ANGE HAS HIS GUARD UP AGAINST UNDERDOG
OVER two decades later, Ange Postecoglou still remembers both the result and the headline it spawned. Even 17,000 miles away in his adopted city of Melbourne, there was no escaping the night Super Caley went ballistic and Celtic were atrocious.
‘I remember it,’ he says, ‘I do remember it. I was surrounded by Celtic fans at the time.
‘We had been at the Club World Cup in the January (with South Melbourne three weeks before).
‘Man United had pulled out of the FA Cup that year, and that happened in the Scottish FA Cup. I do remember it, and I remember the headline.’
The date was February 8, memories of Scottish football’s JFK moment the perfect antidote to any overconfidence in the Celtic camp ahead of tonight’s Scottish Cup final at Hampden.
No club have inflicted more humiliation on the Parkhead side in the 21st Century than the Highlanders.
While seven-goal defeats in the Champions League to the likes of Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain were embarrassing, the financial gulf between the sides made them unsurprising. Three times, in 2000, 2003 and the semi-final of 2015, Inverness Caley Thistle proved that a budgetary chasm can be bridged with surprising ease.
If they did it for a fourth time tonight, it would rival the events of 2000, the night Steve Paterson’s Championship side travelled to Glasgow and effectively ended the managerial career of John Barnes.
Reminded of that often in recent times — ‘oh yeah, on a daily basis’ — Postecoglou has cunningly used the danger of a repeat as a deflection from Tottenham Hotspur’s interest in his services.
Arguing that he can’t walk and chew gum at the same time, the evidence of what Inverness did to the likes of Barnes and Ronny Deila provides the perfect justification.
‘I’m going to make sure we are going to be well-prepared to deliver on the day,’ he explains. ‘That story … there is a history with that and this club, and it has been mentioned to me numerous times.
‘I was well aware of it anyway. It has destroyed managers’ careers, and I’m not going to let that happen, I’m just not.
‘That is why you may all think I’m trying to deflect (from Spurs) or whatever but I can’t think anything beyond that because that is going to be the story. All these other questions are going to be there after the game, and that is fine, but that is going to be the story come the final whistle.’
Celtic’s manager can empathise with the task facing his opposite number Billy Dodds. Most of his career has been spent as the reluctant, recalcitrant underdog. He knows what Dodds will say to his players, how he will try to turn the team’s status as no-hopers to his advantage, because he has done it himself.
In January 2000, his South Melbourne side took part in the first-ever FIFA Club World Championship in Brazil. Drawn in a group with Manchester United and Vasco de Gama, no one gave offered his semi-pro side a prayer.
‘We were underdogs, but what a tournament, we loved it, and pushed teams all the way and gave a good account of ourselves,’ adds Postecoglou. ‘We had Vasco de Gama first game and they had five World Cup winners and we lost 2-0 and (former FIFA president) Sepp Blatter came to the hotel and he threw a party. I have never seen anyone both so ecstatic and relieved in all my life — “Thank God, you’ve made the tournament”. It was incredible.
‘We used that for the tournament … they are not going to rate us … Vasco de Gama will take it easy and be looking at the next game against Man United … we have to try and take advantage of that.
‘That is why we were competitive on the day. Obviously, we didn’t win, but we were competitive.
‘I’ve never liked people framing me as the underdog but that has happened and it has worked in my favour because they’ve underestimated me and that’s what we can’t do against Inverness.
‘Wherever I’ve been, I tried to create teams that win things. So being here, we’re not the underdogs but we are expected to win every game, so there is a difference there. It doesn’t change me.’