Throughout his managerial career, Ange Postecoglou has often spoken about the disrespect Australians receive when trying to make their way overseas in football.
Postecoglou has said repeatedly over the years that Australians, whether they are players or managers, start several steps behind everyone else in the race to reach the top of the footballing pyramid.
For Australia has a rich football history, but it is regularly ignored beyond our shores.
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The disregard for Australia as a footballing nation makes the journey to the upper echelons all the more difficult for ambitious men and women from down under.
Postecoglou got there, even if he did not “fit” as he said in what will go down as an infamous last press conference as Nottingham Forest manager.
But the former Tottenham boss’ disastrous 39-day spell in the English midlands shows that for the years it took to climb to the top, you can fall down a lot faster.
After Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis gave Postecoglou his marching orders less than 20 minutes after the final whistle blew in Nottingham’s 3-0 loss to Chelsea at the City Ground on Saturday night Australian time, the 60-year-old’s stocks have never been lower in England.
The former Celtic and Socceroos manager has been routinely ridiculed and mocked since he arrived in the Premier League at Spurs a little more than two years ago.
Questioning what a Greek-born Australian would know about football, and belittling his achievements in Scotland, Japan and his home country, is usually the behaviour of fans with a belly full of beer in pubs.
But throughout Postecoglou’s time in England, such sentiments were displayed among some past players and others in the press pack.
Australia has an issue with tally poppy syndrome, but it must have been brought to our shores on the first fleet as the more Postecoglou spoke with conviction of his belief that he can deliver success, as he had done around the globe, the more eager to cut him down they appeared.
Joey Barton, a former Premier League midfielder with Manchester City, Newcastle United and Queen’s Park Rangers who also managed Fleetwood Town and Bristol Rovers in League One and League Two respectively, took to social media to say the quiet part out loud.
Quote tweeting a video of a Postecoglou press conference from his time as Tottenham manager when the Australian was dismissive of a question insinuating his side never practice set pieces, Barton wrote: “I hope this arrogant, foreign, snake oil salesman is never appointed in this country again.
“His contempt for people in the media is completely unfounded based on his career as a player and a manager.
“Scottish and Japanese leagues?
“Might as well manage in Timbuktu.
“Premier League is top tier and Big Ange Notgotaclue has been well and truly found out!
“Nonsense Potter.”
Plenty of other people in English football with a platform have sunk the boot in too, although they have done it a less brutal manner.
Postecoglou’s name quickly became an insult to throw in Liverpool’s direction after the champions were beaten by rivals Manchester United at Anfield for the first time in almost decade, to slump to a fourth straight.
The Telegraph’s Chris Bascombe wrote: “(Arne) Slot came into this campaign seeking to create a side worthy of comparison with European champions Paris St-Germain.
“The sobering reality is they have looked more like Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham Hotspur in the opening weeks of their title defence; great to watch and full of attacking intent, but defensively flawed and taking so many risks they might need gamblers anonymous on speed dial.”
The Guardian’s chief sports writer Barney Ronay has been a regular critic of Postecoglou.
The Australian manager said in press conference last week that his first ten matches in charge of Tottenham, after which Spurs were top of the league, are treated as an outlier, while the eight matches he lasted in Nottingham was seen as of the utmost important.
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Ronay followed that exact trend to slap a very unflattering moniker on Postecoglou.
“Outside that glorious high, Postecoglou has a fair claim, at least in those final 50 games, on the title of least effective Premier League manager ever,” Ronay wrote.
“Yes, there have been worse win ratios than his 26% (context: comfortably below Ruben Amorim’s). But not in charge of players of this quality.
“It is even incorrect to say Ange went down firing shots, that he never abandoned his principles. He often tried to play differently. It didn’t work.
“His teams became not just unsuccessful, but run-of-the-mill unsuccessful.
“By the end, the most entertaining element was his own apparently unshakeable conviction that this was all somehow someone else’s fault, that he, Ange, stood alone on the heath surrounded by fools.”
With such perceptions, it is hard to see Postecoglou gaining another opportunity in the Premier League.
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But a top five finish with Tottenham the season after one of England’s greatest ever goal scorers, Harry Kane, left for Bayern Munch, and, of course, a Europa League trophy will surely catch the eye of a sympathetic club owner from another pocket of Europe.
Because despite Ronay’s comments, the destruction of this Forest was not all Postecolgou’s doing.
The trees were already tumbling when he was brought in to try stop them from hitting the ground.
Club owner Evangelos Marinakis arguably has more to answer for than Postecoglou.
Accomplished football writer and broadcaster Henry Winter is another who has been a regular Postecoglou critic, and despite taking the chance to fire a few parting shots at the Australian, accepted that this mess is of Marinakis’ making.
“Well done to owner Evangelos Marinakis for recognising and acknowledging he’d made a mistake appointing Postecoglou and acting quickly to cut his losses. The only surprise was that he didn’t act before the international break. Postecoglou looked doomed before then,” Winter wrote on social media.
“Always the wrong appointment. Many Forest fans didn’t want him after the chaos of Spurs PL season (EL cup cake great but bread and butter of the league was stale). He replaced the popular Nuno. His tactics didn’t suit Forest’s squad. He didn’t work enough on the defending.
“Marinakis partly culpable for this mess. He’s gone from being a win away from the Champions League, going on the pitch and appearing to argue with Nuno, giving him a new deal, not working more on their relationship, not addressing the Edu issue and not healing the wounds of a frustrated Nuno, who should never have criticised his boss in public.
“Marinakis has to get next appointment right. Time to roll the Dyche. Sean Dyche is the obvious candidate. Available (useful), lives nearby (not that important but useful) and ex-Forest youth team (understands the club, useful). Forest need a manager like Dyche who can come in, steady the ship, reorganise the defence and reconnect with the fans. A manager who talks about the club and the players, not himself and his past.”
Marinakis’ behaviour was not out of the ordinary.
The Greek businessman bought Forest in 2017 and while he has overseen a period of success as three years ago, the club returned to the Premier League for the first time since 1999, and this season they returned to European competition for the first time since 1996, Marinakis has made some eyebrow raising moves.
“Since promotion to the Premier League, Forest have: signed a British-record 22 players in one summer window, sacked the much-loved Steve Cooper who brought them up, made an (at the time) unpopular appointment in Nuno, been deducted four points, reshaped their squad again, qualified for Europe, sacked Nuno, hired Postecoglou and then sacked him after 39 days,” The Telegraph’s Sam Dean wrote.
“Truly, it has been impossible to look away.”
Away from the spotlight of England, Marinakis has been even more chaotic in his decision-making.
He has owned Olympiacos in his home country of Greece since 2010, and served as the club’s president since.
In that 15 year period, Marinakis has sacked an astonishing 24 coaches.
The 58-year-old has not been afraid to pull the trigger.
Marinakis’ decision-making came into question by Premier League legend Alan Shearer after the Postecoglou sacking.
“Ultimately the results haven’t been good enough and that is on Ange. But the owner has to take some responsibility too,” Shearer told the BBC.
“He chose Ange, it was his appointment. How can you go from a manager in Nuno with one style of play to someone like Ange who everyone knows wants his teams to play in a completely different way?”
Speaking on the BBC’s Match of the Day, Premier League winner with Manchester City, Micah Richards, shared similar sentiments.
“I think it was (inevitable) for the owners in terms of his standards for the club,” Richards said of the sacking.
“I remember last season, he thought they were going into the Champions League, didn’t work out, got into Europe, wasn’t good enough. Obviously Nuno gets sacked after that.
“But in terms of football – five games, 39 days in the Premier League, and you’re getting sacked. It’s just ridiculous to me.
“I don’t know where they’re going in terms of football. I understand the results haven’t been great, but in terms of a manager trying to get his philosophy over…
“We knew with Nuno it was a defensive-style team, now we know Ange likes to go on the front foot.
“We always talk about giving managers time to put their input on what the team wants to do. And for him to get five games in the league…”
Former Nottingham Forest striker Robert Earnshaw also said on the BBC that managers “will not fancy” being Postecoglou’s replacement given the volatility of the entire saga.
Former Everton manager Sean Dyche, ex-Manchester City Roberto Mancini and current Fulham boss Marco Silva have all been linked with Forest.
But several managers will surely be wary of receiving an award from Marinakis, or having a dinner with him, as Postecoglou did.
As for Australians following in Postecoglou’s shoes, it will be a cautionary tale of taking the right opportunity.
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Yes, they will have worked so hard to get there, that they would be eager to grab any chance that comes up at the top level, but they need to be sure it is the right fit.
Postecoglou’s Melbourne Victory protege Kevin Muscat had been linked with taking on the Rangers job in Scotland after the hostile exit of Russell Martin.
Muscat, who has enjoyed success as a manager in China, Japan and Australia, may have dodged a bullet as talks reportedly broke down.
“What it’ll do is make all Australian coaches say, listen, you need to be really careful as to the situation you’re stepping into and the owner that you’re gonna be working under,” Australian football commentator Craig Foster told Nine’s Wide World of Sports.
“You know, Ange made that choice; he knew the risk, and unfortunately, what I would say is a stupid decision, but a very predictable one has been made.”
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