Champions League key factor in Ange’s recruitment drive

AFTER the stress and the strain of last summer’s rebuild, Ange Postecoglou has time to plot and plan.

A summer holiday in Greece will allow the Celtic manager to decompress — and while it’s unlikely he will completely switch off as he soaks up the Aegean sun, he can progress any recruitment with a degree of confidence that his title-winning squad needs tweaked not turned over.

Last term, the Australian was parachuted in late after the club’s protracted efforts to secure Eddie Howe met a brick wall.

With a rebuild needed and a Champions League qualifier looming, Postecoglou had to firefight and barely drew breath even as the team enjoyed some respite through a Covid-extended winter shutdown.

This summer’s immediate priorities are permanent deals for loanees Jota and Cameron CarterVickers, while three or four quality additions will be sought.

The lure of Champions League football should make the club an easier sell.

‘People focus on the financial rewards you get for the group stage, but what is just as important to me is you can put in a pre-season programme with certainty and the players can get some decent time off, which they are going to need after our season,’ says Postecoglou. ‘We can look at our recruitment and know we are in the Champions League group stage rather than having to wait to see how we get on through the qualifiers and then trying to identify players to bring in.

‘There’s a whole range of benefits is gives you. It gives us certainty around our programme and the way we work and hopefully gives us a better chance to be prepared for the season.

‘We didn’t need an extra incentive to win the title this year but it has given us a great opportunity to accelerate our rebuilding of this team.’

Handed a tough Europa League draw, Celtic actually accumulated a decent points tally from a group featuring sides from the top flights of Spain and Germany.

Yet heavy defeats to Real Betis and Bayer Leverkusen exposed the fragility of Celtic in the early stages of Postecoglou’s project.

The January signings of Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate, Yosuke Ideguchi and Matt O’Riley spurred the team on to its title success but there was a long-term strategy afoot too.

‘You saw in the first half of the season that we struggled in not having a strong enough squad,’ admits Postecoglou. ‘We had a lot of injuries and overburdened some players who just got through.

‘That was the reason for bolstering the squad in January. It wasn’t just for the second half of this year.

‘We thought we could bring in some good players. I knew the Japanese season was finished, so that was the ideal time.

‘We probably didn’t need to bring in so many but the three I identified would also give us a stronger squad for next year.

‘That’s what we’ll be looking to do in the summer window, make sure the squad is stronger and more robust and increase the quality of our starting players.

‘We won’t bring as many players in. It will be more targeted so that the players we bring in can make an impact on our team.’

It now seems clear that O’Riley — a £1.5million a buy from MK Dons — was sourced as a replacement for the outgoing Tom Rogic.

Likewise, the so far rarelyspotted Ideguchi may now step up to fill the squad role filled so diligently by Nir Bitton.

‘People will figure out I am always trying to think a step ahead,’ says Postecoglou. ‘We probably still need to sign another one in the midfield area but having signed the three boys in January means they are already bedded into our style, our training, which gives us a head start.’