FIGHTING TALK
Ange sure Celtic can succeed on all fronts
ANGE POSTECOGLOU believes Celtic can confound expectations and challenge for all the major honours this season.
Hampered by a lack of new recruits, the Australian endured the crushing disappointment of elimination from the Champions League at the first hurdle at the hands of Midtjylland on Wednesday.
Postecoglou takes the side for the first time in the Premiership tonight at newly-promoted Hearts and needs a positive result to lift the dark mood that has engulfed the club. It took the 55-year-old until his second seasons with South Melbourne, Brisbane Roar and Yokohama F Marinos to win titles.
But although the scale of his rebuilding job makes Celtic a long shot to wrest back the crown Rangers took from them last term, Postecoglou insists finishing second in any competition isn’t in his make-up.
‘I don’t try to navigate a path where success comes in the second year,’ he said. ‘Wherever I’ve been, I’ve tried to be successful in the first year, though sometimes circumstances haven’t
helped me in that. I definitely think we’ll get better as the season goes on and we’ll be stronger, but that doesn’t mean that rules us out of being successful in the league. ‘I really believe that with the group of players we have and the additions we’re going to bring in, we’ll hopefully get off to a good start in the league. ‘And I’m very, very confident we’ll be challenging for honours at the end of the year.’ Defender Carl Starfelt is in line to make his debut at Tynecastle following his £4million move from Rubin Kazan, but the game will come too soon for striker Kyogo Furuhashi. Strongly linked with Tottenham keeper Joe Hart and Antwerp right-back Aurelio Buta this week, Postecoglou is confident that the long-awaited influx of new faces is imminent. ‘That’s the plan,’ he said. ‘I’m pretty confident. We are all working hard to get at least one or two into the club by the end of next week.’ The lack of depth in the squad was illustrated by the fact he only made four out of a permitted six substitutions as the game in Denmark went into extra-time. Nir Bitton is available again after suspension, but the Celtic manager doesn’t feel in a position to make wholesale changes, saying: ‘We are limited in terms of how much I can rotate.’