Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou declared that we may be on the verge of a ‘golden generation’ of coaches, on the eve of an all-Aussie finals series.
Australia’s coaching godfather is on the verge of claiming the Scottish title in his debut season at Celtic, and revealed his delight at the progress of Aussie coaches, who he’s publicly and privately backed since he was appointed Socceroos boss in 2013.
Postecoglou also urged clubs not to overlook dismissed coaches, saying sackings are deemed “a badge of honour” in Europe, and ambitious coaches were better for the experience.
In addition to the overseas cohort, Postecoglou was impressed with the A-Leagues batch, as Tony Popovic (Melbourne Victory), Patrick Kisnorbo (Melbourne City), John Aloisi (Western United), Carl Veart (Adelaide United), Ufuk Talay (Wellington Phoenix) and naturalised Nick Montgomery (Central Coast) prepare to face off in the finals.
“I’m keeping tabs on them very closely, I’m closely associated with a lot of them that I’ve worked with and super proud with a lot of them forging their own careers,” Postecoglou said.
“Musky (Kevin Muscat) and Pete (Cklamovski) in Japan, Arthur (Papas) and Ante (Milicic) back home. Other guys like John Aloisi, Popa (Popovic) has been outstanding wherever he’s gone in my opinion.
“Dare I say it, we could be going onto a golden generation of coaches. I certainly hope so. I rate them all, they’re really good guys and really good coaches. All of them were prepared to put themselves out there.
“And just about all of them have dipped their toes overseas, which is not easy to do for an Aussie coach, I can tell you from first-hand experience.
“I follow them closely, most of them are really good, they reach out to me whenever they can. I’ve had a closer attachment to Aussie coaches than maybe Aussie players maybe because of my own sort of career, I was more of a coach than a player.
“It’s one part of the game that’s really healthy and I just hope there’s a platform for them to keep growing and become the coaches I think they can be.”
Postecoglou became a vocal advocate of A-League clubs choosing local over visa tacticians, after he was constantly overlooked for domestic jobs, despite seven years coaching Australia’s youth national teams, and earlier four years with NSL giants South Melbourne.
“I thought it was important (for Aussie coaches to get chances) because – and I’m on record as saying – after South Melbourne and my experience with Australian youth teams, I knew I was a good coach,” he said.
“Not through any arrogance, but I knew the knowledge I had and the experience I’d gained at that point, after four years at South and seven years as Australian youth coach, the experience I had I knew I could do a good job but no-one was prepared to give me an opportunity because of some perceived failures I may have had as a youth coach.
“You’ll know yourself, here in Europe a coach being sacked is a badge of honour, no-one bats an eyelid. You get another opportunity. In Australia at the time, it was like ‘you’ve had a go, that’s it, see ya later’.
“I always said to myself when I got another opportunity, I knew I’d be successful. And any opportunity I had to open the doors for other Australian coaches, I would make sure I did. Whether I thought they were good or not, I wanted to make sure I opened up as many doors as possible.
“When I left Brisbane Roar, Rado (Vidosic) got the head coaching job which I felt great about. When I left Victory it was Musky, with the Socceroos Ante stayed behind and did the Olyroos and at Yokohama Pete (Cklamovski) moved on to keep coaching in Japan, and Arthur (Papas) has moved on.
“When A-League clubs have reached out to me I always point them to Aussie coaches. Whenever they’ve asked for my opinion, I’ve always said to them we’ve got good enough talent to go there.
Buoyed by his own experiences abroad, which includes a title with Yokohama F. Marinos, Postecoglou believes the A-Leagues contingent can crack it abroad, revealing they shared similar traits to our golden generation of players who made an impact abroad.
While opportunities have been hard to come by, Postecoglou – whose team is destined to hold the Scottish Premiership aloft on May 14 after their final game against Motherwell – was confident they could make an impact if given a chance.
“I don’t know (when they’ll get chances). You hope so. Do I think they can be successful? Absolutely,” Postecoglou said.
“The guys I mentioned I know they’re just real passionate football people. Ufi Talay is another one who is constantly trying to (improve).
“We used to see it in the players, this guy’s ambitious, he’s gonna make it in Europe (because) he’ll do whatever it takes. Whether it’s Timmy (Cahill) or Harry (Kewell) leaving at 15, Dukes (Mark Viduka) going, even Vinnie Grella leaving Carlton (for Empoli) and he was gonna be a top player with Bresh (Mark Bresciano). You kind of know these guys are gonna make it.
“I see it in these guys, for most of them it’s just going to be themselves taking a leap of faith and saying ‘you know what, I’m just gonna go over there and I’m gonna wait for an opportunity and take it (when it comes)’.
“Hopefully with me doing well, I’ll try and open as many doors as I can while I’m here. Once we get two or three coming through, whether it be in Asia or here in Europe, I think we’ll see a good percentage of those guys that I mentioned getting to the high levels.”
