Why Postecoglou and Marinakis could be a match made in heaven

Ange Postecoglou and Evangelos Marinakis are not being thrown together as complete strangers at Nottingham Forest.

They know each other reasonably well and in their own different ways represent Greek success in modern football.

Shared pride in their heritage brought them together over dinner in July when Marinakis presented Postecoglou with an award to herald his status as the first coach hailing from Greece – he was born in the Athenian suburb of Nea Filadelfeia before moving to Australia at the age of five – to win a major European club trophy.

On that night, the irony was that leading Tottenham to the Europa League and ending their drought of 17 years without silverware was not enough to keep him in the job and yet could be celebrated by the nation he left as a boy. Now, his chance of a return the Premier League comes because leading Forest back into Europe for the first time in 30 years did nothing to insulate Nuno Espirito Santo from the whims of Marinakis.

Postecoglou will be under no illusions. His ability to satisfy the demands of a volatile chairman will come under scrutiny and yet he is certainly not short of faith in his own abilities.

One of the strengths on display during two seasons at Spurs was a talent for uniting a group behind a cause, forging them together and motivating them to believe in his way of doing things.

He is without question a gifted orator. He was inspirational when he swept in and lifted a club battered by the bitterness of the closing weeks of Antonio Conte’s tenure and a shambolic postscript under Cristian Stellini.

Postecoglou did not arrive with a backroom staff. He came in alone and the players took to him and most stayed with him until the end. Supporters climbed on board. Even Daniel Levy got carried away, claiming: ‘We have our Tottenham back’.

Levy and Marinakis both fall into the category of ‘difficult chairmen’ although for different reasons.

At Spurs, Levy maintained a respectful distance from the football. He was not likely to storm the tunnel piling pressure on the referee. Nor wade onto the pitch to berate his head coach in public.

Tensions might have simmered in private – usually when the transfer market was open – but Postecoglou, for all his wonderful oratory skills, seldom chose to elaborate on relationships at board level. Compared with some predecessors, he fronted the club impeccably.

Wise move. And, as he was always so quotable talking on other matters he was rarely pressed too hard on the subject. Not until the final weeks, when the strain of poor form led to situation where his days were numbered, regardless of what was happening in the Europa League.

Postecoglou cannot abide small talk. He would rather pass time in silence when in the company of all but close associates. This should chime with Marinakis. For him, all talk is business talk. He is not for wasting words, either.

He employs others to schmooze on his behalf and yet will demand an open line of communication to the individual responsible for the results and performances of his football team.

Nuno revealed how he and Marinakis would talk ‘almost on a daily basis’ when in harmony. After games, the owner would expect a full debrief. It was when those conversations fell silent that Nuno knew he was for the chop.

Postecoglou will not relish interference or demands to explain what went wrong on occasions when they do. On matchday he can be prone to disappear deep within his own thoughts. He is not keen to take advice or interruption, not even from his own coaching staff. He would rather concentrate on the game.

After matches at Spurs, he might occasionally pop into the chairman’s suite to show his face and shake hands with important guests, but he did not like to linger.

Life will be different with Marinakis. Postecoglou is smart enough to realise this. His various chairmen will all have tested him in different ways. This one comes with an impulsive nature and a reputation for a fierce temper.

At 60, Postecoglou is not walking into this as a fresh-faced innocent. He has sampled the glare of the Premier League and will be better for it. He is accustomed to managing upwards and coping with the influences of others upon recruitment strategy, which stretches far beyond the realm of the head coach, these days.

At Forest, that will mean forging an understanding with Edu, the global head of football for the Marinakis stable of clubs who Nuno very much did not get on with – a sticking point that was one of the major factors in his exit from the City Ground.

Postecoglou’s relationship with Edu will be integral to the challenge of imposing his own adventurous attacking style of football upon a team successful by surrendering possession, defending deep and breaking at pace.

There could hardly be two more distinct tactical styles than the pure-Postecoglou early Spurs and Forest under Nuno – one subscribing to all-out attack, the other preferring to sit deep and hit opponents on the break.

Postecoglou did adapt though, whereas Nuno’s style appeared to have been worked out in the run-in, when Forest slipped from third to seventh in the space of a month. 

Ultimately, Postecoglou was not the dogmatist he liked to make out. Pragmatism won the day and neither that glorious night for Tottenham in Bilbao, nor the excellent quarter-final victory at Eintracht Frankfurt, would have happened without it, so it will be intriguing to see if his instinct is to revert to his free-spirted principles without the luxuries of time and transfers.

It would require a major overhaul and therefore fraught with risk, when logic would suggest the surest way to lay the groundwork for a prosperous relationship with Marinakis would be to win some games.

Forest return to Europe this month and if Postecoglou can recreate his Europa League success he will be a hero all over again.

The stuff of Greek legend not myth. And if not, well at least he might appreciate the Athenian passion fuelling an urgent desire to succeed and disturb the elite.