CELTIC are heading into their second season with Ange Postecoglou. The Australian manager came in as a relatively unknown, a year later, there’s no doubting his stature within the Scottish game.
The big man came in and got to work immediately last season under very difficult circumstances. Celtic fans were ready to forgive any manager who didn’t deliver the league title after the disaster of a lockdown season and the rebuild we had to undertake.
After a shaky start, which was understandable, Ange began to make major progress and by February, despite having a new squad, despite an injury crisis, Celtic went top of the league and never looked back. It was an incredible season – one that may never have happened had Dermot Desmond brought Eddie Howe in as first planned.
It’s funny the way things can work out.
One pivotal piece of the Ange puzzle when it came to securing the Celtic manager last summer was Celtic’s City group connections. The managing director of the City group has come out and spoke about Ange’s appointment and the recommendation the company made to Celtic.
“We have a great relationship with Celtic. We were happy to endorse Ange when they spoke to us about potentially appointing him as head coach,” CFG’s managing director of global football Brian Marwood told KEEPUP.
“Again, you look at the work he has done there, after having a very difficult start. He went late in the summer, it was very difficult for him to bring players in and he was very resolute in terms of his thinking, what his objectives were and how he needed to create those and deliver them.”
Mark Lawwell, formerly of Manchester City and City group man put ANge in the vision of Peter Lawwell who had the Australian on a list of three potential managers. When Eddie pulled out of the deal very late on, Peter quickly made the move for Ange who was at Marinos in the J-League.
It’s been an incredible move. Ange is a top class manager who was not getting a chance in European football for whatever reason. Celtic brought him in and were rewarded with a League and cup double. Outsanding.
