success, you'd probably
09:11say, nah, that ain't going to happen, you know, that's a Hollywood script, so I've kind
09:15of learnt in my life not to put a limit on where I'm going to end up, I'm not going to
09:20put a limit on what this football club can do.
09:21Well, thank you so much for ball-parking me around 30.
09:23Good man, thank you.
09:24Thanks very much.
09:25That's all right.