This Friday night will see the end of a journey for Ange Postecoglu at Melbourne Victory, as the boss moves on to the Socceroos job, and he believes he has left the club in a good enough hands to complete the task at hand.
The 48-year-old spoke on Thursday morning about this unique conflict of interest, with a job half done at Victory and a job offer with the national team, and explained it was a tough decision to make.
“It’s been mixed emotions. It’s been tough two weeks for me personally and for my family and everyone around me, because we’ve loved being at this football club, we’ve been really embraced by everybody,” Postecoglu said.
“The opportunity to coach a national team, for me is a once in a lifetime opportunity and one I couldn’t turn down. But there’s no doubt I would’ve loved to stay here and finish the job we’ve started, but I really still firmly believe that the job will be finished.”
Postecoglou was careful in naming his successor, but he fully endorsed his right hand man for the last 18 months, Kevin Muscat, to be given the chance to take Melbourne Victory forward.
“As an observer and as somebody that has worked with [Muscat], I think he’s an outstanding candidate to take over the job and I think he can do it,” he said.
“He’s done his apprenticeship, he’s worked very, very hard these last 18 months, he’s been a big part of what’s happened these last 18 months. I’ve thrown a lot of big responsibility on him and he’s welcomed that and I think he’s an outstanding candidate for the role.
One of the main reasons why Postecoglou thinks Muscat should be handed the role comes from one of his own philosophies, which involves thrusting people into the deep end and seeing what they’re made of.
“I got no doubt he’ll do a great job. It’s like anything else we’ve spoken a lot about young players these last few days and regeneration. It’s no different with coaching,” he said.
“At some point you got to throw them in there and give them the opportunity and I’ve got no doubt that Kevin, if he’s given the opportunity, will do a great job.”
With his departure confirmed yesterday, there is a fear that instability will ensue, and threatens to derail the club’s season before it has even begun. But Postecoglou insists it was never all about him, and that the club will be fine without him.
“This was never built as a one man show, everywhere I’ve gone I’ve never done that,” he said.
“I’ve always made sure that there are quality people working with me and those quality people will remain and certainly the squad. The quality of the squad we’ve got I’m still confident that the job will be finished.
“We’ve set up the club to be successful this year. Our squad is good enough. Everything around this club is geared for success. So we really want to have a red hot go this year and that’s where we felt we were in our development, that this was going to be our year. I don’t think there’s any reason why that shouldn’t continue.”
And rather than leave the club immediately, Postecoglou remains in charge for his final game against Brisbane Roar, and he says it the decision was a straightforward one.
“It wasn’t massive discussion [with the chairman]. I expressed a desire to coach because again I think it would be unfair for me, unless I relinquish my duties at the start of the week, I took training Monday, I took the review of the game in Adelaide, and to lump it onto Kevin for just two days wouldn’t be fair on him or anyone else,” he said.
“After this game there’s a 9 or 10 day break before the Wellington game, I thought that was the right time. I certainly didn’t want to shed that responsibility. If the club felt at any stage it wasn’t appropriate for me to do it then again I would have respected that decision as well.”
Postecoglou also took the opportunity to clear up the Mark Milligan situation, as many have questioned whether there are double standards involved with not letting the club captain further his career in the English Premier League.
“There’s been a bit of a misconception about the Mark Milligan thing that the club stopped him going, that never happened. If anything we tried to make it happen because we knew Mark wanted to go,” he said.
“Crystal Palace didn’t come to the party, their coach got sacked last night, I reckon it was a pretty good decision we’ve made.”
As for his own situation, if anything Postecoglou admitted personal doubts that he would be able to let the Victory job go, as he had developed a strong affinity for the club.
“My biggest fear was that I didn’t want to let go. I didn’t want it to end badly. I’m a Melbourne boy and I’d like to feel welcome at this club, wherever the journey may take me I didn’t want to end it with any bitterness from anyone,” he said.
When asked what he would miss most at the club when he leaves at the end of the week, Postecoglou was hesitant for once.
“I don’t know [what I’ll miss]. I’m still involved in what I love, football’s always been my overriding passion and I’ll get to do it in different sphere now at a different level,” he said.
“I guess not being in here day to day, you miss the people you work with because on the journey with them but I’m sure there’ll be a lot of things that will captivate my interest at that level.”
Postecoglou also refused to rule out a return to the club sometime in the future, as Melbourne is firmly in his blood.
“Who knows. I think it’s been said today that five years ago if you told me I would be Socceroos boss I wouldn’t have envisaged that. But who knows,” he said.
“There’s no doubt Melbourne is my home town and I’m always going to live here and this is the football club that I’d like to be associated with for sure. But the journey in football life takes you to some weird and wonderful places and we’ll see what happens in the future.”
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