Postecoglou vows to carry father’s desire to see entertaining football
ANGE POSTECOGLOU’S father will not be there to oversee his son embark on a new era at Celtic Park but his ethos will be stamped throughout the Greek-Australian’s football philosophy. Dimitris – “Jim” – Postecoglou passed away before his boy fulfilled his ambition of coaching on this side of the world but his voice still resonates.
Not that it was a cloying Hallmark relationship. Postecoglou senior uprooted his family from Athens to begin a new life in Melbourne in 1970 with the harsh realities of immigrant life a daily lesson for his offspring. If it offered tutelage into what hard graft looks like it also ensured that the new Celtic manager has an appreciation of the privilege of the lifestyle football has offered.
“I just can’t believe what my parents went through,” said Postecoglou. “What they would have gone through to take a young family halfway round the world, on a ship that takes 30 days, to a country where they don’t speak the language, they don’t know a soul, they don’t have a house, they don’t have a job and to start a life there.
“People say they go there for a better life. My parents did not have a better life, they went there to provide opportunities for me to have a better life. All I remember is my father working hard. He’d be gone for work before I ate my breakfast and come home at night, have dinner, sit on the couch and fall asleep and go and do the same thing the next day. The only time I ever got to see any joy in my dad was when we went to the football on a Sunday.
“It did make a big impact and does bear the core of my values because they are values my father passed on to me. I understand what an honest day’s work is about, I understand what sacrifice is about, I understand what being in a privileged position like I am now is about. I am not going to take this for granted because I know how hard my mum and dad worked. They sacrificed their whole life for me to be here. I don’t feel like I am working every day, I feel like I am living a dream that was founded by other people’s sacrifice, particularly my parents.
“They are the values I pass onto people.”
Football was the conduit for the relationship between father and son but its imprint was more than just about sharing a mutual hobby.
“He was my harshest critic,” said Postecoglou. “My Dad never told me he loved me, he didn’t give me cuddles. He was my biggest critic all the time. I am a totally different father, I kiss and cuddle my kids every day and tell them I love them, which is terrible because I am making them too soft. That was my childhood: sitting next to him a three o’clock in the morning and we were watching football from this side of the world and would always point out the entertainers and the teams that were scoring goals. He’d say, ‘look at him, look at this team’ and that got into my subconscious and when I became a manager that’s the kind of teams I wanted to produce.
“He’s not with us now, he passed away a couple of years ago, but he’s in my head. Sometimes I’ll have an ugly 1-0 win and I know what he’s saying: ‘Don’t celebrate because that was crap’. I don’t think that’s unique, I think a lot of people resonate with that in my generation because they have had a similar upbringing. I just happen to be in position where I can live that dream out.”