"I'M FAMOUS in Australia now, am I?"

Roy Hodgson could hardly believe it, and nor could Michael Voss.

Within 30 seconds of television cameras flashing up to the Carlton coach with the former Liverpool, England and Inter Milan manager at a Premier League fixture back in December, Voss' phone exploded into life. Never mind that it was just past 1am back in Australia, fans – and a lot of them – had taken note of the unlikely pairing.

"I said to Roy, 'Mate, you've got 110,000 Carlton members following you now'. He had a bit of a laugh at that. It was a very funny interaction," Voss told AFL.com.au in an exclusive interview at Ikon Park this week.

Voss had journeyed over to North London to spend the week with Australian manager and noted Carlton diehard Ange Postecoglou at Premier League club Tottenham. It was a fact-finding mission, of sorts, but the Blues boss got more than he bargained for. Everywhere he looked, a lesson could be found.

"Look, Tottenham's a massive club," Voss said.

"The transformation they're trying to create there, and what's been going on behind the scenes, made me realise just how big it is to try and change a club's direction or a club's culture … all the pieces and how aligned you need to be right throughout your organisation and how much time that takes to be able to do that.

"I was really fortunate to spend time pretty much in every department and just talk it through. From the Academy, to recruiting, through to their coaches and to Ange, and the alignment piece just stood out really strong to me.

I look from afar now and I see them struggling a bit with injuries and that sort of stuff, but what I also see is a really strong alignment in what they're trying to create. They look like they want to see that through. It would probably be the best decision they've ever made."

Taking in Tottenham's 1-1 draw with Fulham formed the start of a week-long study tour where Voss would go behind the scenes with not only Spurs, but also London's Saracens Rugby Club. His meeting with Hodgson happened purely by chance, but got the expedition off to an ideal start.

Voss spent a total of four hours with Hodgson, who took up his first managerial appointment in 1976 before retiring last year. They lunched together, watched the game together, and spoke openly about a coaching career that spanned close to 50 years across eight different countries and in charge of 22 different teams.

"He's done everything," Voss said.

"I was trying not to talk his head off, but he was quite happy to talk footy and how he was seeing the game. He asked me lots of questions about our game. It was absolute gold for me. I was trying to look like I was in control of myself, but I was actually a really excited kid inside."

Voss is a coach who has always searched for ways to incorporate ideas from different sports into his own methods. He's spoken openly about using South Africa's rugby union side, the Springboks, as motivation in the past. But at Tottenham, his trip was more focused on acting as a sponge in learning from one of Australia's best sporting minds in Postecoglou.

"Nothing replaces being able to sit with a coach and watch them at work," Voss said.

"That's the benefit I get. When you get to sit and watch a coach at work, how they address their players, how they review a game … it was a great experience for me to be able to sit in a room and listen to Ange address the result that they had.

"I'm told it was an unexpected result, but the way he managed it and how he sold his vision and how he gave great clarity in the way they were able to play … I can't play soccer, but I thought, 'I could do that!' It was really clear. It was really simple.

"He installed great belief in his playing group, even though they might have been a little bit unsure about themselves. I'm not there every day, but I walked out and thought, 'That sounds pretty good to me, he's got me!'"

For Voss, set to enter his fourth season in charge of Carlton, taking a step back and returning to a place of observation rather than control was a refreshing change. It was a reminder of the seven years he spent at Port Adelaide under the tutelage of Power coach Ken Hinkley.

"It's invaluable for me to be able to watch another coach now. I'm not the bystander now. I'm not sitting there, watching Ken Hinkley address his team over and over again and manage the wins and the losses," Voss said.

"I'm part of a coaching team, but when you're watching the leader at the front and where he takes the message and how he handles it and how he installs belief in his group and how they stay strong on things they really believe in when they need to … when you become the head coach, you lose that. You don't get to observe anymore. You get to observe your own team, but it's very hard to do that to yourself. To be able to spend time with other coaches right now, it's a really invaluable experience for me."

Tottenham and Carlton have their similarities. Every season, at both clubs, expectations are high. But recent success has alluded them, commonly replaced by a feeling of fatalism within their respective supporter bases. Changing that mindset, both internally and externally, has therefore been crucial for both Voss and Postecoglou.

Last season, the Blues showed glimpses of their potential to be the best team in the competition. It had followed a 2023 campaign where the club made its first preliminary final in more than 20 years. But a disappointing finish to the season has made for another summer of uncertainty.

And yet, Voss isn't afraid of the questions chasing success poses. He wants premierships to be spoken about at Ikon Park. He, like many of his players, is open about the club's desire to finally break through for that drought-breaking flag. He just wants the focus, at the moment, to be solely placed on the journey to get there, rather than the end result.

"We talk about ambition, I'm quite OK to talk about ambition," Voss said.

"But I'm also pragmatic. If the work doesn't get done, nothing shows up. Without diving too deep, by going off and talking about all of these really nice shiny things, we lose the detail of the work. We lose the detail of what we need to do every single day to build the consistent habits that we need to be able to have to support us throughout the whole season.

"I've got no problem being able to talk about ambition and wanting to have an impact on this season. We want to figure strongly at the back end of the season. We're here to qualify as high as we possibly can. I'm bringing energy with that and I'm bringing excitement with that. I hope our fans feel that. I want to play in a manner where our boys are excited about the opportunity to be able to do that and see that as a real privilege."

So, does that result in a flag? There have been multiple times throughout Voss' Carlton tenure where his side has looked like a premiership-calibre team. But, for him, it's not entirely about replicating that type of form. Rather, the coach's idea of converting towards success is about improving upon the other weeks, when the Blues have looked like a side that could struggle to even make it to September.

"I've always said this is not about the ceiling. It's about raising the floor," Voss said.

"That floor comes with the consistency and the persistence. That's what we've got to embrace. Some people call it the grind, some people call it something else. We haven't experienced that yet.

"Right now, we should be feeling good about what we've done and there should be a really strong belief that we've got a great capacity within this football team. But we should also be really realistic that we know there's a fair bit of work ahead of us."