Ange Postecoglou explodes at Nottingham Forest press conference as astonishing 'failed manager' rant stuns reporters
Postecoglou has been in the Nottingham Forest job just five weeks but is already facing tough questions
Ange Postecoglou erupted with an astonishing rant at his Nottingham Forest press conference after one reporter suggested he's viewed as a 'failed manager'.
The former Celtic and Tottenham boss was ruthlessly sacked by Spurs in the summer despite ending their long wait for a trophy by winning the Conference League.
Dreadful domestic form had seen them finish 17th and that was grounds for dismissal as far as Daniel Levy was concerned, although it split fans, many of whom felt he'd earned more time, with injuries and the decision to prioritise Europe mitigating factors in their Premier League struggles.
Fast forward to the present day and Postecoglou is under-pressure once again. He replaced the popular Nuno Espirito Santo at Nottingham Forest, who had been controversially sacked after falling out with owner Evangelos Marinakis, but he's failed to win any of his first seven games in charge.
It was put to him at his press conference ahead of their clash with Chelsea that some perceive him as a 'failed manager' in England. Postecoglou, who counts five trophies including a domestic Treble at Celtic on his long list of silverware, was asked how he felt about that.
Cue the fireworks.
"I guess from my perspective I just don't fit. Not here, just in general," he said.
“If you look at things through the prism that I am a failed manager who is lucky to get this job – I know you're smirking at me, but that's what's been said – then of course these first five weeks looks like this guy is under pressure. But there is an alternative story.
"I came to the Premier League two years ago and I took over at Tottenham, I was told by the chairman that this club has to win a trophy. He said we've tried to bring winners in: Jose, Antonio Conte, and it hasn't worked. We need something different. I was slightly offended by that because I see myself as winner.
"I took over Spurs who finished eighth. Massive club, but no European football, and one that can't go two years without European football. We finished fifth in my first year and every time Harry Kane scores a goal (for Bayern) I go, 'I wish he stayed just one more year'. It would have been handy to have him after finishing fifth.'
"But somehow that year has disappeared from the record books. It was even used as a reason for me losing my job because even Tottenham decided to exclude the first ten games. Yet the first ten games here at Forest are important apparently.
"So we get to the current space (at Forest) where there is a different story to tell, that maybe I am not a failed manager who was lucky to get this job and instead maybe I am a manager who, if you give him time, the story always ends the same. At all my previous clubs, [it ends] with me and a trophy."
He went on to suggest he'd have been as well staying in temporary digs rather than finding permanent accommodation in Nottingham, given how quickly things have turned.
He continued: “The difference is saying that somebody should lose their job after five weeks… I mean I’ve only just found an apartment to move into, mate, which may be a bad decision on my behalf. I should have stayed in temporary digs, that’s how early it is.
“Yeah, we haven’t won a game, and I'm as disappointed as anyone about that, no one likes not winning games of football, but within that context if you look at those games and suggest to me that we weren't in a position to win any of those, that’s a different story as well.
“The pressure is there, but the pressure is always there, the pressure is part of managing at this level.
“We’re all judged by our results and at the moment results are suggesting I'm not doing a very good job, but that’s a far cry from people speculating I should lose my job after five weeks."