Ange Postecoglou's Puskas chauffeur days were the making of the Tottenham manager as he continues to get to grips with Spurs stars in pre-season
Ferenc Puskas had a plane to catch and Ange Postecoglou's beat-up Datsun 200 had a flat tyre.
'I had the s***tiest car because I was on hardly any money,' is Postecoglou's first point of note as he takes a time-out from Tottenham's tour of Australia and Asia to tell a rapid-fire anecdote from the days when he captained South Melbourne and his boss was one of the finest footballers who ever lived.
'One of those bizarre things in life. At the time, you couldn't rationalise it. Even today, I can't. How's this happened? But it ended up being pivotal for me.'
Puskas spoke no English but had a smattering of Greek from his time in charge of Panathinaikos, so his young skipper, born in the suburbs of Athens and raised in Melbourne, was called upon to interpret, then to chauffer.
'I'm driving one of the world's greatest players in this car that's bloody embarrassing,' Postecoglou recalls.
One day, this odd couple found themselves locked in their very own Laurel and Hardy sketch with Postecoglou, still in his club tracksuit, jacking his Datsun at the side of the freeway with the Hungarian legend sitting tight in the passenger seat.
'I'm going, 'Boss, d'ya mind just…' because he was a big guy at the time, 'D'ya mind getting out?' And he goes, 'No, I'm not going anywhere'. When I think about it now, I would have done things differently. I would have paid for a taxi for the man.'
Puskas made his flight, however, and more than 30 years on Postecoglou is settling behind the wheel of Tottenham, a club in need of its own urgent roadside repair.
His down-to-earth, hard-working nature has made an instant impact on players and staff. And he was hailed a homecoming hero on the opening leg of pre-season in Perth.
Still, there is plenty to do if he
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