Ange Postecoglou has a lot of time for the media back home in Australia. The Celtic manager proudly flies the flag for the country wherever he goes and will always look to impart wisdom on the next generation of young, hopeful managers.
Speaking on Luck Darcy’s on the Australian’s ‘Empowering leaders’ podcast, inspirational Ange comes out in bucket loads.
The Hoops gaffer talks about his upbringing, gravitating towards coaching and the journey he’s been on.
Speaking around his football philosophy, Ange made it clear tactics and technical ability isn’t enough to get you over the line in sport. The Australian has found himself become a story teller as a manager, a narrator who brings his squad together and gives them something to fight for.
Ange accepts the game is process driven, but if you approach it too clinically you will either fail or lose the players eventually. For the Australian, it’s all about the story and getting his players invested.
And the story isn’t about winning at the weekend, or chasing down the league title. Ange believes if he tells the story of the squad right, the end result will come.
Who would argue with the Celtic manager after last season?
Below, the Scottish League title winning manager describes his process.
‘The game is process driven, but it’s such a dry word, particularly in sport when you’re talking about passionate people.
“If you walk into a room of athletes and you’re just talking about processes – you lose them after a while. Ultimately, that’s what it is about, it is about the process, it’s about creating an environment where the end the result should take care of itself – if we go through these steps.
“For me to bring that to life, what I’ve tried to do my whole career is really challenge myself and put myself in positions where that was at club level or international level, or internationally in different cultures – how do I get those processes to come to life. Into something people in that room can resonate with and understand and appreciate.
“Invariably, you end up becoming a story teller. That’s what i think I’ve honed my craft into becoming. Into telling a story that people who are sometimes coming from totally different cultures. Particularly when I think about Celtic, we’ve got guys from all over the world that have had totally different life experiences. It’s to tell a story they all have interest in, and again it can’t just be that we’re going to be champions – they’ve heard that story before – and they can walk into any dressing room and hear that.
“It’s how I can tell a story they can all relate to and all want to be a part of and they’re all really interested in what the next page has. What potentially the ending may look like. If you can tell that story in a real vivid way, it almost becomes a living thing.
“When I’ve had success sometimes from being a narrator, I end up being someone who’s listening because I can hear the words being spoken by the playing group and the coaches.
“Within that there’s so much detail because the technical and tactical aspects, there’s a management of people – there’s all these other things but the core essence of it, even with that is well, these highly skilled group of people, players and staff what I’m hoping , the story I’m telling, they’ve all bought into it and they take it to the end point.”
Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic Methods
The results of last season are there for all to see. The Hoops boss brought a group of individuals together from all over the globe and got them to believe in something. A close knit group of players who were fighting for each other and their manager.
There are many managers who have the right ideas and similar outlooks to Ange when it comes to leading a team, but executing the ideas and bringing them to life is a bridge too far for many.
Ange can hold a room and he quickly garners the respect of his players and coaches – not through fear but by being a genuine and emotive person.
