ANGE HAS ALL THE ANSWERS
Fans had to Google his name when he was appointed but, with success in the transfer market, bold tactics — and now a derby triumph — Postecoglou is coming up trumps on all fronts
IT’S natural to wonder where Eddie Howe’s Celtic would be now. When the current manager of Newcastle finally turned the Parkhead job down after a lengthy flirtation, Ange Postecoglou felt like the rebound choice. The wounds of rejection were still raw.
The first reaction to the Australian’s appointment was a quick search of Google. The second was a shrug of indifference and bewilderment.
Most looked at the mess left behind last season and wondered how on earth a coach with little or no experience of Scottish football could apply a quick fix.
Any consideration of how an alternative scenario would have worked out under Eddie Howe is hypothetical. It’s guesswork.
Top of the league with 14 games to play — with the League Cup in the trophy cabinet — it’s difficult to believe it could have gone much better than it has under the man Celtic eventually hired in a sliding doors moment.
There would have been no Kyogo Furuhashi or Reo Hatate,
possibly no Matt O’Riley or Josip Juranovic. No
evidence of a high-tempo, aggressive attacking game which blew Rangers away with three goals in the opening half-hour on Wednesday night.
After years of ropey player recruitment, no one is urging Celtic to appoint a director of football any more.
Despite a disproportionate number of soft-tissue injuries perhaps prompted by a high-risk, high energy, high-reward approach to training and playing, Postecoglou has earned the trust of supporters.
An intelligent coach of substance, any lingering doubts will be quelled completely if the Parkhead side defy the turmoil and turnover of last summer to win a league title they lost by 25 points last season.
Rushing from the media room on Wednesday night to grant a live interview to a radio station in his home city of Melbourne, the former Australia manager reflected on the journey from the days when people couldn’t spell his name to the current point, where they sing songs in his honour.
‘I wasn’t worried,’ he admitted. ‘It’s kind of my history anyway, mate. Everyone knows wherever I’ve gone there is always a bit of a question mark against me. I’ve had a lot of success and the only thing that surprised me is that they managed to fit Postecoglou into a song. That should be impossible.
‘But the fans have been brilliant. I know how important they are at this football club.’
The son of a Greek immigrant to Australia, Postecoglou seems to chime neatly with Celtic’s history and ethos.
Taking risks on the football pitch is a style supporters can relate to so long as the risks are attacking in nature.
Throw in an impressive hit rate with relatively cost-effective signings such as Furuhashi, Maeda, Hatate and Matt O’Riley and he has earned the trust of supporters.
‘When I came here people were not really aware of just how much knowledge we have about football in Australia and a big part of my mission was to get them to believe in me,’ he admitted. ‘I said from day one that my biggest mission was to get everyone to believe in me.
‘Whatever ideas I had or whatever I wanted to do, things would be meaningless unless people believed in me.
‘They’ve been fantastic since the first day when they probably had to Google me to find out how I am. I am one of theirs and they supported me.
‘I haven’t won them over totally yet because I haven’t given them the success I want to give them, but they are certainly right behind me and — more importantly — the team.’
Asked by SEN Melbourne to outline the scale of the rivalry between Celtic and Rangers, no one who watched the win over Rangers could surely labour under any misapprehensions.
It was there in the faces and reactions of 60,000 home fans — with away supporters locked out as part of a regrettable tit-for-tat stand-off between the two clubs.
‘It’s Port Adelaide and Adelaide Crows by a thousand times more mate,’ joked Postecoglou. ‘It’s pretty intense and that’s because it’s generational.
‘It’s passed on from great-grandparents to their kids to their kids to their kids. It’s entrenched in society here. They are pretty passionate about this football club.
‘It’s more than just a football club, it’s part of their lives. When you invest your whole family into something then it means a hell of a lot.
‘When you’ve got your greatest rivals in a game like today knowing the consequences then our job is to send them home happy and give them something to bounce into work tomorrow.
‘I’m not sure how many will get there, but they bounce into work feeling good about things.’
For Celtic, victory over Rangers had the feel of a statement. For the Ibrox club, failure to win the title and secure a potential place in the group stage of the Champions League is damaging to plans for long-term sustainability.
A raft of key players such as Allan McGregor, Steven Davis and Scott Arfield are expected to leave this summer. Others, such as Alfredo Morelos, Ryan Kent and Joe Aribo, enter the final 12 months of their contracts and have yet to commit to new deals.
For a Parkhead side with a relatively young average age and potential for growth, the journey still feels closer to the beginning than the end.
‘We have sort of been building slowly through the year,’ added Postecoglou. ‘We lost three of our first six games and in the Scottish Premiership you can’t afford to drop too many.
‘We knew for us to be challenging that we had to be almost perfect since then and we have been.
‘The players have been dealing with the fact we have to perform every week and overcome every challenge.
‘The extra significance was that (Rangers) is a game that means a lot to our supporters, so you want to deliver for them as much as anything.’