‘The satisfaction comes after it’s all done and dusted’
The culmination of Celtic’s remarkable renaissance for which he has been the outstanding driver may now be only 90 minutes away for manager Ange Postecoglou.
The Australian, though, considers that truly savouring the events of his first, stunning season in Scottish football may have to wait – even in the event of his team avoiding defeat at Tannadice to make arithmetically sure of a league title that has been on-stream for his revamped Celtic team for essentially more than a month.
For the hosting by Dundee United, the 56-year-old is intent on retaining the laser focus that has so ably served him as he has restored his club to pre-eminence in the Scottish game. Yet he does dare allow himself to give a thought to what the desired outcome for his side on Tayside would mean.
“It’s an opportunity to create a special moment at this football club. We’re looking forward to it,” Postecoglou said.
“I guess the key thing for us is to make sure we go there tomorrow night, play our football and continue on the form we’ve had over the past few months, and make sure we deliver.”
The personal accolades are coming thick and fast for Postecoglou. In the past week he has added the Scottish football writers’ manager of the year to the PFA Scotland award of the same name, and collected his fourth straight cinch Premiership manager of the month award with Celtic now unbeaten in 30 league games.
Yet the daily demands preclude any great philosophical pondering. “No mate, because you guys keep hounding me, a million people want a piece of me, so I haven’t had a chance to do anything!” he said of taking everything in.
“That’s part of my job though, so that’s fine. There will be a time for reflection and enjoyment once it’s done.
"The reality is that I enjoy every day of this job, I enjoy coming in here every day and working with the players and being manager of this football club. It’s not like I feel as if it’s a grind at any stage.
"In terms of the success, I’m very proud of the individual honours that I’ve won for this football club so far, but the real sort of joy I guess and satisfaction comes after it’s all done and dusted.”
His near-faultless Celtic stewardship is about to bring Postecoglou a sixth championship in 25 years coaching.
The circumstances surrounding his two title successes with South Melbourne, the two he earned for Brisbane Roar and the league triumph in Japan with Yokahama F Marinos three years ago are wholly different.
He can’t say then whether flipping the tables on a Rangers side that breezed to the title by a 25-point winning margin last season would eclipse all such previous honours.
“Again it’s probably a question I can best answer after it’s done, because the way I think about things is that my role at the moment is to prepare the team and make sure we play well on Wednesday night,” said the Celtic manager.
“How will I feel after? Well I know it’s been an enormous challenge this year, it’s one I’ve enjoyed.
"It’s probably only when it’s done and you reflect that I’ll be able to give a more honest answer on what it means for me.”