“The players stayed, looked at each other and started to cry,” says Andreas Samaris of the moment Ange Postecoglou announced he was leaving the Greek third division side Panachaiki after nine effective months in charge.
Tottenham’s head coach is managing his third European club after two seasons of success in Scotland with Celtic. The Australian has certainly come a long way since working in Greek regional football 15 years ago.
It was a homecoming for Postecoglou, who left Greece with his family four decades earlier and moved to Australia when he was five years old. He spent his playing career in the country and collected four caps for the Socceroos. After spells managing South Melbourne and Australia age group teams, Postecoglou wanted to test himself in Europe but trying to rebuild a fading club such as Panachaiki was a tough assignment.
There were positives for him when he arrived, including the up-and-coming Samaris. The academy graduate would go on to play for Olympiakos and Benfica but started out in less salubrious surroundings, laying foundations alongside his manager. “At the time we had no clue who Ange was,” Samaris says.
“We were a bit surprised [by his appointment] but it was like a breath of fresh air for us because Panachaiki had had two or three projects that had not gone well in the one and half years we’d been in the third division, so we would be expected to lack enthusiasm.”
The reasons for Postecoglou’s arrival can be explained by the fact his fellow Greek-Australian Gianni Makris was financing the club. Postecoglou joined in March and moved them on to a stable footing, putting across his ideas in the hope Panachaiki could push on the next season.
“My first impression was that he definitely did not belong there,” Samaris says. “He was so professional and methodical in the way that he worked – we had not seen anything like it before. In the first days, we felt it was something different and 100% thought it would have success. It was how professional football should be. He is an organised person and created dynamic training.
“He kept his distance but was still close to the players, it was all very balanced and, at the same time, he was ambitious. Everything was clear for every one of us and we knew exactly what we were to do. For a third division Greek team, where usually you just put 11 players out there and play, it made a big difference compared to how we were playing before.”
Postecoglou gave Samaris the springboard and he enjoyed a meteoric rise from the lower echelons of domestic football to winning four Portuguese titles and playing in the Champions League. The manager made the teenage Samaris a key component of a side filled with experienced players that had dropped down from higher divisions.
“He was the first one to make me feel like I was not young. He told me: ‘You are here because you are good, because you can deliver, you are here because we can count on you,’” Samaris says. “At that point there was a well-known and very talented player named Sotiris Ninis, he was playing for Panathinaikos, making his debut at 16. For every young Greek he was living the dream.
“There was a game I played and I didn’t perform well and Ange asked me to go to his office. He told me: ‘You are as talented a player as Ninis’ and I was playing in the third division. The other guy was in the first division and playing in European competitions. At first I said: ‘This guy is crazy, he doesn’t know Greek football.’ How could I be at the same level as Ninis when he plays for Panathinaikos and I am 18 and still in the third division? It turns out he was right.”
In a pedestrian league, Postecoglou instilled a high-pressing system and possession-based style as Panachaiki sought to dominate their way to promotion. By winter, he had taken them to second but he decided to walk away out of principle.
Another investor had arrived at the club and wanted to sign new players and hire a replacement for Postecoglou, despite the fact they were on an upward trajectory.
“Everyone believed in the project and all the players believed in Ange from the first day to the last,” Samaris says. “This was his impact on the players. We believed in him from the first day and it was like one of the team was leaving. He hugged every one of us and left.”
Samaris and Postecoglou would meet again when Greece travelled to play Australia in a friendly in 2016. Postecoglou was back home coaching the Socceroos and the two were put up to promote the match in front of the Sydney Opera House. “I will never forget that hug we gave each other,” Samaris says.
“When I saw him, so many emotions came out. We both almost cried because the memories came back to our minds. We just looked at each other and we were talking with our eyes saying: ‘Look where we are now from where we were when we met’ nine years later. We both must have done something right to be here.
“For him to coach me as a player was magical. There are very few people in my life I can share a moment like this with.”
If Postecoglou can build similar bonds in north London, it will be good news for Spurs.
