Ange Postecoglou

Will help with Kyogo aswell I think. Should allow us to seamlessly interchange him and Giamoukakis. In theory anyway...

Set pieces definitely getting better. I think having both Maeda and GG in the box are instrumental to that. Both are pulling defenders about the place.

 

Am considering he is local, no need to adjust, speaks the language, proven player visibly, and will not cost near as much as an imported player. Granted there are better players out there, but is not that always the case ? Its a matter of cash and availabilty.

South African football may be a good place to look for players. They are football mad down there.

 

Seems utterly mental to me that folk would want to return to that 'scour the rest of Scottish football and lower English leagues' model after Ange has already proven his ability to find bargains further afield. The way I see it we're finally starting to show signs of a smart transfer model.

 

Where there are no guarantees, we will be in a very good position to go and win the league next year if we do this year.

That’s probably a reflection on where both teams are and will be in the summer if we do win the league. These next 7 games are massive, particularly the next one, looking for an Ange masterclass from the team and get that win.

I would love the treble but if we win at Ibrox the semi final at Hampden becomes a bit of a free hit, as long as we beat them in the league and follow it with a home win against St Johnstone.

 

I always wonder how you manage to post everything as soon as it comes out haha

 

Magic.

 

Love listening to him talk!

 

ANGE POSTECOGLOU had no players and, arguably, no hope.

But he was left blown away by how his Bhoys gave him no excuses.



The big Aussie has revealed how his early days at Celtic were tough because of the massive rebuilding job that needed to be done.

Yet within a few weeks Postecoglou was convinced they could have a crack at winning the Premiership title.


He said: “I think all you can do is put yourself in a position to win things.

“So far we’ve done things a certain way and it’s got us into this position, still knowing the key bit is ahead of us.


What you’ve got to fall back on is that I’ve got a real resilient group of players. People will look back and not understand exactly.

“I mean, I was throwing players who literally hadn’t trained with the team into league games because that’s the state we were in at the start of the year.


We’ve had injuries, Covid has hit us pretty hard at different times. All these things have happened and along the way I could have made allowances for the players and just said, ‘Look, this a new group of players, we’re going to need time’.

“But I didn’t. I said, ‘No, we need to have success’.




To their credit, this group has not made one excuse all the way through.

“So when you go into the toughest part of the year you don’t know how the football’s going to pan out, but I’ve got a real strong, resilient group of players, a group of people who, whatever the battle is going to be out there, whatever the challenge, they’re going to be up for it.

“So that gives me the confidence and the soundness to say, ‘Well mate, we’re going to have a go, I think we’ll have a crack at it’. But as you know, football, until it’s all done and dusted, you don’t know how it will all pan out.”




Celtic’s European hopes may have ended prematurely, but Postecoglou looks back on exiting three different Uefa competitions and reckons that probably had to be expected given the state of the squad he inherited from Neil Lennon.

He said: “Yeah, if you look back on it, probably it was too soon. I mean, our actual group stage was good. We kind of grew into it.

“We had Bayer Leverkusen and they were a fantastic side and Real Betis, who were flying in Spain.

“So I knew it was going to be a massive challenge for us.

“When you look at it, we started the group slowly, but we finished pretty decent, pretty strong.




“We ended up winning three games and in a lot of other groups that would have got you through.

“It’s the two games against Bodo/Glimt that we kind of let ourselves down.

“You’re probably right, it was maybe a bridge too far for us this year to be trying to compete on multiple fronts.

“But the reality of it is that’s a failure on our behalf because this football club will always be involved in Europe and we want to be involved in the Champions League.




So you’ve got to be able to cope with that, withstand that, embrace that pressure.

“We’ll learn from this year and that part of the journey wasn’t a success for us.

“I’ve got to make sure we address those things, but I’m sure the players would have learned a * of a lot through that whole exercise. As I said, that’s part of this football club.

“You’ve got to be willing to be up for the fight in multiple tournaments, you can’t just say, ‘Well, we were just going to compete in two this year’. That’s not going to happen.”




Postecoglou knows the history of Celtic wouldn’t allow that sort of mentality.

He said: “This club won a European Cup, how many clubs can say that?

“It’s one of those clubs that are in rarefied sort of territory and that sets a standard that you need to try and uphold. For me, my goal is to get this football club to be playing in the Champions League and competing.

“There’s some massive clubs there, but you also look at some other clubs that do well in the Champions League and you think, ‘Well, we can replicate that’.

“This football club can do it. It has 60,000 supporters every game, it’s geared for success, it has a history and tradition of competing at the highest level. So there shouldn’t be a barrier to that.




You’ve got to have domestic success because that gets you into it.

“Beyond that, you’ve got to be aspirational enough to say, well that’s where we want be as a football club. We want to be competing in the Champions League, making an impact in the Champions League. To be honest, that’s the biggest driver for me.

“I know that I need to have domestic success, but the biggest impact I can make at this football club is to make an impact in Europe.”

One thing seems certain — Postecoglou has no plans to return to Australia any time soon and go back to his old job as national team manager.

He added: “I don’t think so. I think I’ve done my stint.

“I look back on it with great pride and great satisfaction at what we were able to achieve in those four years.




I know other people have different views, but I’d like to leave it at that.

“I think, for me, it’s funny how we think as Australians, sometimes we don’t want to elevate our own too high.

“We want to just keep everyone on an even keel.




I think me going back there is not going to change that. It’s not going to do anything different.

“Even now, I feel more respected in Japan than I do in Australia.”

 

There was a small boy who was getting attacked by a great white shark, Ange jumped in and punched * out it, saving the boy.

 

Ange Postecoglou has all but closed the door on ever managing the Socceroos again in a wide-ranging interview with Australia’s most capped male footballer Mark Schwarzer for Optus Sport.

The Celtic boss, who was in charge of the national team between 2013 and 2017, was candid as ever in the 50-minute chat as he elaborated on recent comments where he expressed tiredness with Aussie football and outlined the reasons why he won’t be returning any time soon.

Damningly, the greatest manager our nation has ever produced said he feels more respected in Japan, where he won the J.League title with Yokohama F Marinos in 2019, than back home.




When asked by Schwarzer if there was any chance of a change of heart down the track, Postecoglou told Optus Sport: “I don't think so. I think I've done my stint.

“I look back on it with great pride and great satisfaction of what we were able to achieve in those four years. I know other people have different views, but I'd like to leave it at that.

“I think for me, it's funny, how we think as Australians, sometimes we don't want to elevate our own too high. We want to just keep everyone on an even keel. And I think me going back there is not going to change that. It's not going to do anything different.

Even now, I feel more respected in Japan than I do in Australia. Even though that's not to say the people in Australia, I understand they're following particularly my journey now and everyone takes great (pride). I get all that.
“But in terms of respect, footballing-wise, I always look back to, and you were part of it, I witnessed it firsthand. When Frankie Farina left the job, got sacked from Socceroos, they brought in Guus Hiddink and he did an unbelievable job, but I just saw how people treated him.

“Same position, yeah? Same position, but the way they treated him and what was given to him to succeed. And that's why we did succeed and good on him, but that’s never given to an Australian. I don't think we'd ever go down that track.

“So, I'll give you an example. If Marcelo Bielsa offered himself to Australia, I think we'd open our doors and give him everything he wants from youth development to whatever. If I went back there, I would still have to start at sort of spot one to convince people to do things a certain way. And because of that, I think I'm better off having done my stint, I'm proud of everything I've achieved in Australia and I'm an Australian, so I'll always support it and leave it at that.”


Postecoglou reiterated that he has no regrets about walking away from the national team hotseat ahead of the 2018 World Cup, a decision that has since been vindicated with success in Japan and now Scotland, where his Celtic side are leading Rangers in the race for the title heading into the final stretch of his debut Scottish Premiership campaign.

The 56-year-old has become an Australian football pioneer and one of the nation’s finest sporting exports, but he, like many others, remains jaded by the local game.

Schwarzer quizzed Postecoglou on what he would change with football in Australia given the opportunity and his answer provided an insight into why so many of our best and brightest have reached the end of their tether in their efforts to remedy issues in our own backyard.

“It's a difficult one because you kind of know that, even the best ideas in Australia seem to sort of dissipate into these little sort of battles you need to have left, right and centre that kind of end up wearing you down,” he explained.

“I still haven't found one person who's managed to outlast the wars in Australia.

“For the most part, it finishes two ways. There's been so many great people come through our game, who either leave it and go ‘I never want anything to do with it’ or leave it and go just, ‘I'm just tired, I can't do it anymore’.

“No one's been able to stand up... the only person I give great credit to is… Sir Frank Lowy got back up on his feet and even after the first time being knocked down and he had another crack at it, to try and sort of lift the game in Australia in his own way.

But, there's just so many ingrained things in football itself that there's no magic bullet to it. And the problem is we probably always look for a magic bullet.
“It's just the basics, mate. It's a lot of funding, a lot of resources, a lot of time and effort, a common goal, it's no great secrets, but people don't want to hear that.

“They want to hear that there's something magical you can bring in - that's the frustrating bit.

“I don't know, like I said, I'm hoping that an individual or people, who are younger than me, come in with that energy that can break it down and turn the game around for us.”



Why Postecoglou will never change his philosophy
In the weeks before Schwarzer sat down with Postecoglou, the Socceroos great had the opportunity to interview one of the A-League’s greatest ever players, Thomas Broich, who blossomed under his tutelage at Brisbane Roar.

These days, Broich is Head of Methodology with Hertha Berlin’s academy, and he bumped into his former boss in Germany ahead of Celtic’s away clash at Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League group stage. The former midfielder recalled Postecoglou had told him that despite being thrashed 4-0 at home in the first leg, he would not be altering his team’s approach to the match.

That story reflects the Aussie boss’ steadfast belief in his philosophy, which has transformed Celtic into one of the top passing teams in Europe and ultimately saw them narrowly lose that game 3-2.

This season, European football has gotten a taste of ‘Angeball’ – and it’s here to stay.

“Well, I don't see any reason why I should (change), because I've had so much success,” Postecoglou explained.

“I mean, I managed South Melbourne to two championships. I managed Brisbane to two championships. Melbourne Victory, I only had them for a year, I got them into the Champions League. I won an Asian Cup, got us to a World Cup. I won a championship in Japan.

I'd be absolutely dumb to change my approach, even though that's what people have constantly said to me.
“But what I've tried to explain to people is that I don't do this because I want to prove something, oh, I love this kind of football. I do this because it's successful. I know that that's the way to success.

“There are many ways to play football. Absolutely. And there are many ways there are even more ways to survive in football than there is to success.

“The road to success is fairly narrow. There's a certain formula you need to follow. That doesn't mean one way of football. That just means that the most successful clubs and the most successful managers are the ones who've got a real clear idea about how they want their teams to play. And that goes from Atletico Madrid to Man City in terms of styles, but real clear identity.

“That's where I fit. I've got a real clear idea of the road to success. So what people try and do is pull you onto the other side of the road, where you can survive doing it many different ways, but all you'll ever do is survive. So I've never felt the need to change.

“I've never felt the need to do things differently or try, play a different way because it's always been successful for me. And I know it'll be successful for me wherever I am.”




How Celtic win the title from here
Heading into the final stretch of his debut season in Scotland, Postecoglou has the League Cup in the bag, is leading the race for the Scottish Premiership and has a one-in-four shot at lifting the Scottish Cup. Whisper it, but a treble is a genuine possibility with only a few weeks left in the season.

Asked what Celtic need to do to seal a triumphant end to this campaign, Postecoglou pointed to the resilience of his playing group – and the obstacles they’ve already overcome in his tenure.

“Just stay the course,” he said.

“I think all you can do is put yourself in a position to win things. So far, we've done things a certain way and it's got us into this position, still knowing that the key bit is ahead of us.

What you've got to fall back on is that I've got a real resilient group of players who, people will look back and not understand exactly. I mean, I was throwing in players who literally hadn't trained with the team into league games, because that's the state we were in at the start of the year.
“We've had injuries, COVID has hit us pretty hard at different times. All these things have happened and, along the way, I could have made allowances for the players and just said, look, this a new group of players we're going to need time.

“I didn't, I said, ‘no, we need to have success’. To their credit, this group has just not made one excuse all the way through.

“So when you go into the toughest part of the year, I'm thinking, you don't know how the football's going to pan out, but I've got a real strong, resilient group of players, a group of people who, whatever the battle is going to be out there, whatever the challenge, they're going to be up for it.

“So that gives me the confidence and the soundness to say, well, mate, we're going to have a go… I think we'll have a crack at it, but, as you know, football mate, until it's all done and dusted, you don't know how it will all pan out.”




Ange’s European admission & Champions League target
The only real disappointment in Celtic’s season so far came in Europe, with the Bhoys becoming the first team in history to be knocked out of three different European competitions in the same season.

The Scottish giants were bumped from the Champions League by Midtjylland, dropped from the Europa League when they finished third in their group behind Bayer Leverkusen and Real Betis, before their journey ended for good with defeat to Bodo/Glimt in the Europa Conference League.

Postecoglou has now admitted that it was probably ‘too soon’ for his group to succeed on the continent, bearing in mind the state of the squad he inherited and the challenges he’s faced.

“Yeah. Look, if you look back on it probably (too soon),” he said.

“I mean, our actual group stage was, was good. We kind of grew into it. We had Leverkusen and they were a fantastic side and Real Betis who were flying in Spain. So I knew it was going to be a massive challenge for us, but when you look at it, we started the group slowly, but we finished pretty decent, pretty strong.

“We ended up winning three games and in a lot of other groups that would've got you through. It's the two games against Bodo/Glimt that we kind of let ourselves down. You're probably right, it was maybe a bridge too far for us this year to be sort of trying to compete on multiple fronts.

But the reality of it is, that's a failure on our behalf because this football club will always be involved in Europe and we want to be involved in the Champions League.
“So you've got to be able to cope with that withstand that, embrace that pressure. So we'll learn from that this year that, that part of the journey, wasn't a success for us. And I got to make sure that we address those things, but I'm sure the players, would've learned a * of a lot through that whole exercise.

“As I said, that's part of this football club. You’ve got to be willing to be up for the fight in multiple tournaments, you can't just say, well, we we're just going to compete in two this year. That's not going to happen.”




The Hoops are already guaranteed a spot in qualifying for the Champions League next term, with a top-two finish mathematically confirmed. However, the difference between finishing first and second is massive, with a combination of Scotland's improved UEFA coefficient and Russia's FIFA suspension meaning this year's Scottish champions will go directly into the group stage.

Regardless, you can expect Celtic to be making a full-blown tilt at the Champions League next term, with Postecoglou declaring his ‘biggest driver’ will be making an impact on Europe’s biggest stage.

“(This club) won a European Cup, how many clubs can say that?” he explained.

“It's one of those clubs that are in rarefied sort of territory, and when you do that, then that sets a standard that, you need to try and uphold. For me, my goal is to get this football club to be playing Champions League and competing.

“There's some massive clubs (there), but you also look at some other clubs that do well in the Champions League and you think, well, we can replicate that.

This football club can, it has 60,000 supporters every game, it's geared for success, it has a history and tradition of competing at the highest level. So there shouldn't be a barrier to that.
“You’ve got to have domestic success because that gets you into it, but beyond that, you've got to be aspirational enough to say, well, that's, that's where we want be as a football club. (We) want to be competing in the Champions League, making an impact in the Champions League, and to be honest, that's the biggest driver for me.

“I know that I need to have domestic success, but the biggest impact I can make at the football club is to make an impact in Europe.”

 

It's a good watch.

Hearing the way he talks is justgreat and down to earth.
Speaks about inheriting staff again, that he's only ever taken one staff member with him between jobs - that it isn't generally what he does. What he needs is the staff to be open to his ideas, no resistance, learn from each other.

I know this is what he said at the start of his time as well, even the Aussie lads on the forum here have said it to try and ease our minds. But hearing it again and again, just confirms to us that this is all his doing. Kennedy and Strachan may be useless to us last year, but they are serving a purpose this season with Ange and it is working.

Long may it continue.

 

"could have made allowances for it, covid, injuries, new players....but nah, * it, we are having a crack at it!" Legend (paraphrasing to * here).

 

I would rather we do both, like bringing in Matt O’Riley or guys on our doorstep that will up our game. Still raging we had both Andy Robertson and John McGinn within our grasp and didn’t do it. Two Celtic fans.

 

Villa fans don't seem to really rate McGinn going by their forums at least anyway

 

Linked to going to Man Utd for £50m/£60m and has been phenomenal Internationally.

 

Hes good for Scotland but wasn't great at the Euros. Funnily enough a few of the comments were that he plays better for Scotland. The main consensus is they think he's quite limited and they need better in midfield.Has great energy but would prefer him coming on as a sub