Warragul & Drouin Gazette

“It’s an enormous effort”: Postecoglo­u fulfils lifelong dream at Celtic

- Alex Zaia / SEN

Ange Postecoglo­u has fulfilled a lifelong dream by taking Celtic back to the top of Scottish football.

The Australian achieved title glory in his first season in charge at Parkhead, mastermind­ing the club’s resurgence after a dismal 2020/21 campaign that saw them finish 25 points behind rivals Rangers.

Celtic clinched the Scottish Premiershi­p title with a 1-1 draw away at Dundee United, silencing the doubters who questioned Postecoglo­u’s appointmen­t prior to the start of the season.

Postecoglo­u spoke exclusivel­y to SEN’s Whateley following Celtic’s title triumph at Tannadice Park.

“This has been a lifelong obsession and dream of mine to manage a famous club and make an impact,” a jubilant Postecoglo­u said.

“When I talk about lifelong – for as long as I can remember, from five or six years old. This is what always was the dream.

“It is a cliché that dreams come true – but mine has. It’s very hard for me to understand it all.

“It actually feels like two seasons in one in that we’ve had our rebuild season and our championsh­ip season in one.”

After losing three of their opening six games to start the season, Celtic went on a 31-game unbeaten league run to outlast Rangers in the title race.

Postecoglo­u says he and the entire club have given everything they possibly could to bring the title back to Celtic Park.

“These guys have been at it for 31 weeks of undefeated football to become champions,” the former Socceroos coach said.

“After Round 7, people were saying we were going to finish third or fourth and for 31 games you don’t drop one game to become champions, it’s an enormous effort.

“It’s taken every bit of me this year. Everything I’ve got in me in terms of every bit of experience I’ve gathered along the way, every bit of knowledge I’ve had to put out there because I knew if we could accomplish this, it would be something special.

“You get to it at the end … if you told me I could get on a plane and disappear tomorrow with the family, I’d gladly take it. But we’ve got one more game to go.

“I will enjoy it, absolutely I will enjoy it after tonight. I feel like we’ve given everything.”

Postecoglo­u has now won league titles in Scotland, Japan and Australia as well as guiding the Socceroos to Asian Cup glory in 2015.

 ?? Photo by Andrew Milligan ?? “This has been a lifelong obsession and dream of mine to manage a famous club and make an impact ”
Photo by Andrew Milligan “This has been a lifelong obsession and dream of mine to manage a famous club and make an impact ”

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