Celtic hero finds unlikely admirer in ex

Hutton recalls his first interactions with Postecoglou - and he is delighted with Spurs work

Alan Hutton has revealed that he is a fully paid-up member of the Ange Postecoglou fan club as the former Celtic manager prepares to start his second season at Tottenham Hotspur.

The London club travel to face newly promoted Leicester City on Monday night with Postecoglou aiming to improve on last term’s fifth-place finish having added £65 million striker Dominic Solanke to the ranks from Bournemouth.

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Hutton is a former Spurs player but his admiration for Postecoglou pre-dates the Australian joining the London club and can be traced to a Celtic v Rangers game. The one-time Ibrox full-back was taken aback by Postecoglou’s warmth. The then Celtic manager stopped to chat while current Rangers players streamed past Hutton at Hampden.

“I genuinely liked the guy,” he said. “Honestly, he was such a lovely guy. I worked with him a couple of times with Premier Sports. It was either in the semi-final or the final, but when he came out with his team he was obviously concentrating on his team. But he came straight over to me and said, ‘Alan, how are you doing? Nice to meet you’.

“By the way, I had never spoken to him before this. I thought, ‘Alright!’ The Rangers team just walked by me and never said anything. I started speaking to him about Alistair Johnston, who had just come to the club to replace Josip Juranovic. I said to him, ‘What is he like?’ He said, ‘Alan, he’s just like you. He likes to get up and down, he’s aggressive’. I thought, ‘How does this guy know me?’

"He took that time out of his day, which was such a big occasion, to come over and talk to me at that moment," continued Hutton. "I thought, ‘I love this guy, but I should really hate him at this moment in time’. When he left and joined Tottenham I thought, ‘It’s alright, I can like him now!’”

Postecoglou has stayed true to his ideals even in the highly competitive Premier League, sticking by the gung-ho tactics that earned him success in Scotland with Celtic. His commitment to attack and a high line was questioned by some pundits, who scorned such a set-up. They stressed that while such naive tactics might have worked in Scottish football, they were foolhardy in the extreme in the so-called best league in the world.

Hutton, a co-commentator for Premier Sports, begs to differ. He knows how much entertainment is valued at the North London club, with Postecoglou certainly delivering on this count.

The Australian also annoyed some fans by chiding them for their small-club mentality because so many wanted Spurs to lose to Manchester City and nix Arsenal’s chances of winning the league. Others, including Hutton, praise Postecoglou for telling it as it is.

“I love listening to him, I must admit,” said Hutton. “I really enjoy his interviews and everything that he does. The way he looks at football is very gung-ho – full-backs up and in and playing with No 10s. It is brilliant to watch..."

Hutton would prefer it if Postecoglou considers making some concessions when coming up against the best teams in England, having learned what he has in his first season.

“Sometimes I do think to myself that you need a Plan B,” he said. “We watched Ange up here and he very rarely changed. Down there he has very rarely changed no matter who they are playing. When you get to those final big moments, when you are in a final or are chasing top four, do you have a Plan B? Moments when you say, ‘Well, we want to attack, but we are playing Man City so we can’t be as open as this’. I think there is probably a happy medium there. But he will know better than me.”