‘Kyogo Was My Banker’ – Ange Postecoglou Early Celtic Admission

Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou sat down to reflect on his first 100 games in charge of Celtic and reflected on how important Kyogo was at the beginning.

During the early days of his tenure at the club, Postecoglou had to instil some hope in the fans that his way of playing football could once again deliver success.

After Celtic had been knocked out of Champions League qualifiers and defeated in their opening league game away to Hearts the team wanted to put on a performance for the fans who were able to be allowed inside the stadium which is exactly what they did in a thumping 6-0 victory against Dundee.

It was the day that Kyogo Furuhashi properly endeared himself to the Hoops faithful after he bagged a hat-trick.

Postecoglou agreed that it was a game that was significantly important during his early beginnings at the club.

“In those early days, whilst I was trying really hard to sort of put the framework together with what I wanted to do in terms of not just the playing squad but the way we wanted to play our football there was very little evidence of it for the supporters,” said Postecoglou speaking to [Celtic TV].

“Our results certainly weren’t really anywhere a reflection of the team we wanted to be.

“I knew that the first sort of key signings I made would be really important to that.

“Kyogo was kind of my banker, I had no doubt he would be successful. His debut against Hearts, he literally walked into the meal at lunchtime and I introduced him to the boys and then put him on the bench.

“The support I got from the terraces in that early part was on the back of okay, we haven’t seen the real evidence of a team yet but we can see the individuals within that in the context of the kind of football we want to play.”

There’s absolutely no doubt that £4 million which Celtic splashed on Kyogo has been worth every penny.

The 28-year-old striker is currently sitting on 26 goals this seaosn and will be targeting 30 by the end of the season which would make him become the first player since Henrik Larsson to score 50 goals in their first two seasons.

His quality has been excellent domestically and many will hope that he can carry that into European football next season.