Background on Ange negotiations, Brendan, what’s needed

Celtic were aware Ange was interested in the Tottenham job for at least two weeks.  The writing was on the wall before his agent travelled to Glasgow for the final league game of the season.  A rear-guard action continued to no avail.

What’s more, attempts to sign him up on a long-term contract were rebuffed for a year.  Ange was always ‘happy’ with the way things were.  With a manager rejects more pay on the basis that he is happy, it is a bit like your significant other telling you they are ‘fine’.  You might not know what’s coming your way, but when it does, it will not be a surprise.

Despite knowing he preferred to reject more money on the basis it would inhibit his exit options, Celtic hoped to resolve the situation.  This was on the basis on Ange’ age and profile.  At 57, he was on the circuit for a long time without troubling clubs with bigger budgets.

English clubs often have a snobbery for achievements in Scotland, especially when they are not replicated in Europe, where over two years, Ange bettered only Ferencvaros, Midtjylland, Alkmaar, Jablonec.  The negative column has Leverkusen, Real Betis, Real Madrid, Leipzig, Shakhtar Donetsk and most painfully, a preseason Bodo/Glimt.

Until he was able to move the dial in Europe, Celtic hoped Ange would sail below the radar of most in England, and definitely thought that a ‘big six’ club out his reach.  All that changed when Tottenham recruited Scott Munn as chief football officer.  Australian Munn goes way back with Ange and was his backstage pass to the top tier.

Despite that European record, I cherished our former manager.  He was personable, understood and shared our club’s values and played attractive, successful football. In London, he replaces a permanent manager who was on £15m a year, I expect he’ll be on a salary of around £10m – for half that, I’d knock out Tottenham Quick News.

This is the football business, we did not miss a beat when he left Yokohama midseason.  If you take umbridge at a manager who left one club to come here, then left us at a more appropriate moment, football is not a sport for you to follow.

The Third Season Problem

What do Jose Mourinho and Ange Postecoglou have in common?  All their successes come in the first two seasons in the job.  Neither has won a league title in a third or later season.  This glass ceiling is echoed in Ange’s four-year tenure as Australia manager, where he won the Asian Cup in his second year but did little to trouble his memoirs afterwards.

Ange and Jose are both impact managers.  Both will transform your club, but equally struggle to reinvent themselves in the Alex Ferguson manner.  A friend (And CQN’er) has long expressed a concern that this is because opponents eventually figure Ange out, and that he is unable or unwilling to pivot.

It is moot now.  No matter who follows, our expectations of another treble next season under Ange are forever fixed, but let’s be clear, we have lost Ange Postecoglou (57), not the reincarnation of Jock Stein.  He is replaceable and although there are huge risks with any appointment, there are reasons to be hopeful.

Brendan

Let’s say the obvious.  If he gets the job, we get behind the manager and move on, bigger picture, and all that.  For now, he’s not for me.  I am troubled by his recruitment record (Dembele was on the slate before he arrived and Sinclair had already played for him) and by his credentials as a team player (I have just deleted a lengthy explanation of this as it might make backing him near impossible).  The manner of his exit is of less consequence.

Who next?

Celtic thought they had the managerial recruitment game mastered when Brendan Rogers arrived in 2016.  When they returned to the market in 2019, the rules had changed, there were no candidates of Rogers’ quality, indeed, there were no new candidates who inspired confidence they could succeed in bossing Glasgow’s unique challenges, a scenario Neil Lennon coped with.

Ange Postecoglou was plucked from obscurity because Celtic were determined never again to be left without options they could get behind.  He was a Mark Lawwell nominee, even before Mark joined to become head of recruitment and scouting.  We will explore what’s needed in the position in more detail in the days to come, but for now, I am happy to find another manager with a low profile in the UK, on the ground experience in a value market and a desire for a crack at the Champions League.

We move on.