ANGE POSTECOGLOU has made a personal sacrifice to become Tottenham boss – he has had to quit his pals’ Fantasy Football league.
For the past two decades, the Australian, 57, has loved trying to outwit his closest friends by selecting the best-performing Premier League players each week.
But since taking the Spurs job in June, he has to jack in his involvement – and he has vowed to keep shtum about any insider info.
Postecoglou said: “I’m gutted. For the first time in about 20 years I’ve had to pull out of their Fantasy Premier League team.
“Why did I do that? It’s because I’m a Premier League manager. There’s you go. It’s not a fantasy anymore!
“Whilst my mates may try to draw me for information, they’re getting nothing.”
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The well-travelled Greek-born manager has been “inundated” for tickets from his nearest and dearest for his Premier League debut away to Brentford today.
Taking charge of Spurs is the culmination of a near 50-year love affair with English football that began in the late 1970s while living Down Under.
Exposure to the Beautiful Game was very limited then but he would devour anything he could – whether it was through print, radio or TV.
Postecoglou, whose family emigrated from Athens to Melbourne when he was five, said: “Information back then wasn’t readily available. You couldn’t just jump on the net and get information.
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“My sort of library, I’ve still got them at home somewhere, were three-month-old Shoot magazines or Roy of the Rovers magazines or Match magazines.
“They would come over on air freight or ship.
“I’d just veraciously read them page-to-page. There was nothing that I didn’t read about. No small print that I’d skip over. I’d read everything. I’d memorise it.
“Maybe my background has been used as a little bit of a sign of a lack of credibility about my journey.
“But if anything, it has given me an advantage because I’ve had to be absolutely obsessed with the game.
“Because it wasn’t readily available to me at a young age as it would have been if I grew up in Europe or South America or a footballing nation.
“That early obsession has put me in good stead because I’ve not lost that passion for the game. I still love the game in the same way I did as a kid. I still want to know everything about it.”
His beloved dad Jim – who “wasn’t the warm and cuddly type” – played a pivotal role in his life, upbringing and his ‘AngeBall’ football philosophy.
It is a shame he died in 2018 and never saw his son win the Japanese J-League with Yokohama in 2019, claim five trophies with Celtic and now manage in North London.
Postecoglou said: “The primary reason I get teams to play the way I want is because I love winning. That’s what I love doing.
“I’ve loved winning things my whole career. That’s what I crave. Within that context, I want to win a certain way.
“If I can produce a team – and I use my father in a metaphorical sense – that him or our supporters are really excited about watching, and you guys want to talk about every week in a positive way, then that’s great for me.
“I’d love that. That’s what football is about for me.
“But the underlying premise of it is I wouldn’t be here today if I wasn’t winning doing it. That’s still what drives me.
“I think I’m really good at producing teams that play a certain way to win. I’m not good at doing it any other way. I’m pretty ordinary.
“I wouldn’t be sitting here if they asked me to do it in a different way. To get teams to play this way is what drives me. I’m comfortable in this space.”
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Postecoglou once admitted that he is also an avid player of Football Manager.
He even claimed that he had taken Southend United from non-league to the Champions League.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
