Celtic News

Ange Postecoglou makes brutally honest playing career admission

|
Image for Ange Postecoglou makes brutally honest playing career admission

It has been well documented about Ange Postecoglou’s playing career and how he was heavily influenced with Hungarian legend, Ferenc Puskas.

Ange was a left full-back during his playing career and made 193 appearances in a nine-year career at South Melbourne where he won three NSL Championships with the club [Newspapers.com].

But it all could have been so different for Ange if the current A-League system that Australia have at the moment was in play at the start of his career.

The gaffer credits the now-defunct National Soccer League (NSL)  he credits for giving him his opportunity to make it as a player.

Speaking on the Kick 360 podcast, Ange said, “In the A-League system, I might have struggled to have a career.

“I wasn’t an outstanding individual but being at South Melbourne, South Melbourne was one of four or five clubs in the National Soccer League at the time so I got an opportunity at South that if I didn’t get, I could’ve got an opportunity at Heidelberg or Melbourne Knights or there were plenty of opportunities there for talented players.”

“When I look back at the NSL days, there were a lot of opportunities for young players.

“That’s where I think for a long time the A-League hindered the progress of our youth development because there just wasn’t opportunities for guys to play.

“And when you have so many limited opportunities, inevitably talent won’t flourish because they won’t get the environment there to develop.”

And you can only imagine that if Ange didn’t make it as a player during that time, you would need to assume that he wouldn’t have gotten his opportunity at management.

Ange enjoyed a very successful playing career in terms of honours and he has carried that onto his management career also.

With two domestic trophies to his name with Celtic already, Ange will be looking to add to that by successfully defending the SPFL and the Premier Sports Cup.

The icing on the cake would be the Scottish Cup this season and a domestic treble which would put Postecoglou into the legend category in the Celtic history books.

Share this article

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *