Ange Postecoglou’s fascinating Celtic sit-down as boss opens up on his coaching roots, player buy-in and the infamous 'death seat'

Fresh from steering his Celtic side into the League Cup final against Hibs in December - just five months after assuming the managerial hot seat - the Aussie was in a fairly relaxed and jovial mood as he spoke about a variety of topics including his life and career experiences to date in football.

The end result of his chat with former Celtic youth stars Simon Ferry and Paul Slane will only serve to ingratiate Ange even more to the Celtic faithful.

Tony Haggerty picks out the highlights of Ange Postecoglou's interview with Open Goal.

The team has responded to his philosophy...

"People always say if you need a result would you change your approach? I need a result every week, but if I was going to change it just for that game and that guaranteed me a result, then I would do that every week.

"What I do gives me the best chance of success and if I need to win this weekend then I will go as super-aggressive as I possibly can as that is who I am. You can dig into the archives and find some players who didn't enjoy playing under me but I have a good understanding of players.

"At their core, most players want to play this style of football and I keep telling them when they are 10 years of age nobody is telling them to track back and kick it long and don't take risks as you are just playing football.

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"I'm trying to create a system that goes to that whereby you are going to have the ball, you are going to attack, you are going to be aggressive and even if you are a defender we are going to defend in aggressive areas.

"Most players that's what they want and the challenge for a manager is to turn that into something effective and successful because players want to be successful. I have never had a problem getting that into players, it is just how quickly they adapt and believe in it.

"That is still happening and it's not fully there and players have looked over at the bench late in the game and said you still want us to play out from there and it is human nature and there are plenty of times when I have questioned myself and I have just ignored the look and I tell them to keep playing.

"In anything you do in life you try to gain as much knowledge as you can and I have tried to do that in my 25 years as a manager. There is a whole array of books and I stayed in one section and that was playing attacking football and being aggressive. On another shelf, there is all the defensive stuff and I did not look at it.

"It's what I believe in and it is what I can coach. Celtic was the perfect club for me in that sense."

Inverted full-backs and the influence of Ferenc Puskas...

"That came in 10 years ago as I was doing different things with my full-backs and wingers. For the most part, it was always 4-3-3 and it was always wingers and strikers being aggressive. That has always been the underlying theme all the way through.

"Pep Guardiola did it at Bayern Munich and other managers have done it since. When I was a player, I was a full-back and I hated it as I liked scoring goals. Ferenc Puskas was my coach - one of the greatest players of all time - and he wasn't interested in defending at all.

"He told wingers don't come back, stay up there, and I was a full-back and sometimes I had four or five players running at me and I said 'you're killing me here'. His philosophy was the supporters aren't here to watch you, they are here to watch the team score goals.

"In my head, I wanted my attacking players in attacking positions as much as possible. If you play your full-backs in traditional areas then it is them who are crossing the ball in and involved a lot. That is not their skill set. You want your wingers to do that.

"Bringing the full-backs inside gives me numbers in there and allows my wingers to be in advanced positions without having that anxiety when I was a player that five people were running at you.

"With the full-backs being inside it gives you more coverage in those areas and that is the basic premise of it."

The impact of his father..

"My generation didn't see their fathers as when you got up for school, they would have left for work. When he came home at night, I'd be out playing and he'd have his dinner and go to bed and do it all again the next day. They worked really hard for their families.

"The only time I saw his real personality was during football and he'd just come to life. I clicked onto that as a youngster and this game did that to him so I said to myself I am going to love this game and get close to my father because of it.

"Invariably he loved entertainers and loved teams that attacked. He hated Italian football and that rubbed off on me in terms of the teams I liked to watch. When I got into management I took that on board but my dad was my worst critic. I'd win a medal and he'd say the substitutions I made were wrong.

"He would never say well done and he is still your old man and he was never happy. It annoyed me and motivated me at the same time as I always thought 'I'll show you'. Sometimes he'd never say much and I knew he was happy then.

"In the last game he watched before he passed away we won 8-2 and I knew he would have loved it. I wasn't there when he passed away as I was in Japan and he was in Australia but my sister and my family were there. He would have loved it, he would have been buzzing.

"He would wake me up at 3 am to watch football from some other part of the world on a black and white TV even if I had school the next day. You would go to sleep but not really go to sleep as at some point you knew you would get a nudge as he didn't want to watch the game himself. Whenever that nudge came, I knew there was a game on and I loved it."

New faces and player transformations...

"I was the least surprised to see how well Kyogo adjusted and how well he has gone about his business. I watched him for four years in Japan and I set my teams up very aggressively.

"Whenever we played against Vissel Kobe my players told me that Kyogo was just a nightmare to play against. They told me that his movement was absolutely ridiculous. I knew, at 26, that he would adjust culturally and he was ready to make that move to Celtic and I was confident he could make an impact.

"Most strikers love to have the ball and if they don't have it they are disinterested but he actually enjoys pressing. He loves that aspect of it. In his first game he chased somebody down and the crowd reacted to that and he just thought 'I've got something here' and he just fed off it.

"As a manager, all you do is open the door and let them walk through it. In the case of Tony Ralston, it is easy for me to say that I have changed Tony and he has become this player because of me. I just gave him the opportunity and information and he took it on board and the rest is down to him.

"It is a lesson to any young player who says that a manager doesn't like them. For the most part, all a manager can do is give you the opportunity and it is what you make of it.

"Tony is one that wasn't sure where his career was going and that is a footballer's biggest fear - the unknown. He was at that stage in his career but the door opened for him and it was unexpected but credit to him he has done really well.

"I saw Tommy come through as an 18 or 19-year-old in Australia and you could tell back then that he is one of those players when the ball goes to him inevitably people just shut up or get up off their seat and just watch the game because they know something’s going to happen. He’s always had that.

"I think some of Tommy’s battle is he’s really hard on himself and I always used to say with the Australia team, he rarely smiled on a football pitch. He’d score a goal and he’d scowl off somewhere.

"I think when Tommy enjoys his football, that’s when the best comes out of him. I’ve sensed that since I’ve come here, that he’s really enjoying his football now and when he does that, he’s one of those people – he’s only 28, he’s got plenty years ahead of him. In fact, the best years could be ahead of him if he keeps going the way he’s going.”

Man-management and 'the death seat'...

"Most people would tell you, if we got on a plane they would shuffle the boarding passes because nobody would want to sit next to me.

"I could sit on a plane with someone, on a long-haul for eight hours, and not say a word to them and it makes people uneasy, particularly players. I've done it many times. They (the players) hated it. It was a death seat for them.

"I don't think any of the players will say they got close to the gaffer. I would never sit down and have a coffee with them. I always like to keep a distance between myself and the players.

"The biggest responsibility I have is to make decisions, and I want to make the best decisions all of the time. It's human nature if you like someone, or maybe dislike someone, that will affect you. I'd like to think the players will know I will fight for them right until the end.

"I take responsibility for all the bad stuff that happens and the players appreciate that as they know where they stand. Whenever I have finished coaching them and I have a conversation with them they got unnerved. It is quite funny at times."

Coaching roots and aspirations

"My first coaching job was when I was 12 years old. I was at high school and our coach was the music teacher and we would train and he would mark homework for the day. I took over and I put the players into position and made myself captain and the rest listened to me and I don't know why.

"I kind of enjoyed that position of authority and being the person in charge. I knew as a player I would never fulfil my football dreams. Even as I was playing my thoughts were if I am going to fulfil the dreams that I had as a boy then management was going to be my calling.

"I felt that this was a good fit for me as for some bizarre reason people listened to me. I go home and I have two young boys aged five and seven and I can't get them to sit down and have a meal. Yet I walk into this club and 30 or 40 people will listen and believe what I have to say. I felt that from the first time I got into the role.

"When I spoke, I could get people to believe and believe in me more than anything else. I am really passionate about what I do, I love what I do. Every day I love what I do and I have avoided doing a real job all my life. I think people relate to that and that is why I have had success. The intensity is daily and I love that. If it wasn't intense or there wasn't pressure I'd try something else.

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"I am not an adrenalin junkie as I keep my life pretty conservative but that intensity of football and the unknown about football in that every week your whole existence is on a knife-edge. I love that.

"I don't want to or feel the need to switch off as I love what I do. I've been humbled by the Celtic support's acceptance of me straight away as, let's be honest, nobody knew who I was before I got here without googling my name to see.

"Maybe the Celtic supporters don't like being told who they should like and shouldn't like. They have backed me from day one and that is a huge motivator as a manager to bring success to this football club because they backed me when they didn't really know who I am.

"If I can bring success to that group of people then that will be priceless for me. I don't put measures on the levels of success. This club needs success and silverware and that's why I am here to bring trophies to this football club. That is my goal and that is my ambition."