Ange Postecoglou had to deal with a whole host of questions on Friday. Considering he was only three weeks into being appointed and three days into being on the ground in Glasgow, he was able to answer a lot of the questions put to him.
Scott Brown is now an Aberdeen player leaving Celtic without an official captain for next season at this point.
People are assuming Callum McGregor will take the mantle. It was Broony who passed the armband to his fellow midfielder when he was subbed last season.
But this is a new regime – there are new ideas and a brand new philosophy. We can’t simply assume Cal Mac will be the next captain of the club.
When Ange Postecoglou was asked about the situation surrounding the captaincy – we got the impression he was leaning towards Callum McGregor. However, he did say he was looking for someone to step up and show they are captain material.
Speaking to CeltsAreHere, the manager said: “I have only had limited experience of him, but I watched him live and I thought he had a tremendous tournament, irrespective of his goal against Croatia. I thought he grew into the tournament.
“Even in the last game he was in the middle of everything. He really wanted to be involved and take a leadership role. He’s one I will sit down and chat to.
“He has a great history around the club and I think he will come back really motivated, really wanting to take this club up.
“He is definitely one of the people I will be looking to for leadership, irrespective of whether he is captain or not. I see him as a very influential figure, for sure.
“With Scott Brown gone there is a vacuum.
“It’s about seeing now whether there is somebody within the club who wants to step up because it’s often difficult when you have such a powerful figure there.
“Other players maybe don’t feel comfortable expressing themselves, as much out of respect more than anything else.
“Now that person has gone I’m going to be looking within the club to see if there is a person there.
“Obviously with me coming in things will change in the way we train and some of the values we put across.
“If there’s somebody within the club — and my instincts are it will be within the club — that someone will step up.”
Callum seems like a good choice and I believe he will be the next captain. People are so used to Scott Brown being the man they can’t envision a player like Callum getting the armband.
You don’t need to be combative in nature to be captain. You need the respect of your dressing room and you need to lead by example – Callum ticks both of those boxes.
It will be interesting to see how things unfold. The Scottish international boys are not due back until Celtic are on the road in pre-season. Only then will we get an idea of what’s going on.
There is no way mcgregor is captain material and if there is not a massive improvement in his performances of last season, he should be dropped.
It’ll be Immaterial to me if he’s captain…. but big GG (Gorgeous George) must play him further forward as he’s the most creative player in the league and his defending is atrocious.
HH