Pep Guardiola sparked Ange Postecoglou’s Premier League dream after key meeting
Ange Postecoglou says ‘we’ll get through it’ after Tottenham are beaten again
Pep Guardiola might have put Ange Postecoglou on his path to the Premier League after a chance meeting in Japan. It is claimed that Guardiola bumped into Celtic majority shareholder Dermot Desmond in 2021 and recommended the now-Tottenham boss.
Postecoglou is unsure whether the story is true but discussed his first encounter with Guardiola. The Australian was managing Japanese outfit Yokohama F Marinos when they hosted a mid-season friendly against Guardiola’s Manchester City side in 2019.
The J League team enjoyed a remarkable 58 per cent of possession against City, something not many Premier League sides have achieved against the perennial champions. Guardiola was left impressed by his counterpart.
“They came over and it was fantastic for us,” Postecoglou, who faces City with Spurs on Sunday, now recounts to Four Four Two Magazine. “Against the best in the world, we wanted to play the creative football that we played on a weekly basis.”
The story goes that Guardiola subsequently met Celtic owner Desmond two years later. Postecoglou was interviewed by the Scot and was offered the job soon after their conversation.
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Asked if he knows about Guardiola’s impact on his journey, the 58-year-old continued: “I’m not sure. You know what it’s like – success has a million fathers, so who knows what the actual story was?
“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.”
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Postecoglou went on to win the Scottish Premiership in both his seasons in Scotland. His Celtic side comfortably fended off competition from Rangers to complete a double of league triumphs.
So impressed by his work with Celtic, Premier League side Spurs turned a blind eye to several high-profile managers in the summer to appoint the former Australia head coach. The north Londoners initially topped the Premier League after 10 matches thanks to an unbeaten run.
A devastating injury crisis has since hampered Spurs’ hopes of competing with the likes of City, Liverpool and Arsenal. Postecoglou comes up against Guardiola on Saturday hoping to end a run of three consecutive defeats.
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