New Hibs director of football Brian McDermott has revealed he helped find some of the Celtic stars that are heading up the Ange Postecoglou revolution at Celtic Park.

The former Reading boss has taken on a high profile job at Easter Road, but before that, he revealed his scouting helped Ange and Celtic acquire the players who are now doing the business.

McDermott went on secret scouting missions for Celtic to identify and bulk out information on players the Hoops ended up signing.

He didn’t mention any names; however we can rule out the Japanese lads in his scouting claim as that’s been all Ange. But there are guys like Matt O’Riley, CCV and maybe even the likes of Juranovic and Giakoumakis.

Speaking as he was appointed DoF at Hibs, Brian wasn’t shy about telling fans what his strengths are.

“I’ve scouted in this country many, many times.” McDermott told Football Scotland. “I’ve scouted at Hibs, I’ve watched Hibs-Hearts games. I did a lot of video scouting, after Covid. I was at Arsenal for a long time, looking at players all over the world.

“I scouted at Celtic – I did it quietly – and all the players you see playing for them now, I watched. There’s some good players they didn’t get, that they didn’t manage to quite get over the line, as well.

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou
3rd May 2023; Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland: Scottish FA Youth Cup Final, Rangers versus Celtic; Celtic chairman Peter Lawwell , Celtic manager Angelos Postecoglou and CEO Michael Nicholson applaud as the youth sides enter the field of play

“I know this market really well, I know the country, and I know how it all works in this country as far as scouting is concerned.

“For me the most important thing is Hibs. Let’s try to bring the best players here that we can. They’ll do their stuff at any given time and then we’ll see what happens. I’m just excited to be here, I’m ready to go.

Matt O'Riley
Soccer Football – Scottish Cup Semi Final – Rangers v Celtic – Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain – April 30, 2023 Rangers’ John Lundstram in action with Celtic’s Matt O’Riley REUTERS/Russell Cheyne

“To do that bit at Celtic was important to me. I was scouting everywhere, that was my job at Arsenal, literally! It was to filter out all the players in the world, to find the best we could.

“What we have to do is make sure that we go to the manager with our targets and say this is what we’ve got, these are the different options, and we’ll talk through it all. That’s the most important thing.

“Recruitment is so important. I’ve recruited well as a manager, and I’ve recruited not so well. And when you don’t recruit so well, you don’t do so well so it’s an important stage of the process we’re in and we’re just trying to add to the good players we already have here.”

Interestingly, McDermott claims he identified flood players for Celtic that the club didn’t quite get over the line. It would be interesting to know who they players were.

Celtic’s recruitment under Ange has been a huge success and if the club were reaching out to guys like Brian, and getting as much info as they can on the players they want, it’s little wonder they’ve been so successful.

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