Ange Postecoglou made it big in Japan - and his former apprentice has picked up where the Celtic manager left off with a famous J-League win.
Yokohama F. Marinos hadn't won the J League for 15 years until Postecoglou ended their trophy drought in 2019. The now Celtic manager's winning mentality is deeply rooted at the club as they scooped another league title in the early hours of this morning. Australian boss Kevin Muscat was at the wheel and he's already reportedly being lined up as a future manager of the Australian national team after his heroics.
With the title race going down to the final day, Yokohama's fate was in their own hands as they beat Vissel Kobe 3-1. A noteworthy player for the opposition was Yuki Kobayashi - who reports in Japan say is a transfer target for the Parkhead side. The centre-back started and was subbed off before Postecoglou's former side scored their second and third goals on their way to an historic victory.
Muscat took over from Postecoglou at Yokohama last year knew exactly what type of team he was inheriting. The 49-year-old honed his trade by working as a coach under Postecoglou at Melbourne Victory before taking over from the Hoops boss at the Australian side too. This is Muscat's fifth trophy as a solo boss - a welcome career boost following an ill-fated stint at Belgian side Sint-Truiden, where he was sacked after just six months.
And Muscat, who had a brief spell at Rangers under Alex McLeish, has been vocal about the influence Postecoglou has had on his career. He said: "Spending that 15-16 months with Ange was very important in my career. I had all these ideas, people talk about vision, philosophy and these buzzwords, but you need to have a game style of the way you want to play. At the time, I felt that was really significant.
"I consider Ange a friend and a mentor. A mentor is someone you can unconditionally trust for council. We speak about things. Sometimes there will be messages when I wake up in the middle of the night. He is always watching the games, always watching our games and likewise."
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