Ange Postecoglou is set to take over a team with a disillusioned fan base and in desperate need of a total overhaul.
He will also arrive amid plenty of trepidation from even some of the more optimistic supporters given he is a relative unknown quantity when it comes to the league.
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How Ange will perform for ‘biggest test’ | 07:17
Sound familiar?
The former Socceroos coach has all but officially been announced as Tottenham Hotspur’s new boss and he enters a situation eerily similar to the one he found when he arrived at Celtic.
Postecoglou, who was with Yokohama F. Marinos at the time, was announced as the Scottish giants’ new boss in July 2021 to little acclaim.
After all, Celtic had pinned their hopes on former Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe to take over from Neil Lennon, only for the former to turn down the gig and leave the Hoops in a state of flux.
Once news broke of Postecoglou’s imminent arrival, it sparked a wave of confusion from pundits with no reaction more infamous than that of 13-time Scotland international Alan Brazil.
The Scot quipped on talkSPORT at the time: “Celtic have applied for exemption with UEFA for Yokohama Marinos boss, what is it, Postecooglou? (sic), to manage in Europe.
“He does not hold the required licence – oh, this has got to be a wind-up.”
Asked how he’d fare, Brazil sarcastically replied: “Oh, he’d be a great manager. Where do they come up with these guys from?”
A domestic treble in the 2022/23 season, five trophies and a return to the Champions League proved Brazil and all of the other doubters so very, very wrong.
Now, Postecoglou must do all of that again: galvanise the fractured fan base, rebuild the squad and deliver success to a club which pays its cleaners overtime to hide the dust on its trophy cabinet.
But this time, it’s not in the small pond that is the Scottish Premiership, it’s in the Pacific Ocean that is the Premier League.
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RUTHLESS TWO-YEAR GLASWEGIAN CULL PROVIDES BIG ANGE CLUE
Where Postecoglou goes, a swashbuckling and fast-paced brand of attacking football follows.
But to implement his trademark style of play, it requires a certain type of player.
When it came to the summer window in 2021, Postecoglou wasted little time in bringing through his transfer targets but, like his own appointment, they arrived with scepticism.
After all, what would Kyogo Furuhashi, who arrived from Vissel Kobe in the J1 League, offer that Celtic couldn’t find elsewhere in Europe?
Yet Furuhashi and almost all of Postecoglou’s other signings proved the doubters wrong as they endeared themselves to the Celtic faithful with endless running and passionate displays.
To highlight Postecoglou’s eye for a deal and how big of a squad overhaul he enacted, he spent just $AUD42 million (per Transfermarkt) on signings throughout the 2021/22 season across 17 players.
But his spending was aided by selling three key assets in Odsonne Edouard, Kristoffer Ajer and Ryan Christie as Celtic recouped $60 million in outgoing transfer fees, representing an $18 million profit.
Postecoglou again dipped into the transfer market ahead of the 2022/23 season where he turned Jota and Cameron Carter-Vickers, who were on loan in Postecoglou’s first Celtic campaign, into permanent signings.
What’s Ange’s Tottenham to-do list? | 05:26
So too was all-action winger Daizen Maeda, who joined from Yokohama F. Marinos while Socceroos star Aaron Mooy was snapped up on a free deal.
With a Champions League campaign on the horizon, there wasn’t a great need for a Celtic clear-out in Postecoglou’s second season with the main exits coming via Josip Juranovic and Georgios Giakoumakis, who both arrived only a season earlier.
Although Celtic made a net loss of $27 million, the money made from playing Champions League football softened the financial blow and kept the club in a healthy state.
In Postecoglou’s final game as Celtic boss, the starting lineup had just two players who were at the club prior to his arrival: captain Callum McGregor and left-back Greg Taylor.
Even for the Hoops’ first Champions League match against Real Madrid this season, McGregor and Taylor were the only ones from the pre-Postecoglou era who started.
What that proves is Postecoglou is ruthless when it comes to overhauling teams to fit his mould, but there is also a place for those willing to learn and adapt under his tutelage.
It’s a skill he will undoubtedly need to call on once the moment he gets his feet under the desk at Tottenham.
Spurs reach ‘verbal agreement’ with Ange | 01:23
THE SILVER LININGS IN SPURS’ $863M MESS
As it stands, Tottenham have one of the older squads in the Premier League, especially when it came to last season’s starting lineup.
Hugo Lloris, the club’s captain and first-choice goalkeeper, is 36.
Backup goalkeeper Fraser Foster is 35.
Ivan Perisic is 34, Heung-Min Son and Ben Davies are 30 while Eric Dier and Harry Kane are both 29.
Worryingly, all of these players — especially Kane — were relied on far too heavily throughout the season.
As for Tottenham’s record in the transfer market over recent years, it has been patchy at best.
Since the summer of 2019, the London club has spent a staggering $863 million on new players.
French midfielder Tanguy Ndombele, a $100m arrival in that first window, was the most expensive of the lot with Richarlison’s $93 million transfer in July last year not far behind.
But Ndombele has only showed glimpses of his ability since his record-breaking move while Richarlison received more yellow cards for celebrating his goals than he actually scored in the Premier League.
In that same time span, the club has brought in $150 million in transfer and loan fees.
Granted, that is not necessarily down to the manager and perhaps speaks more to chairman Daniel Levy’s inability to move on players deemed as surplus to requirements.
But some players who have joined the club in that time have had minuscule impact, underpinning the club’s poor transfer dealings.
Bryan Gil, signed in 2021, has more chance of being in a Beatles tribute band than playing for Spurs again after being farmed out on loan twice since his arrival.
The Telegraph claims Postecoglou will be given the freedom to conduct a clear-out of his own, with as many as seven first-team players set to be kicked out the exit door.
The report claims Davinson Sanchez and Ryan Sessegnon should seek pastures new, while the club could be open to bids for defensive duo Ben Davies and Eric Dier.
Harry Winks, Sergio Reguilon and Giovani Lo Celso, who all spent last season out on loan at different clubs, could also be shafted to help Postecoglou trim the fat from the squad.
Lloris has also gone on the record stating he isn’t quite sure what the future holds as he reportedly has a tempting offer on the table from an unnamed Saudi Arabian club.
There’s also the curious case of what to do with record signing Ndombele.
The French midfielder made 30 appearances for Napoli as they went on to win Serie A this season, but 22 of those came from the bench.
Whether Postecoglou views him as a diamond which needs refining or damaged goods remains to be seen, but if he is to be sold, his value has certainly decreased since his record-breaking arrival.
Safe to say the former Socceroos boss will have his hands full when it comes to culling players.
But there’s still one very important piece to the puzzle in North London that Postecoglou might not even have a say on.
THE BIG KANE CONUNDRUM THAT COULD SHAPE ANGE’S SEASON
He’s the club’s all-time top goalscorer.
He’s their attacking talisman who bagged 30 goals in a season where Tottenham secured their lowest finish in 14 years.
He is, quite essentially, Tottenham Hotspur.
And he could become the club’s biggest problem this summer.
Harry Kane has spent virtually his entire career at Tottenham and become one of the most lethal strikers in world football.
But for all of the goals he’s scored in the famous white shirt — 280 goals to be exact — he has no team silverware to show for it.
Kane will turn 30 on July 28 and although players are able to prolong their careers more than ever thanks to modern science, he isn’t getting any younger.
So, why is Kane such a hot topic for Spurs?
Well, he has just one year remaining on his current deal.
It presents Levy with an almighty conundrum: does he decide to cash in on his most prized asset now, or does he hold on to him for one more season but run the risk of letting him walk for free this time next year?
Kane won’t be short on potential suitors, with Manchester United a team constantly linked with the England skipper.
There’s also heavy interest from Real Madrid, who are in the hunt for a superstar striker after Karim Benzema departed the club and have the funds to pull off such a deal.
Transfermarkt values Kane at $145 million, but Levy will no doubt look to squeeze more from interested parties if the need arises.
Levy is known in football circles as a tough negotiator at the best of times, but what about at his worst?
Allow legendary Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson to indulge, as he dealt with Levy in an ultimately successful pursuit of Dimitar Berbatov in 2008.
“That whole experience was more painful than my hip replacement,” Ferguson famously quipped.
There’s no doubt the question would have been one of many Postecoglou asked Levy before taking on the role and the soon-to-be former Hoops boss will have prepared for either scenario.
If Kane stays, Postecoglou will have the chance to work with one of the best strikers in world football for at least one season.
Who knows, perhaps the 29-year-old could become so enamoured with Postecoglou’s style of play he decides to hang around in North London a little while longer, pending Spurs’ success under the Aussie boss.
But if Kane is moved on, it would give Postecoglou significant funds to work with as he plots a rebuild of the club.
In some respects, it might even buy him more patience from the club’s powerbrokers and fans knowing they no longer have their record goalscorer in their ranks.
Either way, Postecoglou will be prepared.
After a spectacularly poor season in which they had three different faces in the dugout and missed out on European football for the first time in 13 years, things can’t get much worse at Tottenham.
Add in the pressing need for a squad refresh and the prospect of losing Kane, it’s not quite a free hit for Postecoglou but it’s a golden chance to prove the football world wrong.
Just like he has done at every stage of his career from Brisbane all the way to Glasgow.
Of course, expectations will be high at Tottenham.
They have a world-class stadium and a squad that, albeit its many flaws, is one many teams in Europe would crave.
If Postecoglou starts slowly, you best believe the claws of the ruthless English media will sharpen by the minute and fans will make their feelings heard in the stadium, pubs and social media.
But that’s just the perfect storm for Postecoglou to thrive in, just like it was in Glasgow two years ago.
