Only days after claiming successive A-League titles with Brisbane Roar, the 46-year-old handed in his resignation on Tuesday to take up a $1.5 million deal in Melbourne – significantly lower than the $6 million, four-year offer from Brisbane’s Indonesian owner, the Bakrie Group.
Postecoglou said family ties were not the underlying factor behind his move back to Victoria, citing the desire to face a new challenge and continually develop his skills as a football coach.

“It's a new challenge for me. Obviously we had a great deal of success at Brisbane. I'm always looking from my personal point of view and for my coaching career, what's the next challenge for me personally and this was an ideal opportunity, Postecoglou revealed.
"Sometimes you're maybe looking for an opportunity but it's not there, but I felt the time was right now to move on to something new, and test myself as a coach.”
"Obviously being in Melbourne is a fantastic opportunity for me to come back home as well, but the main lure was the challenge of coaching Melbourne Victory and hopefully bringing some success to them.”

The ex-South Melbourne boss, who claimed back-to-back titles in the now defunct NSL competition, believes Victory has a wealth of potential at its disposal and will look to resurrect its fortunes under his helm.
“It's another opportunity for me to test myself as a coach. I've had success at two clubs and now was an opportunity to be successful at another club with different sets of challenges.
"Every club is unique, this one is a massive cub, it's got massive expectations, it's got a massive fanbase and that presents different challenges for me as a coach and that's exciting."

Victory chairman Anthony Di Pietro regards Postecoglou as the perfect ingredient to aid Victory’s renaissance, following a calamitous 13-month period which has seen three coaches shown their marching orders – Ernie Merrick, Mehmet Durakovic and Jim Magilton – and finish the 2011-12 season in an unprecedented eighth place.
"When we became aware that Ange was interested in a new challenge and the possibility of returning to Melbourne, we obviously engaged in discussions and have now reached an agreement," Di Pietro said.
"Ange has been charged with the responsibility of shaping the playing squad to compliment his coaching style.
"Change and regeneration is what we believe is required to foster the next phase of success, and Ange's track record speaks for itself.

The navy blues declined to offer Irish-born interim coach Jim Magilton the gig full-time, despite coming to a verbal three-year agreement post the regular A-league. However, when the opportunity arose to swoop at Postecoglou, the board firmly believed it was within the club’s best interests to get the top coach on the Australian domestic scene.

“Ange has been outstanding as a coach in the Hyundai A-League over the past two years with a very progressive style both on and off the pitch.
"We believe Ange is the right person to commence the hard work and regeneration required to take our club to the next phase.”

Postecoglou confirmed he would conduct a thorough review of the current playing stocks and staff in the coming weeks, amid players in the vein of Harry Kewell and Carlos Hernandez yet to recommit for next season.
"I'll take the next two or three weeks to go through that," Postecoglou explained.
"I've got to get my decisions right for this football club. If we want to be successful this year, I've got to be spot on.
"To be spot on, you've got to have all the information at hand, so you're better taking your time and not rushing.
"I think there's some talented players he for sure."

Whilst the football community has grown accustomed to Postecoglou’s football ethos at Brisbane Roar – playing out from the back accompanied with a high emphasis on a possession based game – the new Melbourne coach said he wouldn’t necessarily play an identical game-structure at his new club, but would attempt to implement a new and unique philosophy in Melbourne.
"There are some basic philosophies that are the core of my beliefs in football, but I didn't want to replicate what I did in Brisbane, otherwise I would have stayed there," Postecoglou said.
"To me, it's about something new. I want to create something new, exciting, something hopefully better.
"You don't want to be doing what's trendy now, you want to pick the next one. You want to be playing the kind of football that's successful next year and beyond.
"That's my challenge as a coach."

Long-time friend and ex-South Melbourne teammate Paul Trimboli will join Postecoglou when the Roar’s ACL commitments are complete in May. Trimboli, currently general manager of football at Brisbane, will fill the vacant post of football director at the Victory.


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