The club's second-ever "Asian foreign coach" takes charge, making the "Montgomery" era at Guoan highly anticipated.

Written by Han Bing On January 8th, Beijing Guoan confirmed the hiring of Australian head coach Montgomery. At 44, he is the twentieth foreign coach in the club’s history and the second Asian foreign coach after Lee Jang-soo (2006–2009). Montgomery has won the A-League title both as a player and as a coach. From June 2024 to October 2025, he worked alongside renowned Australian coach Postecoglou, serving as assistant coach at Premier League clubs Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest, gaining extensive top-tier league coaching experience. Montgomery favors an attacking football style characterized by high pressing and rapid transitions, and he has expertise in developing young players, making Guoan's upcoming season highly promising.

Montgomery has won league titles both as a player and coach, similar to the previous Guoan foreign coach with a "double champion" background, the Portuguese coach Pacheco (who managed Guoan in the 2011-2012 season). Born in Leeds, England, of Scottish descent, Montgomery came through Leeds United’s youth system and played for Sheffield United for 12 seasons, though he only spent one season in the Premier League. In 2012, he joined the A-League’s Central Coast Mariners and won the league title in his debut season. Montgomery represented Scotland’s U21 and "B" teams but only became an Australian citizen after five seasons with the Mariners.

In the summer of 2017, Montgomery began transitioning to an assistant coach role at Central Coast Mariners. By July 2021, before turning 40, he was promoted to head coach. He inherited a young, inexperienced squad: among 37 players, only 5 were over 30, 23 were under 23, with an average age below 23.2 years. Despite losing five key players who had helped reach the playoffs the previous season, Montgomery led a defense and midfield core averaging just 20.8 years old to an unexpected 5th place finish in the regular season, qualifying for the championship playoffs. The team also reached the Australia Cup final but narrowly lost to Melbourne Victory, the league runners-up.

In the 2022/23 season, Montgomery guided a well-gelled young squad to finish second in the regular season and then decisively defeated regular-season champions Melbourne City 6-1 in the playoff final to claim the title. Of the starting eleven, only goalkeeper Vukovic was over 30, while seven players were under 23. This success brought him recognition, leading to his appointment as head coach of the Scottish Premiership club Hibernian in summer 2023. However, his stint in Scotland ended unsuccessfully as Hibernian finished last in the 2023/24 season and he was dismissed. After just one month unemployed, he was hired by then-Tottenham Hotspur head coach Postecoglou as an assistant. Following the team’s Europa League victory in summer 2025, both he and Postecoglou were dismissed. In September last year, he joined Nottingham Forest alongside Postecoglou but was sacked again after only eight matches.

In summary, Montgomery has a proven track record of coaching young squads to A-League titles and gained valuable experience in the Premier League and European competitions while working under the renowned Postecoglou. He brings advanced Premier League training methods and tactical ideas to Guoan. Montgomery is the second Guoan foreign coach with current Premier League coaching experience after Bilic (2021). Although he served only as Postecoglou’s assistant, his tenure at the elite club Tottenham Hotspur arguably surpasses Bilic’s experience leading newly promoted West Bromwich Albion.

As an Australian coach, Montgomery has emphasized high pressing and fast attacking transitions since Central Coast Mariners adopted a 4-4-2 formation. While serving as assistant at Tottenham and Nottingham Forest, he worked with formations like 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, using two defensive midfielders as a defensive base, stressing wing play to open attacking space, and wide forward movement. Montgomery’s attacking style demands high player fitness levels; during his Premier League assistant tenure, he also utilized advanced data systems to support player conditioning and injury prevention.

Among the nine foreign coaches currently in the Chinese Super League, Montgomery’s recent transition from the Premier League shines the brightest. His tactics require strong performance from center forwards, wingers, defensive midfielders, and center backs. With the CSL transfer window now open, Montgomery has nearly two months to recruit players fitting his tactical system and quickly steer Guoan onto the "Montgomery" path. His debut in Chinese football will be on March 1st in the Super Cup against Shanghai Port. This clash between Australian coaches will test how well his attacking football has been integrated into Guoan.

Although this is Montgomery’s first time coaching in the Chinese Super League, he is no stranger to Asian football or the CSL. As a player, he faced Guoan during the 2014 AFC Champions League group stage, where his Central Coast Mariners won 1-0 at home but lost 1-2 away to Guoan, with veteran Zhang Xizhe competing against him on the field. Moreover, Montgomery is familiar with Australian colleagues in the CSL: Muscat at Shanghai Port and Ross Aloisi at Zhejiang, both former assistants to Postecoglou with similar coaching styles. During his A-League tenure at Central Coast Mariners, Montgomery also faced John Aloisi, then head coach of Western United, with a record of three wins and one draw over two seasons.

As a young Australian coach well-versed in Asian football and recently refined in the Premier League, Montgomery’s high-pressing attacking style is expected to bring new changes and progress to Guoan. However, the club has undergone significant changes this year, from management to internal operations. With Ma Yongming appointed as the club’s sporting director, everything needs to be reorganized, and the squad is also being refreshed. Therefore, the public should show patience with Montgomery’s coaching tenure. After all, this is not merely a simple coaching change but a brand-new operational model for Beijing Guoan.