There are worse sets of coattails to ride on, if you’re a budding Australian coach, than those belonging to Ange Postecoglou. Kevin Muscat has done it twice: in 2013, he succeeded him as coach of Melbourne Victory when Postecoglou took charge of the Socceroos, and then again in 2021 at Yokohama F. Marinos after his move to Celtic, eventually guiding both clubs to league titles.

He is aware of how that looks. Muscat’s knockers – and there are more than a few of those, due to his brutal physicality and chequered disciplinary record as a player – can easily dismiss those achievements because in both instances, there were rock-solid foundations put in place by Postecoglou.

Kevin Muscat has now won titles in three different countries.Credit: Getty Images/Instagram

“I’m not naive to the fact that it might be assessed that I’ve taken over jobs that were in a good place. That’s the reality,” Muscat says in Angeball, my recently released biography of Postecoglou. “To step into his footsteps twice, it’s not as easy as it bloody seems, trust me. It’s not that easy to follow the big fella.”

The credit for Muscat’s latest achievement cannot be siphoned off to anyone.

By winning the Chinese Super League with........

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