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.
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Wits
😂
Tommy was faithful through & through, Ange had already committed to leaving Club.
He is not Celtic minded and no fault to him for that but by Quoting Tommy he was acting the part. Not fit to lace Tommy’s boots,
Just logged in just didn’t have the will to scroll back so might be repeating some earlier Posts, but Knutson currently 2/1 Sky Bet & 9/4 Paddy Power.
TOM MCLAUGHLIN on 6TH JUNE 2023 6:36 PM
I’ll ask again. Why are people cruticising Ange for mentioning Tommy Burns?
He was praising the fans and thanking them for their support. Hiw does his leaving negate that?
…………………………………………………..
I agree.
Not only that, but look at what he was actually saying – that the supporters are the constant; players, staff, manager pass through, come and go, but the support remain always there.
It could actually be read as a self-reflective statement!
We spoke to Maresca before but appointed Ange.
Maresca then went to Parma and got sacked before Christmas.
City took him back to support Pep in 2022.
Supposedly Southampton wanted him and Leicester are currently supposed to be interested in him.
But, let’s be honest, he would be a massive punt with no real mngrl experience of any note. Just because you work for Pep doesn’t mean his fairy dust lands on you. If that was the case we should just have given the gig to John Kennedy who must be covered in the stuff. Players love and respect him, knows everything there is to know about us and has been taking training sessions for years.
But none of us want him. So why Maresca?
It is hard to rank managers, but in terms of budget, opposition and achievement; i keep thinking it is Strachan this century
O’Neill is very close due to the opposition but he had high budget and a trophyless season
Ange is very close too due to domestic success but Strachan beats him in Europe
Rodgers is behind due to the lack of opposition domestically but won 8 trophys
Lennon is behind on that calc due to high investment both times, no opposition and cups lost. The last 16 may push him above one of the above
Big Wavy
“We have an army of keepers, Hazard included that could have met that criteria and to be honest young scottish guy on the books at no. 3 is the coherent thing to do. When you look at the club’s briefing on Bain’s extension, not a peep from Ange.”
——————————-
Don’t think so. Conor Hazard is from NI so not Scottish. In addition, he is on record as saying he won’t hang around with no prospect of playing and needs to leave Celtic to further his career. The signing of Benjamin Siegrist told Conor that the club feel exactly the same way. He is back here as his contract will run out soon and the Finnish League is over. Conor will leave as soon as he can land a new club. After that, we have Tobi Oluwayemi, just turned 20 and on loan at Cork City, having played only 2 senior games, or Josh Clarke who is only 16. Scott Bain is, at this point in time, far superior to all of those keepers with the possible exception of Hazard.
E- Tims are definitely talking push about Bain’s contract extension being on Ange’s radar as a point of issue. He wouldn’t have got a contract extension unless Ange had agreed or nodded on this one. I seriously doubt a 3rd choice keeper, like a 3rd choice quarterback in NFL is ever high on anyone’s “must get right” list.
We should be more concerned about the position of our number 1 and 2 choices. Having been spoiled with Boric, Forster and Gordon, we have taken a step back with Hart, who , nevertheless, is the best keeper in Scotland currently. We should be concerned that our number 2 is totally untried a sa Celtic player. I have hopes for him but I have no evidence that he is definitely better than Bain, far less good enough to challenge Joe Hart.
It is easy to see how unimportant a 3rd choice keeper is. Without googling it name any 3rd choice keeper for Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal or Spurs? Any 3rd choice keeper for Barca, Bayern or PSG? The only one I could name was Sevco’s cos he got a game with him after Celtic retired McGregor this year and showed Jon McGlaughlin to be inadequate.
I am happy that Scott Bain, an international keeper with a good career and happy personality is willing to be our 3rd choice keeper. I have much more concern over our aging first choice and our untried 2nd choice but I know Ange did not walk because this was a push factor. He walked for the Pull factors; it is us who want our favourite bogeyman to be the push factor otherwise we’d have to absorb the fact that Ange didn’t fancy us as much as we thought he did.
Close season angst will magnify such childish thoughts as the E Tims article ( a funny bunch of guys but rarely stone cold sober and serious in their assertions) but it really is just dandelion fluff.
St Tams
I don’t agree re the league and especially the cup being already won when Neil Lennon returned.
We were away to Hearts and Hibs in the 2 trophies immediately he returned. No gimmie games. ESP with no back room staff and a team just left behind 24 hours earlier.
We had also lost to rangers for the first time in many years in a league match.
It was easily possible we could lose it. Hence someone who had been over the course and distance was called for.
That awkward moment when E-Tims chip in .
SFTB
Hart – big decision for the manager, 1 year to go and doesn’t save much
Hazard contract is out, as is he
Siegrist should be no2 but isn’t, why?
My big worry bead. We start the new season fairly balanced other than a CH
Burnley78
Do you remember the 3 0-0 games , the lucky away win at bottom club Dundee; wee angry rant from the manager after the Aberdeen 0-0? The terrible performance in the final etc
Rodgers won 7 games in a row as huns bottled it after beating us at NY
Lennon chucked loads of points
Brendan did 3 trebles
TOM MCLAUGHLIN @ 6:36 PM,
It convinced many that Angelos was staying, that and parading his agent around the pitch.
Thing is he might not thought anything of it but anyone Celtic minded would know if he left after that it would leave a sour taste
So, as Angelos didn’t know Tommy, who advised him to stick that line in? Knowing it would seem insulting to the faithful, his PR is normally spot on
Hail Hail
Brand Finances Football 50 – 2023
Rank
Club
Brand Value (€)
Rank change
1
Manchester City
1,506m
Up 1
2
Real Madrid
1,458m
Down 1
3
Barcelona
1,374m
=
4
Manchester United
1,361m
Up 1
5
Liverpool
1,360m
Down 1
6
Paris Saint-Germain
1,132m
Up 1
7
Bayern Munich
1,099m
Down 1
8
Arsenal
906m
Up 2
9
Tottenham
897m
Down 1
10
Chelsea
861m
Down 1
11
Juventus
631m
=
12
Atletico Madrid
550m
=
13
Borussia Dortmund
542m
=
14
Inter
509m
=
15
AC Milan
358m
Up 2
16
West Ham
308m
Down 1
17
Newcastle
250m
Up 6
18
Napoli
240m
Up 9
19
RB Leipzig
222m
Down 1
20
Aston Villa
214m
Up 6
21
Roma
204m
Up 8
22
Eintracht Frankfurt
202m
=
23
Everton
198m
Down 4
24
Bayer Leverkusen
194m
=
25
Sevilla
189m
Up 5
26
Brighton
182m
Up 6
27
Leicester
180m
Down 11
28
Marseille
173m
Up 9
29
Crystal Palace
167m
Up 7
30
Ajax
165m
Down 2
31
Lyon
160m
Up 4
32
Wolves
160m
Down 12
33
Leeds
154m
Down 8
34
Real Betis
153m
Up 9
35
Borussia Monchengladbach
152m
Down 2
36
Villarreal
137m
Up 4
37
Real Sociedad
134m
New entry
38
Wolfsburg
123m
Down 7
39
Koln
121m
Up 6
40
Freiburg
120
New entry
41
Benfica
118m
Up 7
42
Celtic
114m
Up 2
43
Brentford
113m
New entry
44
Athletic Bilbao
113m
Down 5
45
Lazio
112m
New entry
46
Union Berlin
108m
New entry
47
Valencia
108m
Down 13
48
Porto
102m
New entry
49
Fulham
100m
New entry
50
Flamengo
98m
Down 1
Scullybhoy
As Jimmy Sanderson would have said; what’s your point caller?😎
I think most of our effort behind the scenes
Obvs after we get our manager sorted
Is putting out some serious industry to getting us in the english system
This is ALWAYS gon happen to us whilst we play in the backwater that is scotland
If we wana develop and keep our talent
Both players and managers we gotta be in system with more £££
Think we earned £3 million for the spl title
epl gets £44 million
Then a cut of the TV deal which is around £84 million per club
We can’t compete
The cash is nuts
for the above post
EPL money
https://metro.co.uk/2023/05/24/premier-league-prize-money-by-position-how-much-each-team-could-earn-18836867/#:~:text=The%20rest%20of%20the%20Premier,%C2%A384%20million%20per%20club.
SPL money
https://sportsest.com/scottish-premiership-prize-money/#:~:text=The%20prize%20money%20of%20the,million%20increase%20from%20last%20year.
Ok so I got it wrong – we get 8.5 million……
Strachan’s football was absolute dire.end of HH
if the compensation was £5m ,far more that we were due then it looks like they asked how much has he cost you in the 2 years he has been here and they covered the lot.
There have been several pro ange videos cropping up on tiktok, all from random people with no sporting affiliation, to celtic, spurs or any football clubs. Supporters or otherwise.
This got me thinking that he has an amazing PR Company working for him in the background.
My memory of WGS’ time was that when he had Nakamura etc at the beginning, Strachsn’s football was very entertaining.
As time went on and the quality of the squad diminished he changed style as he no longer had the players so he went for a more pragmatic approach. The standard of football dropped, tracing rock bottom in the last few games of his final season.
Mod 1888,
Totally disagree.
We are fortunate we have European football every year.
We have massive opportunities that we have so far failed to capitalise on..European football is the key. We cannot emphasis this enough.
The stats above show Spurs are an absolutely massive brand., but no mention of Bodo Glimt ??? Lets be more subjective to the Norwegian model.
And lets ne honest , all European football is a bonus. Just ask the West Ham fans heading to Prague
HH.
BURNLEY78 @ 7:17 PM,
We had also lost to rangers for the first time in many years in a league match.
We had never ever lost to Rangers in a League match before then.
We did lose an old firm cup game when Ronny was manager.
After that new years game the only goal BR’s Celtic conceded was when Motherwell cheated.
The revionists who claim we had lost our mojo are wide of the mark, we were by far the finest team in Scotland
Hail Hail
Brian F- agree,he was telling me the team were brilliant in games we were shocking in….
CONEYBHOY @ 7:03 PM,
That’s interesting, I’d definitely have Martin first.
The WGS and Brendan
By any measure BR was better than Angelos
Then Ronny, Lenny and Tony in whatever order you wish
Hail Hail
Coneybhoy at 7.03 pm
I hope and believe that history will be kinder to Gordon Strachan than we seem to be capable of just now.
I wonder how many of us would have taken a few simple 1-0 wins in Europe under Ange instead of the Angeball type of games – I feel that wins against Shakhtar for example were well within our capability. Bodo Glimt as well.
Anyway I think your point about WGS is well founded.
Amazing to think that Ange came from obscurity to a backwater and yet ended up with a top job in London.
Amazing journey……
Test
“our priority will be to appoint the best candidate to take the Club forward”
—————
You would have thought that would have been so obvious they wouldn’t need to say it.
Then again…….
GREENPINATA on 6TH JUNE 2023 8:03 PM
Agree to the point that we have not made the most of our advantage just now
The teams you refer to are outliers
By that I mean they are in the top 1% of their income bracket in terms of end product
There are 100’s of teams shooting their financial weight
If we want to be at the top of the food tree
And I want us to be at the top
We HAVE to swim in the same waters as the sharks
Just being a bit of a cynic here but could the £5million compensation possibly be a wee sweetener to stop Celtic from raising the charge of “tapping” him up.
After all Ange managed to negotiate, and sign, a multi year and multi million pound contract in record time on the day he was going on holiday. The self same holiday he made such a point of mentioning on Saturday when pushed on his future but only after telling everyone he was just concentrating on enjoying the achievement.
If he had been honest and upfront about his intentions then he wouldn’t look like such a hypocrite.
Anyway he’s gone and I hope he enjoys the money because he’s unlikely ever to achieve anything remotely close to what he achieved here at Spurs in terms of trophies.
If ya wanna go ya wanna go
BRIAN F on 6TH JUNE 2023 7:46 PM
Strachan’s football was absolute dire.end of HH
—————
The same Strachan that won 3 titles on the trot and got us into the last 16 of the CL twice while massively downsizing the squad and wage bill?
It’s a results business.
Ange done well when he was here and then he left. He was fully within his rights to look after himself and his career. Celtic pocket 5 million and now go again. Not sure who
Chairbhoy/Fieldofdramd
It’s so subjective but i tend to give credit to warriors rather than flat track bullies. Very hard to assess Deila. Won 2 leagues with small budget but no opposition. I think the fact he walked and did well elsewhere says a lot
Knutsen now bookies FAV. Only means they are taking bets on him.
But i have no doubt celtic are able to identify and secure another winner. People always point to lennon appointment but if anything that is an outlier.
Meanwhile rangers have signed the best goalie in england ever to be released by crystal palace
Forget about 60 years old coaches,like Moyes whom I don’t rate ,we need a young vibrant manger , there’s plenty of them about and they don’t wear suits while giving instructions to his players on the pitch also forget about Rodgers,look what happened to our Club when they appointed Lennon ,for the second time, through some players under the bus ,while trying to get 10 Leagues in a row,