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As the television cameras honed in on their target at the final whistle of Saturday's Scottish Cup final it didn't take an expert in body language to know that Ange Postecoglou was leaving Celtic for Tottenham Hotspur.
Anyone watching for signs of what was going on inside Big Ange's head would have arrived at that conclusion fairly quickly. He looked as if he didn't quite know what to do with himself as he made his way around Hampden applauding fans, gently tapping a clenched fist to his heart every few seconds. There was a moistening around the eyes when the strains of You'll Never Walk Alone and a look away from the camera.
If it wasn't already clear that the 57-year-old had a couple of suitcases packed back at home then virtual confirmation came in his press conferences afterwards. The direct refusal to answer a question about whether he would be Celtic manager only confirmed to the realists that this was, indeed, to be his last act in the Parkhead hotseat. Looking down from the posh seats the expressions on the faces of Peter Lawwell and Dermot Desmond only franked that belief.
Yet, in the aftermath there were still those Celtic fans who clung to any little morsel, suggesting that he would be mad to leave for Tottenham, “a basket case of a club,” conveniently forgetting that their own club had been similarly dysfunctional upon Postecoglou's appointment in 2021.
The six stages of grief are well known to Tottenham fans – they have experienced them enough times to know when they are staring them in the face having suffered them when some of their favourite sons – Dimitar Berbatov, Luka Modric and Gareth Bale to name but three – have departed for bigger and better things. There were similar reactions to the final throes of Mauricio Pochettino's tenure. The direct lineage to Tottenham's woes of recent seasons can be traced to the Argentine's departure. Now, they have maybe the closest thing to Pochettino arriving with a view to recapturing that vibe.
The genius of Postecoglou – aside from his obvious coaching ability – is his ability to make people love him. There is the element of the sports psychologist about him but also – to borrow from the Australian vernacular – the good bloke. His words in the aftermath of Saturday's final inside the media suite at Hampden sounded very much like a message not just for Celtic supporters but also a plaintive appeal to those at Tottenham. “Let's not beat about the bush, I was a joke when I was appointed," he said. "A lot of people made fun of my appointment but the supporters for their own reasons just put their collective arms around me and said 'no, he's one of ours' and it was up to me to repay that faith and trust.”
If he does that quickly he will soon have Spurs fans eating out of the palm of his hands.
Meanwhile, there has been a tendency to paint Spurs as some minnow of English football rather than a team that has finished in the top four more often than Manchester United and Arsenal over the past decade. If Brendan Rodgers left for an English club with far less history and financial heft than Tottenham then why would one of his successors at Celtic be any different when a more prestigious and lucrative offer came along?
They are the ninth richest club in world football. It is a testament to Daniel Levy's prowess as a pure businessman even if plenty of his decisions affecting on pitch matters have been poor. This time, he has turned to those who know football – a rarity for him in recent years – and alighted on Postecoglou. He may be the second choice behind Feyenoord's Arne Slot but then so was Pochettino in 2014 when Louis van Gaal had been teed up for the role.
Further proof of Levy's financial genius came last week when Forbes published a list of the sports clubs who have generated the most pure profit in the past three years. Tottenham sat third on it behind the Dallas Cowboys and the New England Patriots.
One wag on social media posted it in response to another who asked why Postecoglou would not wait for a better job to come along. “Who on this list is bigger?” joked the Spurs fan.
Who knows, if Postecoglou can win a trophy at Spurs then maybe the Dallas Cowboys might just give him a call in an attempt to end their own long drought without a Super Bowl.
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