‘Hoddle’s an absolute master’ – Postecoglou on his earliest memories of watching Spurs

Ange Postecoglou has admitted that he has many fond memories of watching Tottenham as a kid despite growing up on the other side of the world.

Football is not one of Australia’s biggest sports, and that was particularly true when Postecoglou was growing up, with the sport often taking a backseat to Australian Rules Football, Cricket and Rugby League.

However, being from a Greek background, Postecoglou inherited the love for the beautiful from his father, and he admitted that he had always been drawn to the Premier League and the old English First Division.

The new Spurs boss admitted that he still harbours memories of Ricky Villa’s brilliant solo effort in the FA Cup final in 1981 and that he was awestruck by the various world-class players who have worn the Lilywhite shirt over the years, including Hoddle.

Postecoglou praises Glenn Hoddle

When asked if anything sticks in his mind about watching Tottenham when he was growing up, the 56-year-old told Football.London: “Yeah plenty. If you do grow up on the other side of the world, you don’t have it on your doorstep. So for the most part for us, it was the English Premier League or the First Division when I was growing up and I remember Ricky Villa and Ossie Ardiles absolutely.

“I remember that FA Cup final absolutely. They were my best childhood memories, I’ve said it before, because it was me and my dad at 2 am. That’s me as a young boy, sitting on a couch watching a game of football. Plenty of Tottenham teams…Glenn Hoddle’s an absolute master and those kind of players resonate around the world.

“Sometimes I know it’s hard for you to understand because you’ve had it right in front of you your whole lives, but when you’re living on the other side of the world it’s a real investment. To get up in the middle of the night, it stays with you. There are plenty of teams and Tottenham players through that era that I have strong memories of in my childhood.”

The Australian got some high praise from Pep Guardiola, who described him as an ‘exceptional manager’ soon after Spurs appointed him last month (The Sun).

However, Postecoglou played down suggestions that the Manchester City boss has been a mentor and friend of his, admitting that they have only met one time when the Premier League side played his Yokohama Marinos team back in 2019.

When asked about Guardiola’s words of praise for him, the new Tottenham head coach responded: “It was very gracious of him but I spent about 20 minutes in his company [when Yokohama played City in a pre-season friendly a few years back]. I have not spoken to him otherwise. If you are asking me, will he go down as one of the greatest managers of all time, yes.

“He has had an unbelievable influence on football. All of us involved. Whether it was consciously or unconsciously influenced by him, absolutely. An unbelievable manager but check my phone mate, he’s not in it under Pep!

“I met him [in Japan]. He was great. He was very generous. Most of the top managers are. I coached against Sir Alex Ferguson in 2000 in Brazil, we did a press conference together and he gave me 15 minutes of his time. It was gold for me. I was 34 at the time and I was coaching a team from Australia against Manchester Utd in the Club World Cup and spent 15 minutes which was gold.

“All the great managers in the world have that great trademark. When I came across Pep in Japan he was generous with his time. There are people you eye from afar and plenty after I met them, I wish I hadn’t, but he is not one of them. You want to be kind with your time and he certainly was.”

Spurs Web Opinion

The difficulty of working yourself into a top Premier League job when you start out your coaching career in Australia, cannot be overstated. One has to possess incredible self-belief and dedication to achieve that, and those qualities will hopefully serve Postecoglou well in his new challenge at Spurs.