Martin O’Neill Talks Up Ange Postecoglou

In the early days of the Ange Postecoglou era, the 56-year old appears to have won over a majority of the support with his style of play.

Not only his style of play, though, his personality and the way he represents the club has been brilliant in his first few months as Celtic manager.

Speaking in a recent interview, former Celtic manager Martin O’Neill appears to be on board with Ange Postecoglou, as he praised his style of football and the mentality he is starting to implement on his players.

“At this stage, I think things are going as well as can be expected,” he said, as quoted by the Daily Record.

“It looks to me as though the fans have really taken to Ange, and they are willing to give him every backing necessary.

“He had a shaky start, but he is now through that, and things are on the up. The style of football is good, and the players are responsive to his methods.

“So, to be where they are now – when you consider he didn’t know his backroom staff and had to bring in a number of first-team players – he can be satisfied.

“Of course, this is just the start. As manager of Celtic, it’s all about what you do in the next game. And then the game after that. It’s relentless.

“You just need to try to win as many games of football as possible.

“When I took over as Celtic manager, I was up against an excellent Rangers team. They had won the title from us the previous season by 21 points. Last season, the gap was 25 points.

“So, back in 2000, my view was that we had to hit the ground running. To do that, we needed a few new players, and we needed to get more out of the ones we already had.

“We brought in Chris Sutton, Neil Lennon, Alan Thompson and Didier Agathe.

“We also got plenty out of the likes of Stiliyan Petrov, Johan Mjallby, Jackie McNamara and Lubo Moravcik.

“In our first game against Rangers, we managed to beat them 6-2. That gave us so much confidence.

“On reflection, I can’t underestimate how important that victory was for everyone at the football club.

“When we next met them and lost 5-1 at Ibrox in November, it didn’t dent us too much. We were hurting, but we still had our confidence.

“We felt we could go on and win the Premier League. It’s all about recovering from setbacks and not dwelling on them.

“Ange appears to be able to do that. And that’s a good thing.”

It is great to hear from one of the clubs more successful managers that he sees what Ange is building, similar to many of the Celtic supporters.

The 56-year old was in charge of a massive rebuild in the summer. However, he has already got us playing in a way that fans love to watch and over the past month, momentum is starting to build.

The festive period of games will be huge for this squad, with the possibility of a cup trophy, advancing in European competition and making up ground in the league.

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