THE CONGESTION CHARGE
Ange tells Hibs boss that fixture logjam is simply the price elite clubs have to pay
ANGE Postecoglou is less concerned with the spectacle of the Premier Sports Cup final than he is with winning it. The Australian is sympathetic to the view of Hibs counterpart Jack Ross that a hectic schedule of fixtures in December undermines the league’s own showcase final on the 19th of that month.
But the Celtic boss also accepts that a schedule of eight games in 25 days — starting with Bayer Leverkusen in Germany tonight — is the price elite players and managers must pay for the big bucks.
At the highest level of the game, success has never come easy.
With Hibs playing eight games in 26 days leading up the Hampden final, their manager’s calls to the SPFL to relent over the tight fixture calendar have fallen on deaf ears.
A three-week winter break returns in January at the behest of the very clubs now complaining about fixture congestion in December, while both finalists face midweek games before the first domestic cup final of the season.
It’s an imperfect scenario for two bosses chasing their first major trophy in Scottish football. Asked if he empathised with his opposite number, Postecoglou said: ‘I absolutely do. And, ideally, you’d love to have a seven-day break.
‘But the reality is, when you are in multiple competitions like we are, we are going to be in Europe post-Christmas, so we are going to have midweek games in the second half of the season. I don’t know where else they could put a game. I’m sure they probably looked at it.
‘Ultimately for us as a football club, the history suggests that, again, when you sign up, you are going to play 50 or 60 games a year because that’s the expectations and you want to do well in all of the tournaments.
‘From our perspective, it’s about making sure that, with the games we have got, we put our best foot forward, play the best football we can.
‘And when it gets around to the final, we’ll make sure we are well prepared for it because we don’t want to let an opportunity go by.’
Whatever people think of the quality of the football in Scotland, the rows are consistently worldclass. Irked by the SPFL’s decision to move Hibs’ home game against Aberdeen from December 18 to the following midweek without consultation, Ross also accused the league of being tough on some issues and hands-off on others.
Livingston boss David Martindale has already expressed concern for the welfare of players asked to play three games a week for the next month in order to facilitate three weeks off in January.
‘I think that’s part of a worldwide issue at the moment,’ added Postecoglou. ‘How much do you really want players to play and still expect maximum levels?
‘But we are in the final of the League Cup, we are going to stay in Europe, we’ve got the Scottish Cup, the league, we are in all four tournaments and I don’t think there is anyone in the building who would want it any other way.
‘It’s just a matter of, hopefully, scheduling when the time gets better — and I guess the extra challenge for us is when you have international players, which some clubs don’t have.
‘You have that extra load which makes it even more challenging for our players.’
Player welfare is only one of the issues provoking public gripes ahead of the first domestic cup final of the season.
The split of tickets between the clubs is another after Ross branded an allocation of 17,500 tickets for Hibs ‘ridiculous’.
Celtic stand to take 30,000 supporters to Hampden, a state of affairs which angers fans of clubs who think the Old Firm already enjoy enough advantages without adding another.
‘Mate, there are many things I’d love to control,’ said Postecoglou with a laugh. ‘But ticket allocation isn’t, I can guarantee.’
Preferring to focus on what he can control — events on the pitch — his team still retain an outside chance of reaching the knockout stage of the Europa League.
A 4-0 thrashing from Bayer Leverkusen in Glasgow augurs poorly for the return in the BayArena tonight. Forced that night to throw Kyogo Furuhashi and Callum
McGregor into the starting XI after injury, Postecoglou’s side were undone by a combination of woeful defending and an inability to beat keeper Lukas Hradecky with any of their 18 shots on goal. Yet, Leverkusen only secured their first Bundesliga victory in five attempts with a 1-0 win over Bochum at the weekend. In contrast, Celtic are unbeaten in all competitions since that 4-0 loss — with back-to-back wins over Ferencvaros securing a minimum of a play-off for the Europa Conference League in the new year and keeping hopes of progress in the Europa League alive. Forced off with a facial injury in last Saturday’s Premier Sports Cup semi-final win over St Johnstone, defender Stephen Welsh has trained and — with Carl Starfelt still a week away from returning — will start tonight. Tom Rogic could be ready for the weekend while a knee injury for summer signing Giorgos Giakoumakis will be checked out by a specialist. ‘It’ll be a challenging game for us,’ said Postecoglou (left). ‘We have played against them once and they are a side that is very quick on transition with quality players throughout their team. ‘We are going to have to put our best foot forward to match them. It’s a challenge for us to go there and try to impose our game on them.’ Celtic’s heavy defeat in Glasgow was largely self-inflicted, a calamitous slip from David Turnbull beginning the night badly. Thereafter it went slowly downhill. ‘They are a team that will wait on any mistakes we make and punish us,’ said the Celtic boss. ‘When the first game was at 0-0 in the first 20-odd minutes, we probably created the better chances, but then we made a mistake and they scored and we lost our composure and concentration for a little bit. ‘We are playing one of the top teams in Europe. To all intents and purposes they are a Champions League side and we are playing them in their backyard, so the goal can’t be underestimated. But we have to go there and see how we measure up against that.’