Risk-taker Ange Postecoglou Gives Tottenham Hotspur New Hope

Inspired by Bill Shankly and Ferenc Puskas, Ange Postecoglou is the risk-taking trailblazer reviving Tottenham Hotspur with his no-fear philosophy. Postecoglou has been a breath of fresh air for Spurs, banishing the bitter cycle of failure and recrimination that haunted the north London club before his close-season arrival from Celtic. The 58-year-old is the first Australian to manage a Premier League team. And when Tottenham host top-four rivals Liverpool on Saturday, Greece-born Postecoglou will fulfil a dream more than half a century in the making.

He fell in love with football as a child, idolising the all-conquering Liverpool teams of the 1970s managed by the charismatic Shankly.

"I always wanted to be a manager. I was a massive Liverpool fan. I loved Bill Shankly. I loved the boot room stories," he told the BBC.

Despite his boyhood admiration for Liverpool, Postecoglou is no wide-eyed stargazer, as his impressive impact with previously moribund Spurs has proved.

The club finished a lowly eighth in the Premier League last season following a miserable campaign in which Postecoglou's precedessor Antonio Conte launched scathing attacks on the culture of a club without a major trophy since 2008.

Revitalised this season, unbeaten Tottenham have already defeated Manchester United and drawn with Arsenal to move into fourth place, two points behind second-placed Liverpool ahead of this weekend's showdown.

In an echo of the way Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp hauled his club out of a deep depression with the power of his magnetic personality, Postecoglou's positive vibes have been restorative for Tottenham.

The most visible evidence of his persona has come in his team's determination to embrace his bold desire to play out