Ange Postecoglou left Celtic a hero to take over an underachieving Tottenham Hotspur just over a year ago now.
The former Celtic boss took Scottish football by storm arriving as a relatively unknown quantity and Postecolgou had to put up with varying degrees of sniping from the media and scrutiny from the fans.
However, despite Postecoglou suffering a difficult start to his maiden Celtic season with three defeats in his first six games, the fans were quickly won over as they could see what the Australian was trying to achieve in terms of playing attacking football.
The Scottish media, however, were not as easily won over with calls from some pundits suggesting Postecoglou could have been sacked by Christmas.
And it seems the former Celtic boss is attracting the same kind of attention now at Spurs.
Ange Postecoglou denies there is less pressure at Celtic with Premier League swipe
Speaking to Mark Schwarzer, Ange was asked if the level of scrutiny and fan criticism is higher in the Premier League, Postecoglou said he felt just as much pressure at Celtic in his two seasons in Scotland.
Postecoglou told Optus Sport, “No, and I’ll tell you why. There’s a little bit of pretentiousness and arrogance about people in the Premier League thinking that they’re in a special space, right but it’s still football.
“And whether it’s a thousand South Melbourne supporters who weren’t happy with me after a game and gave me direct feedback or hundreds of thousands around the world it’s still the same to me.
“It’s knowing what I care about, what I do and if I’ve upset one person that’s enough for me. So
scrutiny that’s not the challenge for me.
“The challenge is, yes the competition is more challenging for sure because you’re competing against the best in the world. The demands of that are pretty dramatic in terms of where I’ve come from in terms of starting my journey but at the same time, I’ve kind of moved up the levels.
“The club has its own unique challenges for sure but are they more difficult than others? I don’t know.
“I mean when I was at Celtic people said ‘Well yeah, but Celtic are expected to win’. I go yeah that’s right they’re expected to win so you lose one game at Celtic that’s a major problem for you and not many could cope with that.
“So it’s just a different challenge for sure but I get why people would say well no it’s because of the level you’re at now and the scrutiny that you’re not having success.
“I don’t believe that. I still believe we are going to have success but there’s nothing that I’m kind of facing here that I think is insurmountable.”
Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic record
In 113 matches at Celtic, Postecoglou won 83, drew 12 and lost 18 as he averaged 2.31 points every Scottish Premiership game.
Postecoglou picked up five trophies in two seasons with a double in his maiden season and then an historic treble before he left Celtic to join Spurs.
Ange’s record against Rangers was also very good. Facing the Ibrox club eleven times, the former Celtic boss was victorious on 6 occasions, drawing two and losing just three.
In that, Postecolgou recorded the famous 3-0 Celtic Park win in his first season and then another 4-0 hammering of Rangers in his treble season.
The pressure at Celtic is like no other club. Spurs can afford to lose games and whilst it stings, it’s nothing like the scrutiny of a defeat in Glasgow.
The Australian, if given time, will bring success to the Premier League but that all depends if Spurs fans have the patience to allow him to do so.
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