Assisting Ange: Behind the Spurs scenes with Jedinak and Montgomery
LONDON -- It's a brisk Thursday morning at Hotspur Way, site of Tottenham Hotspur's sprawling training grounds in the North London borough of Enfield. The previous evening, Spurs had travelled to Istanbul to face Galatasaray in the UEFA Europa League, falling 3-2 to a Victor Osimhen-inspired Cimbom. There was no time to dwell on that, however, as immediately after they boarded a jet back home, landing at 3:30 a.m., with the eyes of Ange Postecoglou and his coaching staff already on Sunday's fixture with Ipswich Town.
For assistants like Mile Jedinak and Nick Montgomery, this meant heading straight to Hotspur Way, catching a few hours of sleep in its (very nice) sleeping facilities before commencing preparations for the Premier League clash. It's exhausting but there were morning meetings to be had, after all, as well as the finer details of training to be locked in.
Then there was training itself before more meetings, as well as opposition analysis that subsequently needed to be communicated to players on a teamwide, unit, and individual basis. Amidst that, there were tailored training and support plans for players to be overseen as well as planning for what was to come after what was to be a 2-1 loss to the Tractor Boys. Safe to say, it was a busy morning.
"It's all intertwined, really," Jedinak explains to ESPN, a coffee in hand. "That's what this collaborative coaching team does and continues to do."
Named captain of the Socceroos under Postecoglou, 40-year-old Jedinak is now in his second season as his assistant at Tottenham, coming across from Aston Villa soon after the gaffer's arrival. He describes Spurs' atmosphere as one where both players and staff are challenged not only to constantly improve, but also to challenge each other to do the same; something he enjoys immensely. Seeing players work diligently every day, in combination with taking on the information they're expected to inspire him to work harder and smarter.
"When you're sitting on this [coaching] side of it, you do realise how much time and effort goes into every bit of detail," he says. "Not that you didn't [appreciate it] as a player, because you were ultimately trying to do your best and perform and take on the information. But when you have to plan that [before disseminating the information], you realise that there is an awful amount of time and prep to go into things."
And Jedinak gets plenty of chances to implement this work. Postecoglou has become well-known for fostering an intense sense of loyalty and respect from his players while, at the same time, keeping them at arm's length; ensuring there's enough distance between them to ensure sentiment won't prevent him from making necessary, hard calls. On a day-to-day basis, this means that, compared to others, his assistants -- Jedinak, Montgomery, Matt Wells, Ryan Mason and Sergio Raimundo -- carry added responsibilities.
"From our perspective as coaches, as assistants, we have a lot of contact time with the players," explains Jedinak. "So we need to use that and we need to use that wisely, especially with the schedule and the fixtures the way that they are.
"It's not always done necessarily on the training pitch and from a physical output, it's [also] team meetings and maybe individual meetings and unit meetings to get your message across.
"Each of us as coaches has our way of doing that. And I think, I think that's the sort of beauty of being in the dynamic: everyone brings something different to it. And rest assured the players are getting the contact time that they need."
Other coaches, of course, are more hands-on with their charges; there's never one "right" way of managing dressing rooms. But given his legacy of success across both Asia and Europe, there's clearly something to how Postecoglou implements and gets his side's buying into his philosophy.
"For him to give the sort of trust he does to the assistants -- to trust you -- that's so empowering," Montgomery, the former Hibernian and Central Coast Mariners boss now part of Spurs' backroom staff, told ESPN. "I've been a manager, I know what you get back from staff when you give them that trust.
"But he's always on top of everything. There's nothing that goes by that he's not on top of. And as much as he keeps his distance from the players, in terms of the staff, he's always available too, even if it's just you want to ask him something or share something with him.
"The places where you've seen he's had success, he's been built on good characters, as well as people buying into the way that he wants to play -- the staff and players. That's been evident everywhere he's been, and that's a real skill to get everybody to do that."
A familiar figure in British football thanks to his 349 games at Sheffield United, that Australia claims Montgomery as one of their own draws a few bemused looks in Enfield. But he's an Australian citizen now, and his signature coaching achievement came in the A-League; helping to build a young core at the Mariners as an academy coach before taking over the senior side and leading the league's most penurious outfit to a famous 6-1 Grand Final win over CFG-owned Melbourne City.
Postecoglou was one of the first to reach out with congratulations after that game, with the two in intermittent contact since Montgomery sent the former Socceroos boss a message in the aftermath of Australia's 2015 Asian Cup win. More congratulations followed after Montgomery was appointed to what became a short, unsuccessful stint as the boss of Hibs. Montgomery had plenty of interest in his services after departing Easter Road, but a chance message to Postecoglou opened the door for an opportunity in North London; one he seized with both hands. The difference in resources between the Premier League and the A-League and Scottish Premiership may be stratospheric, but the grass is grass and the ball remains round.
"I love the way that we play," Montgomery tells ESPN. "I love that we try to go out and win every game and outscore the opposition. And I love the energy and the youthfulness that we have in the team. Ange is not afraid to play young players. And I think if you look at what I did at the Mariners and Hibs, that's something that I've never been afraid to do. You reap the rewards by being brave like that.
"It's hard not to come and improve when you're working with top, top coaches, a top manager and world-class players. When you talk about some of the players here, a lot of them have played for the country. They're big names. But in the end, they're genuine people who have come from similar backgrounds to everybody like myself."
Both Montgomery and Jedinak see senior managerial roles in their future but, for now, their focus is entirely on Spurs' season. As Jedinak observes, anything less than full focus in an environment like the Premier League and you quickly get left behind. But as is made clear throughout the conversations with both, it's also about improving every day, in an environment that most coaches could only dream of.
"I've said it before, part of my responsibility, I feel, and part of what I want to give back is to open as many doors as I can for Aussie coaches or coaches from that side of the world," Postecoglou tells ESPN. "And it's great for me to have [Jedinak and Montgomery] alongside me."
