Ange Postecoglou has found that it's quite possible at Tottenham Hotspur to feel both the heat and the cold as the head coach.
The 59-year-old is back in Glasgow, the scene of his silverware-packed success with Celtic where he won five trophies in two seasons including a goal-laden treble before jumping on a flight down to north London last year to embark on the Premier League rollercoaster.
Even standing in the freezing cold Scottish night at Ibrox, where Postecoglou will feel the heat of the Rangers fans' wrath on Thursday night and the situation at Spurs, it probably harkened back to simpler times.
For the step into life at Tottenham has been fraught with hurdles that would send a less experienced manager tumbling. If it wasn't bad enough that he would lose the club's best player and record goalscorer on the eve of his opening game in charge while having to undertake the biggest rebuild in Tottenham's recent history, the Australian has faced an injury crisis the likes of which even he has never come across.
When football.london asked him if it was the worst in almost three decades of coaching, there was no hesitation.
"Yeah, yeah by a fair stretch," came the response after he had explained that both Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven had returned on Sunday only to get injured again and place themselves back on an absence list that contains Guglielmo Vicario, Richarlison, Wilson Odobert, Ben Davies and Mikey Moore, and on Sunday for the trip to Southampton will include the suspended Rodrigo Bentancur and Yves Bissouma.
Postecoglou has taken most of it on the chin. His brand of football and high energy training will bring injuries, more so hamstring ones to those new to it or susceptible to them. However, the amount of contact injuries, illnesses and suspensions and also those getting injured on their return to action are things beyond his control.
For the first time on Wednesday evening, when asked whether it was something that needed to be addressed rather than put down simply to bad luck by football.london, the Spurs boss showed that he believes there's more to it and the club needs to get to the bottom of it.
"I never think it's just bad luck. Some of it [is]. I've never lost a goalkeeper for this period of time. Some of the other issues that we've had... But some of it is recurring, particularly this year in terms of guys coming back and re-injuring," he said. "It's something we're looking at. We're always trying to explore whether we can do things better.
"Last year was different to this year. Last year it hit us across the board. This year it's more guys that are coming back who are affected. Knock on wood, we've got a core group who are playing a lot and are getting through it ok, but it is something we are trying to address."
It all means that 18-year-old midfielder Archie Gray will have to do a job in central defence alongside 22-year-old Radu Dragusin, the only fit senior centre-back at the club. There are academy centre-backs to turn to in the shape of 19-year-old Alfie Dorrington and 16-year-old Malachi Hardy - both of whom have made the trip to Glasgow - but thus far Postecoglou has not gone down that road.
Gray's greater experience of big physical games with Leeds during their promotion chase last season - playing more than 50 times for them - and now European nights with Spurs, as well as his versatility, makes the decision to trust him understandable.
Dorrington's year has been dogged by a couple of serious hamstring injuries that required surgery and his recovery and gradual rehabilitation into development squad training came a month or so into this season. He has thus far been unable to catch Postecoglou's eye, the far younger Hardy getting the nod on the bench twice so far this campaign.
There might be a temptation to recall Ashley Phillips in January from his loan at Stoke, but although Postecoglou claimed that he didn't want to block the path of the 19-year-old or Luka Vuskovic, who arrives this summer, Phillips has not played a minute under the Australian since arriving last year.
A new centre-back - one that would need to be ready to arrive in the opening days of the January transfer window - looks surely more likely as Postecoglou desperately needs reinforcements with Romero, Van de Ven and Davies seemingly back in the new year but there will be concern now over any return after recent episodes.
Romero was also the topic of conversation for a different reason. The World Cup-winning Argentine gave an interview after Sunday's defeat to Chelsea with Spanish-speaking media outlet Telemundo and did not hold back on either his effusive support for Postecoglou or his belief in what was actually holding Spurs back.
On the Australian, Romero has said: "He's a great coach. We saw it in the first season. In this second one we've suffered a lot of injuries. Players are the first one to be criticised, then if we lose 10 games, the staff can be changed but nobody talks about what is actually happening. We are very happy with this staff, me and my colleagues. We love how they work and the football they try to play. We'll try to move on quickly."
On what is 'actually happening', he expanded when asked if Tottenham had fallen behind their top six rivals in terms of investment and squad strength to compete for titles, saying: "The truth is, I would say no comment, but... Manchester City competes every year, you see how Liverpool strengthens its squad, Chelsea strengthens their squad, doesn't do well, strengthens again, and now they're seeing results.
"Those are the things to imitate. You have to realise that something is going wrong, hopefully, they realise it. The last few years, it’s always the same: first, the players, then the coaching staff changes, and it's always the same people responsible. Hopefully, they realise who the true responsible ones are, and we move forward because it’s a beautiful club that, with the structure it has, could easily be competing for the title every year."
It's an awkward subject for Postecoglou for a couple of reasons and when football.london asked him for his thoughts on his vice-captain's comments, it brought a prepared, thought-out response that had to tick plenty of boxes.
The Australian is an ambitious man so will certainly agree with much of what the two-time Copa America-winning centre-back said in terms of wanting to fight with the big boys and it's simply fact to state that while the hierarchy at Tottenham has remained a constant for almost a quarter of a century so everything below has constantly changed, with 13 different permanent managers working for chairman Daniel Levy over those years.
It is that exact constant changing of the guard though that means even if Postecoglou did agree whole-heartedly with Romero, he was never going to be able to air that publicly. Right now he needs to retain the board's support if he is to see through the rebuild that the north London club desperately needs to change it into something far more successful.
He also didn't want to blast Romero, a player he loves and embodies the fight and winning mentality he wants from his Tottenham side. The Argentine is the most successful player in his squad and knows what it takes to win the top honours. So the Australian's long answer had to hit all the right notes.
"In the context of the day, Cristian was really disappointed obviously. More than disappointed in that he'd worked hard to get back, it was a big game for us obviously, he knew that, and he had to go off and then watch the team have to feel the pain of another defeat in the manner it happened," said Postecoglou.
"He was obviously very emotional. He's a leader in the club, he hasn't been able to help us, I think it was his way of trying to as a leader help us in the group. We're going through a tough time and he believes in what we're doing, and then the other part of it probably he went about it the wrong way.
"He's passionate about having success at the club and the way he expressed it was not the right way in a public sense. I don't feel and it's certainly not my belief that our challenges at the moment are down to one thing or one person, I don't believe that, I never have believed that.
"Whatever we need to do, we have the power to do that but it'll only happen if we stay united as a group particularly through difficult times, get through to the other side. I fully believe if you can do that, you come out stronger. Cristian realises what he said...a lot of what he said was good, some wasn't right and shouldn't have been done in public. We deal with these things in our own four walls. There's always issues we need to deal with. The same way I wouldn't criticise a player or anyone else, we shouldn't be doing that in a public sense."
On whether that was going to be any repercussions for the defender, the head coach said: "I just think you deal with these things internally. I just don't think there's any benefit for us. I know people get really salacious about punishments and stuff. They really love that sort of thing. I think I'm pretty consistent in saying I don't just think that's important. I think what's more important is an understanding of how we should deal with these things and deal with them better.
"I've already spoken to Cristian about it and and you know, he's apologised for the fact that the way he said it, particularly in the public sense, wasn't the right way to go about things. He's a human being, he got emotional and I think he just expressed what he wanted to express, probably in the wrong way.
"He does care. I think it would have been easy for him not to say anything. He does care, but there's a way to do these things and a way to express yourself and the way he did it wasn't the right way."
Postecoglou admitted that there is a financial disparity between Tottenham and the top sides despite their huge revenue increase since the stadium was opened in 2019.
"We know there are things that we can compete with. I don't think it's just about finances, you know? I think, yes, finances, where the club kind of sits, we know there's a gap, but not between just us, with most clubs and some of those clubs," he said. "So we understand that, but within that context, I don't think it doesn't mean you can't be competitive in your own way.
"I think what Cristian was kind of talking about, and it's what I believe as well, is that we should aim to think like those clubs and try to be successful every year. I think the other thing that he did say quite clearly is that it does have the elements of being a big club, you know, it has the infrastructure, it has the stadium, it has the support.
"So it's very easy to point the finger of blame about one thing, but also you've got to acknowledge that these things are there as well, because other clubs are endeavouring to do that. Some still have that journey ahead, It's just the way I kind of think. I just don't think that it's one thing that will get us to where we want to, and I don't think there's one thing that's stopping us from getting to where we want to.
"I'm certainly as ambitious as everyone else is at the football club since I've been here to bring success. That means taking on and trying to beat the teams that in some respects have extra resources, but we can find different ways of of bridging that gap."
Postecoglou went out after that to oversee the Spurs players training in the freezing cold Glasgow night. He sat in the dugout for a spell and that brought the rare sight of the Australian enjoying small talk and laughing away at one point. The man who made him crack up was his compatriot and the club's chief football officer Scott Munn, who rather than sitting in a suit, was dressed up in coaching staff attire to handle the Scottish weather.
The 50-year-old will be a key ally for Postecoglou right now if Tottenham's hierarchy begin to step into their customary cycle of panic, which arrives roughly once every 18 months.
In that moment though on a cold night at Ibrox, whatever was said, it was probably good for the Spurs head coach to have a good old full-hearted laugh. If he didn't amid the fires he's constantly fighting right now, he'd probably cry.
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