Ange Postecoglou likes to reference his enviable success rate in his second season at clubs.
In the volatile world of Saudi Arabian football, he is going to have to round that down. If he does not have Al Nassr purring by his second week, the Australian coach is going to be skating on thin ice, let alone the second season.
Postecoglou was unveiled as the Riyadh club’s new manager this summer. His task is to reprise the success of last season, when Cristiano Ronaldo and his fellow stars ended a barren run by winning the Saudi Pro League.
When he was Tottenham Hotspur manager, Postecoglou pointed out that he had to be perfect in his managerial career to make it from basic beginnings in amateur football in Melbourne to the most-watched league in the world.
He then took an underachieving club to their first trophy in years while he was there, before being jettisoned because of a poor league finish, which had coincided with an unmanageable run of injuries.
Now he has ended up in a league with one of the game’s very biggest stars – Ronaldo – and many of its best-paid players.
In addition, the league has some of the most impatient employers anywhere in world football.
Evangelos Marinakis, Postecoglou’s famously temperamental boss at Nottingham Forest in his previous post, is contemplative and well-adjusted by the standards of Saudi Arabian football.
In England, football managers generally last a little under two years in their job on average. In the Saudi Pro League, the average is 156 days – so around five months – according to the CIES Football Observatory.
Postecoglou might be minded to point out he has already succeeded in one SPL – that being Scotland’s Premier League.
Scotland’s Old Firm clubs are not exactly famed for their patience either, but he still went all right there.
Celtic, where Postecoglou won five major trophies in two seasons, went through three managers last season – even though they still won the league.
If he is there for a long time, the Nassrawi will find they are in for a good time. His methods usually result in football that is great to watch.
Roberto De Zerbi, his twice-removed successor at Spurs, said during this pre-season that he wants his team to play like the peak Postecoglou side from early in his spell at the club. From a fellow coach, that is quite the endorsement.
Whether he has inherited the ideal group of players in Riyadh for the traditional 'Angeball' style is questionable.
That may seem mad, given he has an all-star forward line in a league that is a flat track for much of the season and a centre forward who is closing in on 1,000 career goals.
But is it possible to play hyper-aggressive, attacking football, with a 41-year-old striker who doesn’t press and who generally doesn’t get through a great amount of work, other than sniffing out chances? And when the start and end of the season are played in sapping heat?
Plus the player who did everyone’s running for them in Nassr’s championship side and used the ball in the canniest fashion – Marcelo Brozovic – has left.
Postecoglou will surely be confident he can fashion something great from what he has. His record suggests that will be well within his compass.
Will he get the time to carry out his plan? That will be intriguing to see.
