Ange isn’t the only one who deserves an apology
Poor Alan Brazil. The talkSPORT presenter is barely over the day he asked on live radio how dear old Bob Monkhouse was doing, six months after his death. Now comes a grovelling apology to Ange Postecoglou.
The Celtic boss has secured the Scottish league title in his first season. And a clip of Big Al responding to the Australian’s appointment in disparaging terms resurfaced earlier this week.
‘This has got to be a wind-up,’ groaned the former Scotland striker. ‘Where do they come up with these guys from’?
No longer the lithe, nimble goalscorer of his Ipswich and Man United heyday, Big Al, you suspect, is no stranger to a mince round.
This week, he was forced to try a new culinary delight when co-host Ally McCoist forced a slice of humble pie down his throat.
on this one, a degree of transparency is required. There were plenty of fans and journalists — this one included — who expressed bemusement at the appointment of Postecoglou as manager of Celtic. There was a sniffy dismissal of both Japanese and Australian football.
Even the club’s major shareholder, Dermot Desmond, has since admitted he had no idea who the new man was. Like Alan Brazil, he could barely get his name right.
In an interview published in Australia, however, former Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell has revealed how his son Mark — Celtic’s new head of recruitment and a former scout with the City Group — alerted him to Postecoglou’s qualities after his Japanese title success with Yokohama F. Marinos in 2019.
on the shortlist for the top job at AEK Athens last summer, an
Australian passport worked against him yet again. His chance finally came when Eddie Howe changed his mind over a move to Glasgow at 12.30 on a Thursday afternoon.
‘We agreed that I would speak to Ange and Dermot would speak (separately) to him,’ revealed Lawwell.
‘Dermot had a Zoom call with him and called me back and said: “We don’t need to talk to anyone else”. He thought Ange was the real deal’.
Desmond is renowned for his love of a punt. And now the gamble on Postecoglou has paid off it might be time to revisit one of his great bugbears as a footballing figurehead.
In an interview for the Celtic Opus some years ago, the Irish billionaire complained bitterly about the ingratitude of football fans.
‘We lose a big match and I’m the greatest bollox on the earth,’ said Desmond. ‘It’s all my fault, all the directors’ fault. But when we win it is down to the manager and team, not the directors. We are beneficiaries of abuse, we are never beneficiaries of praise.’
There was plenty of abuse — and no praise at all — after the calamity of the ‘ten-in-a-row’ season.
In a quest to make amends, Celtic’s Mister Big did his homework. He boned up on Postecoglou’s CV and watched the infamous, confrontational TV interview from 2007 which almost finished him when he was Australia’s Under-20s coach.
‘I watched that Craig Foster interview several times,’
Desmond told Australian outlet KEEPUP.
‘That showed me his determination, integrity, passion and individualism. And that he was a leader, he was a general.’
It took time for the troops to learn his drills. When Big Ange and his side crashed out of the Champions League to a mediocre FC Midtjylland side, the ‘Desmond out’ banners were back in force.
Celtic lost three of their first six league games and, after a 1-0 defeat to Livingston, you’d have offered long odds on the new man lasting till Christmas.
THE turning point came in october. An uninspiring home draw with Dundee United was followed by a 4-0 tousing from Bayer Leverkusen. Travelling to Aberdeen days later, a late goal from Jota proved the catalyst for the 31-match unbeaten run which propelled Celtic to their 52nd league title.
In this part of the world, people are never shy of displaying their ignorance. In a tasteless headline published before he won the title at Celtic, Wim Jansen was described as the worst thing to hit Hiroshima since the atomic bomb. Lubo Moravcik, meanwhile, was dismissed as a clapped-out Clydesdale cuddy.
A coach of substance, Ange Postecoglou has not only proven Alan Brazil, Scottish journalists and a large section of the Celtic support wrong.
He has finally earned Dermot Desmond a bit of respite and made fools of the clubs who refused to take the chance.
When AEK Athens turned him down last summer they turned instead to Serb Vladan Milojevic. He lasted seven games before his replacement Argiris Giannikis fared little better.
The Greeks, they say, have a word for everything. In this case it’s stupidity.