There are worse sets of coattails to ride on, if you’re a budding Australian coach, than those belonging to Ange Postecoglou. Kevin Muscat has done it twice: in 2013, he succeeded him as coach of Melbourne Victory when Postecoglou took charge of the Socceroos, and then again in 2021 at Yokohama F. Marinos after his move to Celtic, eventually guiding both clubs to league titles.
He is aware of how that looks. Muscat’s knockers – and there are more than a few of those, due to his brutal physicality and chequered disciplinary record as a player – can easily dismiss those achievements because in both instances, there were rock-solid foundations put in place by Postecoglou.
Kevin Muscat has now won titles in three different countries.Credit: Getty Images/Instagram
“I’m not naive to the fact that it might be assessed that I’ve taken over jobs that were in a good place. That’s the reality,” Muscat says in Angeball, my recently released biography of Postecoglou. “To step into his footsteps twice, it’s not as easy as it bloody seems, trust me. It’s not that easy to follow the big fella.”
The credit for Muscat’s latest achievement cannot be siphoned off to anyone.
By winning the Chinese Super League with Shanghai Port over the weekend, Muscat has matched Postecoglou’s globe-trotting feats in becoming just the second Australian coach (after him) to win league in three different countries: Australia, Japan, and now China.
And ironically, it could lead to him retracing his old boss’s footsteps once again – all the way back to Glasgow.
Twelve months ago, Muscat was one of two final candidates for the vacant job at Rangers, the other club in Scotland’s Old Firm. As a player, Muscat was part of the squad that won the Scottish treble in 2002-03, and he had been previously linked to the role – but, like before, he was overlooked amid fears that Rangers could be accused of ‘copying’ Celtic by appointing a manager from Australia with a penchant for high-octane attacking football. Such is the petty nature of Glasgow’s iconic rivalry, one of the most heated in world sport, that a club will cut off its nose to spite its face.
Rangers went for Philippe Clement, a three-time Belgian Pro League winner – and in retrospect, it was a mistake. Clement is now under pressure to keep his job, with Rangers already nine points behind Celtic (and Aberdeen, who are equal-top of the table) after 10 games, having earlier fumbled qualification for the UEFA Champions League.
Indeed, the discussion over Clement’s future has unfolded against the backdrop of Shanghai Port’s blistering Chinese Super League campaign.
Many in Australia were underwhelmed by Muscat’s decision to go there after two and a half years at Yokohama F. Marinos, instead of trying his luck again in Europe, but his feats in his debut season have grabbed the right kind of attention. Reigning champions from 2023 under departed coach Javier Pereira, Muscat was charged with overhauling Shanghai Port’s style of play and instilling his own Angeball-inspired ideas while mounting a defence of their title.
Ange Postecoglou and Kevin Muscat back in 2017.Credit: Getty Images
Job done: they became one of the highest-scoring teams in the world in recent memory, scoring an incredible 96 goals in 30 games at an average of 3.2 per match, clinching the trophy with a thumping 5-0 victory over Tianjin Jinmen Tiger on the final day of the season.
If Rangers continue to struggle, the axe will swing on Clement; as it happens, they face Postecoglou’s Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League on December 12, if he lasts that long. The question will then surely be asked of Muscat, but he may not say yes.
He may not want to leave; Shanghai Port can still win the AFC Champions League Elite.
Having recently turned down the opportunity to coach the Socceroos, Muscat’s sights may be set higher than Scotland. His resume is now seriously impressive. Muscat’s haul of titles in multiple countries is proof his formula can bring success in different cultures. He is the kind of progressive manager that clubs in Europe are increasingly looking for. Like Postecoglou, he may just need to hope that one of them looks past the country on his passport.
It won’t be his first. It is easily forgotten that Muscat was the first Australian to coach a top-flight European team – but he lasted just six months at Belgian club Sint-Truiden before being sacked in 2020.
“You land in Europe and you get a sense you’re not really respected because of where you live and where you were born,” Muscat told Optus Sport early in his tenure there.
That’s why he has to choose his next move carefully: it’s hard enough getting a look-in to begin with, and even more difficult to imagine a ‘failed’ Aussie coach getting a third crack at Europe.
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