Tottenham Hotspur are now riding high and sitting pretty atop the Premier League standings.
Ange Postecoglou has been the driving factor behind Tottenham’s recent form turnaround, upgrading all of his players and making some excellent purchases.
Of those, James Maddison has arguably been the standout at Tottenham, hitting the ground running following his £40million summer move.
In just eight Premier League outings for Spurs, he has already registered two goals and five assists.
The playmaker has now told talkSPORT what Postecoglou is like behind the scenes and how it’s driven Tottenham’s early success.
‘Straight to the point’
Maddison shared the first thing that the Spurs boss said to him and the squad that shows what a good man he is.
“He has come in and had his way of playing and his methods,” said the England international.
“The way he wants us to train day in, day out is infectious. There’s not a day where you can go out and be half-hearted.
“Every day and every training session is intense, it’s hard and it’s his way, but we’re reaping the rewards of that on the pitch on a Saturday.
“The gaffer is a good man, first and foremost. The first thing he said to us on one of his first days was ‘be a decent human being and we’ll get along fine’.
“That’s one of his morals and you can tell by the way he carries himself and he speaks to people that he’s a good man.
“He’s open, he’s honest and he’s straight to the point. He’s very direct and there’s no mucking about. That’s just refreshing.
“You don’t want managers who are giving mixed messages and having favourites.
“He’s a good, hard-working man, which is the foundation that he bases his teams off. It’s infectious to us players.”
Our view
Tottenham fans and neutrals alike have been enjoying Postecoglou’s style of management and friendly, no-nonsense personality.
He fits Spurs really well and already he’s looking like his impact will be more like that of Mauricio Pochettino than the three managers who succeeded him.
Likewise, Maddison is a perfect fit for Tottenham, the sort of player Spurs have missed ever since Christian Eriksen left the club.