Ange Postecoglou

Think they must’ve just bumped into each other. That’s the deli bit at Eusebi’s which is a standing section usually

Ange wi his missus as well by the looks of it

 

Madness that some people expect two grown men from the same profession, from different countries, to completely snub each other because they manage rival teams.

They probably had a coffee together, don’t think he took him home or anything.

 

They are just bitter huns. They are the type who don't eat, wear or drink anything green and have their houses decorated in a variation of orange, blue and red

 

They've just bumped into each other FFS aha! As long as hes no let out any of our secrets, like the contents of Strachans laptop...

 

There is only one thing that can safely be predicted about Sunday’s League Cup final at Hampden – when the final whistle sounds, there will be green and white ribbons adorning the trophy.

Ange Postecoglou is obviously hoping that this will signify a Celtic victory, and that it will be Callum McGregor who will be lifting the season’s first piece of silverware.

A Celtic success over Hibernian at the National Stadium would also represent the first trophy as Celtic manager for the Australian, and while he and his players are focused on achieving that outcome, they do so in the knowledge that they will face opponents equally determined to take the trophy back through to the Scottish capital.

Speaking ahead of the League Cup final, the Celtic manager said: “I’m looking forward to it. I enjoyed the semi-final, the trip to Hampden and everything that entails, so it should be a special day.

“It’s an opportunity for this club to win a trophy and get some silverware, and particularly after last year, it’s something we want to get back to doing as a football club and this our first opportunity. So hopefully we’ll give a good account of ourselves and take it.

'When I joined this football club, that was obviously the aim and I was under no illusions that I was to try and bring success to this football club and the first opportunity for that will be Sunday.'

“I’m sure it will be a great occasion, the atmosphere will be sensational and, ultimately, it will be about us preparing well and giving the best of ourselves as we can on the day and hopefully that proves successful.

“It’s always a balancing act with these things because the reality of it is – it’s a big game and you can’t ignore that fact.

“You can’t go into it and say it’s just another game because it’s not, so you want the players prepared for that, but with our schedule, and with the challenges we’ve had in recent weeks around injuries and players available, for our preparations it was definitely in our interests just to get the players focused on the next game and the next challenge.

“They’ve handled that really well, culminating in the other night where we won a game of football against the odds in terms of the circumstances on the night, and that gives them a positive feeling. Now we can concentrate on the game ahead.”




While Celtic saw off the cup holders, St Johnstone, in the semi-final, courtesy of a James Forrest goal, Hibernian booked their place in the final with an emphatic 3-1 victory over Rangers, with Martin Boyle netting an impressive hat-trick.

That performance, along with the fact that in a one-off game, it is difficult to make predictions based on recent form, means that the Hoops are well aware of the threat their Edinburgh opponents pose.

“In a cup final, your opposition is always tricky because the one thing you know about a cup final is that you can forget recent form,” the Celtic manager explained.

“So it’s not like we’ve got an advantage because we’ve been really good, and if Hibs have been up and down, it doesn’t really affect them because what you know is, in a one-off game with such a big prize, people are going to lift their levels of performance.

'No-one will go into this game feeling like they’re not in form, because it goes against human nature when you know what the prize is at stake.'

“I don’t expect, whether it’s Hibs or if it was anyone else, for this game to be any less tricky than what it will be.

“Again, our focus is on the stuff we can control. We can control our own football, we can control our own intent in the game and try and make the game be played on our terms, which we’ve done recently.

“If we do that, and if Hibs have a good day, then we’ll be able to match them. But what we don’t want to do is think that because their form’s been tricky, they’re not going to have a good day. We’ve got to prepare ourselves that they’re going to be, as you saw in the semi-final, at their best, and be ready to counter that.”

 

Bet he only came out with that to stop their scum fans going tonto.

 

Love listening to Ange, pressers are great.

 

Or breaking Covid bubbles maybe...

 

Are bubbles a thing again ?

 

Genuinely don’t mind him, comes across as a nice guy. Hopefully we win the league this year though and the huns hound him out.

 

I was joking

 

Would have thought the players etc would definitely trying to be eliminate contacts, could be wrong tho..

 

ANGE POSTECOGLOU will give star striker Kyogo the chance to prove his fitness for tomorrow’s League Cup Final at Celtic’s last training session ahead of the game at Lennoxtown today.

The Celtic manager says that if any of his injured attacking trio of Kyogo, James Forrest and Mikey Johnston are to have a chance of making his line-up at Hampden, they will have to come through that training session unscathed.

Only after assessing their progress will Postecoglou then make a call on how to configure his attack as he looks to lift the first silverware of his reign against Hibernian.

“It’s still sort of a day-to-day proposition,” Postecoglou said.

“We’ve still got training tomorrow, so I’m not ruling anyone out, but I’m not ruling anyone in at the moment.

“From my perspective, if anyone is going to be available they will have to train tomorrow, so the medical team will give me a briefing in the morning and we’ll go from there.

“I’ve got no choice, it’s how it is. I’d much rather not be in this position and have everyone available, but it’s been happening for a few weeks.

“Ultimately you just want to make the best decision for us on the weekend and make sure we have a team out there that can give a good account of themselves.

“The players are working hard to try to be available, but ultimately it will come down to a decision of whether they are fit enough to contribute or not.”

When asked if he had a hunch if any of his injured players would make the game, Postecoglou replied: “My degree in hunches hasn’t come through yet!

“I’ll keep an open mind on it, I’m not trying to play ducks and drakes with you.

“It is a day-to-day thing and they are making progress, but is Sunday too early for them?

“All of those decisions we will have to make, but they will have to train [on Saturday] and that will give us the best indication of how they feel, and then we’ll make a decision.

“At the moment, not all of them are guaranteed to train, it’s just about how they feel in the morning.”







DESPITE hailing from afar, Ange Postecoglou has always stressed that he has a keen awareness of Celtic’s history. As manager, he also has an acute sense of how delivering trophies will shape his own place within that history.

Tomorrow, Postecoglou will lead Celtic to Hampden to try and lift the first silverware of his reign, and at the first attempt too.

Should they defeat Hibernian and lift the League Cup, he knows that the achievement won’t elevate him into the pantheon of greats who have previously held his position, but it could be the first step on that road. For Postecoglou, it will also be an important justification for him being in his position in the first place.

As he considers those who have gone before him, the Australian doesn’t so much see bringing success to Celtic as part of the job description, but as his responsibility.

“It’s an honour for me just to be in this position looking at the people who have graced this position before me,” Postecoglou said. “I think that’s where the privilege lies for me.


“Sunday is more of a responsibility than a privilege, because when you do take this position that’s what you are expected to do, get this football club to the big occasions and bring success to it. That’s the precedent set by the people [who have managed the club before].

“I feel privileged every day that I’m in this position. On Sunday I’ll feel the responsibility of trying to bring success to this football club, and continuing the great traditions of the managers of the past.”




The relentless pursuit of success on all fronts has meant that the League Cup Final has been playing second fiddle to Premiership business for Postecoglou since they defeated St Johnstone in last month’s semi-final.

But now that the day is almost here, he admits a sense of excitement is building about the opportunity that lies ahead of him and his players.

“I think because of what we’ve been through, the challenges we’ve had in terms of injuries and so many games, it’s served us well to keep the head down and focus on the next fixture,” he said.





“Coming in [on Friday] though, this was our first day after the Ross County game, and we can start preparing for the final.

“The excitement is there and I’m looking forward to it. It’s why I came to this football club, to hopefully create some success and some memories for it. This is the first opportunity.

“I really enjoyed the atmosphere in the semi-final at Hampden, and I’m sure the game on Sunday will be a fantastic occasion.

“As I said, it’s an opportunity to have success, that’s why I came, and I’m immensely looking forward to it.”

Curiously, despite winning leagues as a manager, this would be Postecoglou’s first domestic cup success as a manager should Celtic go on and lift the trophy.

That’s not to say though that he has no experience of the one-off big occasion, with the unusual – in football terms at least – way that the league is decided in his homeland giving him plenty of experience of how to handle winner-takes-all matches.

“In Australia, the league is decided by one game,” he explained.

“I won two championships as a player and four as a manager and all of them were done in a final game. There’s a final system there, you play a Grand Final and that’s how you win.


The championships have all come in big games for me. My success has mainly been in one-off games. Japan was the first time I’d won a league on a home-and-away basis.

“All the other success, even the Asian Cup with the national team, was done in a one-off game. “That’s been my experience and out of all of them, I’ve only lost one, the last one I had in Japan. We lost the League Cup in my first year in Yokohama, 1-0, and that was the first time I hadn’t tasted success in a big game so it was certainly an experience.

“One thing I know about big games is that all of them have had some sort of unexpected twist within them. Something that will test you. I’ve got no doubt Sunday will be the same.

“I’m looking forward to that. I’ve always loved the big games. It’s a bit unusual but in Australia that’s how your champions get decided, so I’m well-versed in what they mean.

“I do enjoy that, because it’s what I’ve been brought up in. It’s how we decide our champions, in all our sports in Australia. Aussie rules, rugby, they’re all decided in one-off games - it’s just the nature of sport in Australia.

“Because I’ve grown up in it, I’ve loved them. They are always big occasions, your whole season is on the line for 90 minutes which to some people sounds bizarre, but it’s just the way it was.

“I loved the fact that everything got decided in 90 or 120 minutes or, on at least two occasions, on penalties. I love that theatre of a big game.”




There was relief from Postecoglou that tomorrow, the Hampden theatre will be full, with creeping Covid-19 restrictions caused by the Omicron variant not yet extending to locking fans out of football grounds once more.

While respecting the need to protect the public, Postecoglou doesn’t underestimate how much such occasions mean to the Celtic supporters.

“We live in interesting times and it’s a challenging one for all sorts of people,” he said. “We know the virus is spreading and impacting on all walks of life, but at the same time we’ve come to understand, particularly with what they’ve gone through in the last couple of years, people still want to live their lives.

“It’s a fine balance and all you can do is hope that everyone who goes has been vaccinated or at least tests negative before they get into the ground, and they do all the right things when they get in there.

“Ultimately, it’s about safety and health. But with football and sport in general, people think it’s just another form of entertainment, but I know it’s not. Particularly our football club, this is generational support. This is people’s way of life. They are not just fans of this football club, this football club means a great deal to them - it’s an extension of their own family.

“It would be very difficult to deny them that opportunity. They went through that last year. It’s a fine balancing act, but my hope, wish and prayers are that everyone comes and enjoys the game, and leaves healthy and safe.”

 

GvB: enjoy the Conference

Ange: enjoy the cup fin.. oh wait