Ange Postecoglou will make history once again on Wednesday morning (AEST) when he becomes the first Aussie to coach in the UEFA Champions League, leading Celtic against the might of 14-time winners Real Madrid – but for one of his closest confidants, it’ll have a bittersweet tinge.
Not just because Kevin Muscat once played for Rangers – who Celtic ruthlessly dismantled 4-0 at the weekend – but because the former Melbourne Victory boss can’t help but watch what is unfolding in Glasgow and wondering what could have been for the Socceroos and the Australian game.
Ange Postecoglou will become the first Aussie to coach in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday morning.Credit:Getty
Postecoglou has turned Celtic into a team without a hint of fear or trepidation, and despite the strength of their next opponents, they will continue to play his trademark style of swashbuckling attacking football – if anything, Muscat tips, they’ll be even more aggressive against Real Madrid, not less.
This was the same journey Muscat says Postecoglou tried to take Australia on, and while it saw them win the 2015 Asian Cup and reach the last World Cup, it ended with his mysterious resignation after months of conjecture and criticism about his methods in the final stages of their qualification campaign for Russia 2018.
“It comes down to points and wins – that’s the business, that’s the industry, I get that. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see it in our country, the growth,” Muscat told the Herald and The Age.
“Ange was thinking, ‘This is an opportunity for me to give something back to Australian football [so that] in four years, eight years, 12 years time, we’re not parking the bus at an Asian Cup or a World Cup, that we take teams on without any fear and with belief.’ I truly believe that’s what Ange was trying to do.
Ange Postecoglou with his wife Georgia and kids Max and Alexi.Credit:Getty Images
“I could just see it. We were playing some football without fear. Yeah, some of the results weren’t great, and some of those results were very good. There were ups and downs.
“Ultimately, for 95 per cent of people, the growth is in results. But of course, no one hates losing more than Ange, and I daresay he loves winning. The growth is far more important than those things. But a lot of people couldn’t see it, and then some people didn’t allow themselves to see it.
“At the end, you can just sense that not everyone wanted that, because of their own agendas, and it’s a shame because I think we’d be in a far better place today if we carried along that path – not relying on the type of football we were playing many, many years ago.”
Muscat’s comments are a thinly veiled swipe at forces which allegedly worked five years ago to oust Postecoglou from the job or encouraged the then-FFA hierarchy to make a move against him – as well as being critical of how the Socceroos currently play.
Postecoglou recently explained on Stan Sport FC that he quit as Socceroos coach because he sensed that parts of the soccer community, or at least those with influence inside it, were too focused on short-term results and too worried about missing World Cup qualification to understand the bigger picture he was trying to paint in having his Australian team take the same sort of fearless approach as Celtic – no matter the opposition or circumstances.
Whatever your perspective on Postecoglou’s Socceroos exit, Australia’s loss is proving to be Scottish football’s gain. After doing the double last season, Celtic have won all six of their league games this season, and are already five points and 17 goals clear of second-placed Rangers on the table, with the UEFA Champions League their next frontier.
There is now a quiet buzz building across Europe regarding Postecoglou’s Celtic and their eye-catching play, and the hype will go to another level if they can sufficiently challenge Real Madrid or finish in the top two in Group F, which also includes RB Leipzig and Shakhtar Donetsk.
“He would be thinking, ‘I can’t wait to test our growth against these blokes’ – that’s the only thing that would be going through his mind. I’m excited by it,” said Muscat, who is in the unique position of having succeeded Postecoglou as coach at two different clubs, Melbourne Victory and Yokohama F. Marinos, where he currently works.
“Obviously, it’s a great challenge, a massive challenge, but I don’t think there’s a coach in all the pots who will take it on as aggressively as we’ll witness. It’d be great to get results but for me, the beauty of waking up and watching these games is there won’t be any difference [in how they play].
“Just seeing the carefree attitude of someone that maybe was told ‘you can’t do this, you can’t do that, this won’t work, and that won’t work’ – it’s not proving people wrong. The biggest joy I get out of it is he’s proving himself right.”
