Celtic are in rude health — they should shoot for the stars and appoint a box-office boss
ANGE IS OUT OF THE PICTURE ALREADY...
WHEN Celtic were on the hunt for a new manager two years ago, the club was undergoing football’s equivalent of open-heart surgery.
Scott Brown had just departed. So, too, had Peter Lawwell. The loss of the club’s iconic captain and long-serving chief executive only fuelled the sense of chaos.
The dream of ten-in-a-row had gone down the drain. Fans had spent the preceding months rioting outside the stadium.
The club spent weeks chasing Eddie Howe trying to convince him to take the job, only to be given an embarrassing knockback at the last minute.
Senior players in the squad were openly agitating for a move away. There was no real recruitment strategy or scouting system to speak of.
In other words, what Ange Postecoglou inherited was nothing short of an absolute shambles.
It speaks to his strength of character and his ability as a coach that the whole club has been totally transformed in the space of two years.
After beating Inverness on Saturday night to clinch the Treble, Postecoglou made a stark admission when he reflected back on his appointment.
He said that most people viewed him as ‘a joke’ when he arrived in Glasgow. Most Celtic fans were busy punching Postecoglou’s name into Google, given that they’d never heard of him.
After being spurned by Howe, Celtic had no option but to try something leftfield. They gambled on Postecoglou and quickly discovered they were on to a winner.
But the picture is now altogether different. Where Postecoglou had to rebuild a club on its knees two years ago, Celtic are now in rude health.
They have a squad packed full of talent, players with terrific sell-on value, and guaranteed Champions League football to look forward to next season.
If Postecoglou does leave to join Tottenham over these next few days, as looks increasingly likely, these are things which any prospective new manager will look at.
Thanks to the work of the Australian over these past couple of years, the job of being Celtic manager is now a highly attractive proposition once again. This will be the first big test for Michael Nicholson as chief executive. Ange will be a tough act to follow, but it will fall on Nicholson to find Celtic a new leader.
As they draw up a list of possible candidates, Celtic have a lot of good going for them right now. They should be shooting for the stars and aiming for a box-office appointment.
Dermot Desmond loosened the purse strings and went big to entice Brendan Rodgers to Glasgow in the summer of 2016.
Why shouldn’t the club be looking to hire a similar calibre of manager now? They have to show ambition and imagination.
Rodgers had taken Liverpool to the brink of the Premier League title just a couple of years prior to pitching up at Parkhead.
He probably wasn’t viewed as a realistic target. But Celtic pushed the boat out and got their man. They have to try to get another A-list boss.
Looking through some of the names currently in the running if Postecoglou does leave for Spurs, a few jump out at me.
Only 12 months ago, everyone was raving about Graham Potter. He was viewed as the best young coach in the Premier League after his outstanding work at Brighton.
Forward-thinking, tactically astute, innovative, an advocate of possession football; he was everything you would want in a modern manager.
He eventually got the Chelsea job, only for the whole thing to go sour after barely six months. But I don’t think Potter is actually damaged by that.
Anyone who knows anything about football will look at what’s happened at Chelsea over the past 12 months and recognise just what an absolute basket case they have been.
A new owner coming in, spending a crazy amount of money, handing out eight-year contracts to umpteen new players, and binning a manager prematurely.
Trust me, given the bloated squad that was thrust upon him due to all the new signings, there would have been better managers than Potter who would have failed at Chelsea this season.
It was nigh-on impossible given the circumstances and I really don’t think his reputation will have taken much of a hit.
If Celtic can land an exLiverpool boss like Rodgers, then they certainly would have a chance of getting someone like Potter.
It would be daft not to at least ask him the question, if and when Postecoglou does depart.
Of all the runners and riders, it’s Potter who I find as certainly the most interesting option.
What is clear, though, is that
Postecoglou inherited a shambles but the situation is now different
Celtic need to be ready to move quickly. They can’t be caught sleeping on all of this.
Where the departure of Rodgers to Leicester midway through the season in 2019 took them by surprise, they’ve had plenty of time to see this one coming.
They can’t afford another lengthy botched pursuit like they had with Howe. They need decisive action if and when Postecoglou goes.
Rodgers was vilified by Celtic fans when he left. But I don’t see the same happening with Postecoglou.
I reckon he would go with the best wishes of the majority of Celtic fans. He has made them fall in love with their club again. He has won nearly every domestic trophy available to him and built a dominant team who play brilliant attacking football. Given the way they have burned through a succession of managers in recent years, a lot of people will say the Spurs job is a bit of a poisoned chalice now. But Postecoglou is a strong enough character and a good enough coach that he could soon turn them around. As a club, Spurs look like they are in a mess right now. But not half as much of a mess as Celtic were in two years ago.