Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola heaped praise on Ange Postecoglou’s excellent Premier League arrival with Tottenham Hotspur.
Postecoglou was announced as Spurs coach on a four-year contract on Tuesday and will take the reins on July 1, becoming the first Australian to lead a team in the top flight of English football.
Legendary coaches Guardiola and Postecoglou crossed paths in July 2019 when Melburnian was in charge of J1 League club Yokohama F. Marinos.
Manchester City and Marinos played a friendly match, which City won 3-1, but the Japanese club had 58% possession.
“Another extraordinary manager is coming,” Guardiola told reporters ahead of City’s Champions League final against Internazionale, in which the English club will be hoping for a treble.
“I had the good fortune to meet him in Tokyo a few years ago when he was manager at Yokohama, one of our clubs in the City Football Group, and it was an interesting chat,” Guardiola continued.
“I have a great relationship with the owners of Celtic. He did an amazing job [at Celtic] and he will do an amazing job for Spurs,” he continued.
“Hopefully, we can score one away goal.”
Guardiola’s final quip was in reference to Manchester City’s inability to win games at Spurs in recent years.
Based on those 2019 friendlies, Postecoglou, who is relentlessly attack-minded and focused on possession, would not take that approach.
“People will say it was a friendly, in pre-season, they don’t take it too seriously, but I would venture to guess how many times Pep’s team has lost,” Postecoglou told Optus Sport after that 2019 friendly.
“I hear people say possession doesn’t mean anything. I think so, especially when possession is in areas that matter, not just behind, and creates problems.
“But it takes a little bit of courage and belief to face a team like City or one coached by someone like Pep – because there’s a fear that if it goes really badly you could be really exposed.”
“From both sides of the game they left knowing, of course it was a friendship, but understanding that even the best can be tested if you believe in something,” added Postecoglou.
“The team I coached believe that if you play like this you don’t adapt and you don’t have fear or doubt because of the opponent,” he concluded.
