Ange Postecoglou will have his work cut out to win over some Tottenham fans.
There is lots to like about Postecoglou, who has a strong track record of success, but, at 57, he has never managed in one of Europe's 'top five' leagues and his fine work at Celtic has to be considered in the context of their historic dominance of Scottish football.
Two years after arriving at Parkhead as "a joke", Postecoglou leaves Celtic a legend, and at Spurs he will similarly have to convert the sceptics who believe he has not earned one of the biggest jobs in English football.
For the Australian, being doubted is nothing new, however, and Postecoglou's remarkable but often bumpy rise from obscurity to the top of the European game is characterised by a fierce drive and a determination to do things his way.
Almost everywhere he has gone, from the Australia national team to Japanese club Yokohama F Marinos, Postecoglou has faced calls to be more pragmatic or conservative, but he has never wavered from his ultra-attacking, high-octane football — which should eventually prove a good fit for Spurs.
"The drive he has definitely comes from a deep place — he's always had something to prove," former Manchester United and Australia goalkeeper Mark Bosnich said of Postecoglou, who was born in Greece but emigrated to Australia with his parents aged five.
"He grew up at a time when a lot of us from migrant families found it difficult to be embraced by the whole of society and playing football you were seen as an outsider," added Bosnich, himself the son of a Croatian migrant. "So he's always been a bit of an outsider.
"Football down here was always seen as a sport in the majority played by immigrants. That grounded him and moulded him to that outsider mentality."
In his first job in management, with traditionally-Greek side South Melbourne, Postecoglou was an insider and a hit — leading his former club (where he had been coached by the legendary Ferenc Puskas) to back-to-back titles and participating in the inaugural Club World Cup. In 2000, he earned a role in charge of Australia's youth sides but left the post in acrimony seven years later, shortly after clashing with Craig Foster, the former Crystal Palace defender and Socceroos captain, in an infamous live television interview which Postecoglou felt did severe damage to his career.
Foster urged him to resign following Australia's failure to qualify for the Under-20 World Cup, and Postecoglou was haunted for years by the incident.
"I remember when we were working together at Fox Sports and we were getting changed in the dressing room before going on air," said Simon Hill, a leading broadcaster in Australia. "I asked him if he was planning to get back into coaching and he said, 'To be honest, I feel almost unemployable'.
"He's had a fair few setbacks in his career, as well as a lot of success. I wouldn't say that defines his drive but that's certainly part of it."
Postecoglou has since said the heated exchange with Foster was the reason he left Australia to take charge of Greek lower division side Panachaiki in 2008.
He arrived at Brisbane Roar to “little fanfare” but “transformed the entire landscape” of Australian football.
"It [the interview] was the reason I went to Greece for a year, because I wasn't going to let Australian football stop me from my ambitions as a coach," he said in 2021. "It was disheartening, because I just felt everything I had done with South Melbourne as a manager had been forgotten.
"As all things with life, we take our knocks and move on, and it's safe to say it didn't hold me back for too long."
Postecoglou rebuilt his reputation with Brisbane Roar (where Hill says he arrived to "little fanfare" but "transformed the entire landscape" of Australian football on the way to back-to-back titles) and earned a return to the national team set-up, this time as the men's senior coach.
"I remember when he got the [Australia] job, I went to have dinner with him and him recalling that literally four or five years ago he couldn't get a job as an assistant," said Bosnich. "That [experience] really helped him. I really do think he uses that as fuel."
Postecoglou led the Socceroos to the Asia Cup in 2015, but his time with the national team was also marked by battles to win over the media and, at times, the federation. He resigned in 2017 after securing qualification for the World Cup in Brazil, admitting he was bruised both "personally and professionally".
Since leaving his homeland, Postecoglou's conviction in his methods has only been strengthened by success in Japan and Glasgow, but at Spurs he will face pressure and scrutiny like never before as part of the job of rebuilding a fractured club seeking a first trophy since 2008.
He has acknowledged in the past that the first six months to a year in any new job is always "rocky" while his methods "bed in", and he is sure to face fresh doubts and calls to adapt at the start of next season. History, though, suggests Postecoglou is well-equipped to ride out the storm and will only feed off the scepticism.
"I haven't [questioned my beliefs] but plenty of others have. That's what we have to deal with as coaches," he said in 2020. "There's no doubt there's going to be moments when we're questioned and scrutinised, irrespective of what success you've had.
"You need to embrace that. That's the bit that really confirms your beliefs."
