In an exclusive interview, Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou remembers his key head-to-head with Manchester City's Pep Guardiola in Japan
(Image credit: Getty Images)
A pre-season friendly against Manchester City may have paved the way for Ange Postecoglou’s route to the Premier League – even if the man himself still doesn’t know whether a recommendation from Pep Guardiola earned him the Celtic job.
Postecoglou guided Yokohama F Marinos to a first J League title for 15 years in 2019 – midway through that title-winning year, they also impressed in a summer friendly against Manchester City.
The Japanese side are part of the City Football Group and, although they lost the friendly 3-1, they recorded 58 per cent possession, something that very few outfits manage against Manchester City.
Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola was impressed with Postecoglou (Image credit: Marvin Ibo Guengoer - GES Sportfoto/Getty Images)
“They came over and it was fantastic for us,” Postecoglou said, in an exclusive interview for the latest issue of FourFourTwo magazine. “Against the best in the world, we wanted to play the creative football that we played on a weekly basis.”
Guardiola has since spoken about how impressed he was by Postecoglou when the pair met in Japan – reports have also suggested that Pep mentioned the Australian to Celtic majority shareholder Dermot Desmond during a chance meeting at a hotel, while the Bhoys were searching for a new manager in 2021.
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Postecoglou would go on to win two league titles at Celtic, and move on to Tottenham in the Premier League this summer.
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Asked whether Guardiola did indeed recommend him for the Parkhead job, Postecoglou told FFT, “I’m not sure. You know what it’s like – success has a million fathers, so who knows what the actual story was?
Ange Postecoglou was a big success at Celtic (Image credit: Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)
“But it was Desmond who reached out to me. I chatted to him and literally straight after that conversation, he made his decision.
“What other background work they did, I’m not really sure, but I was delighted he saw something in me to give me the opportunity.”
Chris joined FourFourTwo in 2015 and has reported from more than 20 countries, in places as varied as Ivory Coast and the Arctic Circle. He's interviewed Pele, Zlatan and Santa Claus (it's a long story), as well as covering the World Cup, AFCON and the Clasico. He previously spent 10 years as a newspaper journalist, and completed the 92 in 2017.
