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.