It was important to Ange Postecoglou’s legacy that he won the Europa League with Spurs last night. Even more important for his future was how he won it. Spurs nicked a goal before the break and were clearing their lines and running the clock down from the start of the second half.
This did not make for an enjoyable watch, but it was evidence that Ange has grown as a coach. The slavish commitment to an unproductive football philosophy was abandoned; Ange is prepared to play for the result.
Two match stats are worth comparison. When Ange took Celtic to Bodo/Glimt three years ago Celtic ‘enjoyed’ 59% possession but lost 2-0. When he took Spurs there this month, Spurs won 0-2 with 31% possession. An injury hit Celtic team were easy for Bodo/Glimt to pick off. Spurs went north to make it difficult for the home side and were able to break effectively in the second half.
Brendan Rodgers walked the same path. For so long, he dominated Scotland but was humbled in Europe. A Pauline Conversion happened this season between games against Borussia Dortmund and Atalanta.
Neil Lennon outperformed Brendan and Ange in Europe because Neil never entertained purist fantasies. You need to learn to be pragmatic in life. Be a fast learner.
117 Comments- Pages:
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- »
Friday eve!
Indeed it is!!
Posted this on last thread jsut as the new article was posted
TT
Neither know nor care – perhaps you don’t really either.
I wouldn’t claim to know but I suspect that being a Freemason abroad does not have anything like the dubious aspects it seems to have in the Uk generally , more so in the West of Scotland.
Having said that, if the Masons abroad are anything like the knuckle draggers and self important wee clowns I have seen going in and out of various Masonic halls here in Scotland I’d be surprised if big Ange had anything to do with them.
Paul67
Good summary, idealists verse pragmatism didn’t end well for Neil Lennon.
I had a dream CSC
To be fair, Lenny gave us an unforgettable season in 2012-13
His other seasons were largely forgettable which is perhaps, Paul, why you’ve forgotten about them. Some absolutely chronic results.
“Neil Lennon outperformed Brendan and Ange in Europe because Neil never entertained purist fantasies. You need to learn to be pragmatic in life. Be a fast learner.”
Yes, I remember, the 2012/13 season, Lenny and Tony Watts will be dining out on that for many years to come.
As for managerial careers, you have to say that Brendan and Ange most certainly have had very interesting and successful careers.
This season could well have blotted Ange’s copybook but a sterling display in Spain ensures, he can leave London with his head held high.
Hail Hail
CHAIRBHOY on 22ND MAY 2025 12:28 PM
A dreadful domestic season and relegation from the EPL didnt damage Brendan’s reputation in the eyes of Celtic supporters. But I’m not sure the same could be said for English football people so you probably have a point
Long may EPL clubs continue to overlook Brendan because of what happened at Leicester . Their misfortune is our good fortune .
An Tearmann @01:02am
McOist is a mason in Thornliebank
~
The entire Celtic PLC and Desmond, Ange, Brendan? Are Freemasons and you kiss all of their asses.
Ange – You don`t become a manager of a International football team of one of the 14 Masonic eyes countries countries if you are not a Freemason so….
Just look what Scotland did to Tommy Burns & Mark McGhee both were cast aside like bags of rubbish for, who was it Levine?
Can’t remember as I Was properly brought up by proper Tims who taught me how scummy Scottish national football was/is and how Scotland the country was/is if you are a Tim.
The only thing that changed was Souness buying England national players which took the majority of huns fans away from supporting Scotland and the daft Tims thought that Scotland had changed its ways.
BUT, the booing of ex-Celt, Brian McLair as he waited to come on as a sub for Scotland at a Parkhead game should have REFRESHED the confused Tim mindset. But it didn’t.
Scotland only likes to use Celtic players cause Rangers players under Souness feigned injury and the daft Celtic players were picked as their replacements and daft Tims still didn’t catch on.
No Jungle to pump up the Tim mindset and narrative, has made Tims dim and that was Thatcher’s idea behind all seating the dumbing down of millions of Football fans in UK as Thatcher feared Football fans and the energy they received from football terraces.
celtic40me @ 12:43 pm,
As you know, Brendan never got relegated from the epl, although he did get promoted.
The issues at Leicester City go much deeper than any manager, as they do at Spurs.
Still, Brendan got an FA Cup with them and Ange got a Europa Cup with Spurs, so not too shabby eh!
Hail Hail
The last English manager to win a European trophy with an English club was Howard Kendall, who led Everton to victory in the 1985 European Cup Winners’ Cup same year.
It’ll be interesting to see where Ange goes next, I’d assume a handshake and cheque will be coming his way in the days ahead. I don’t see him ever getting another EPL job.
Unfortunately for the loathers Brendan’s 200% settled in Mugdock.
I’d guess the worry for spurs fans next season will be Ange reverting back to all out attack mode..which is very entertaining…or will he continue with recent defensive tactics …less entertaining…
Spurs…over the years have always played in a more swashbuckling style than most in the EPL…and had individuals that loved to entertain
You can’t beat data to settle a debate.
That assumes of course the debators are reasonable people.
Anyone got the track records of Neil, Brendan and Ange in Europe for Celtic?
Played, won, drew, lost,
Numbers of times qualified for CL group stage, got out of the group?
The possession stats from last night are pretty crazy. Less than 20% for Spurs in the second half; I remember us pressing teams in their penalty box in added on time in Europe when he was in charge.
I also remember that Paul67 constantly talking about the need for Ange to change his approach – pragmatism was much used on here before we took our beating in Dortmund. I didn’t agree when it came to Ange, it was a high risk strategy but one that I thought would bring results if the team bought into it wholeheartedly, and in most of the games we were very much in them – we were 0-0 with Madrid at half time before losing.
I never got that impression with Brendan, I thought it was just pig headedness to ignore what was patently not working from the start of games. We were 5-1 down at half time in Germany going on 7 or 8, but it wasn’t a surprise, to continue playing that way would have finished Brendan off as a manager in Europe.
I was probably wrong about Ange. Maybe he would have played differently if he had Madison, Bergvahl Kulusevski fit, maybe circumstances forced his hand. Maybe many Thursday Sunday weeks put an end to the sort of high intensity we don’t stop football we loved at Veltic. And if you’ve been watching Spurs recently you’ll have seen a team in the EPL that doesn’t look like it knows what it’s doing, so perhaps there isn’t a plan beyond just getting the job done this season. Certainly the Spurs fans I know, (but not the one in my house who wouldn’t dare say a bad word about Ange :) ) don’t want him to stay on because of what they think next season will be like.
What Spurs will look like at the start of the season will be interesting if he’s still there. It would go against what he’s always done if he doesn’t revert to his old tactics, theyre unlikely to sign ready made players -it’s not part of Levy’s plan, and Ange talked last night about hoping to continue with his vision which involves signing very young players and developing them into stars. So I’d expect more of the same with the youngsters who’ve come through a very testing season hopefully improving
I hope he stays and it works. The media seem to feel threatened by his his novel approach. Even when he sat top of the EPL people were desperate for him to fail. Some people don’t like having their fundamental beliefs about football challenged, so they’re desperate for something so new and different to fail so they can slip back into their comfort zone. But his approach to winning, at a club that had losing in their DNA has brought them success that they didnt believe they could achieve.
Spurs are left in a similar position to Man Utd last season when they decided to keep Ten Hag on after their FA Cup win. I suspect Spurs will not do as Utd did. Ange on a personal level may be happy to leave with his winners medal and look elsewhere.
BSR at 12.58
Coincidentally , Everton also won the old English first division in 1985 and would have participated in the European cup , had not English clubs been banned .
20 years ago today we lost the league at Motherwell. Players like Sutton and Hartson let us down. Some showed how much the KOK carried them previously. MON had checked out of things mentally. I had watched Robertson and Walford take training, joking about for an hour in the days before. I was working in a box at the back of the stand. It was amateur hour stuff. A couple of players even seemed to smoking Robertson’s fags ! Only Bellamy seemed really up for it.
Not a huge surprise that we could not beat Motherwell and had the most miserable final day of any season. Let down by players we had lauded 2 years prior despite them not winning a trophy that season.
We were entering life in the slow lane and our manager was not going to be part of it.
Well much as I really respect and value so much of what Martin did (and he was swimming against a bigger tide than even Ange was when he took the job) the reality was that we won 3 leagues out of 5 and did not progress beyond groups in the CL despite having HL on our books for 4 seasons.
It was really great that he gave us back our self respect as Celtic fans but I struggle to not be really disappointed with a disgrace of a final day performance when all was at stake. Playing against a team most of whom were not even bothered about winning and whose manager (Terry Butcher) sent on a Celtic fan for the final 2 or 3 minutes only to ensure that player got a bonus for getting on the park.
No one that day could have foreseen that the ‘slow lane’ would mean Celtic would win 16 of the next 20 league titles and 24 of the next 41 domestic Cups. No one would have seen us getting to the last 16 of the CL 3 x in the next 8 seasons and beating Barcelona Milan and Man U in doing so. 6 domestic trebles would have been unthinkable.
Yet despite all the challenges we are financially solvent and we stand in the brink of a 6th domestic treble and performed credibly again in Europes big competition this season.
Hopefully come Saturday we are celebrating again.
An Dún on 22nd May 2025 1:00 pm
It’ll be interesting to see where Ange goes next, I’d assume a handshake and cheque will be coming his way in the days ahead. I don’t see him ever getting another EPL job.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Given the treatment hes had from the media down there , I don’t know that he’d even want one .
CHAIRBHOY on 22ND MAY 2025 12:57 PM
He took them down. He got sacked by the club before it was official but they were in the bottom 3 when he got the boot.
Who knew that the day after Ange wins a European trophy you turn it into argument about who’s best.
Horses for courses. To win games you have to not only have your players playing to the Managers tactics, you have to counter the opposition. Both Brendan and Ange have shown that they can adapt if they want to.
We used to watch other teams to prepare our tactics to enable us to counter their strengths. For example, set pieces. We are poor at set pieces for and against but I can see little preparation before games. The amount of goals we conceded was low but as a percentage of our lost goals were from Set pieces is high.
Proper preparation prevents piss-poor performance (6P’s)
Bournesouprecipe/ Chairbhoy
Especially for you guys as BR cheerleaders.
Credit and respect to Brendan for winning 4 of these leagues and 7 of these Cups. Let’s hope it’s 8 Cups on Saturday night. His percentage trophy wins is the highest of all including Ange !
Note also credit re this years CL performance with no reference to an easy draw lol.
CHAIRBOY
I really believe you have a pathological hatred of anyone except for Brendan receiving praise for Celtics success.
“ I normally win things in my 11th season “
James Tavernier
“I dont leave BlantR.my name is kev,i live in a small dark cupboard and watch youtube it scares me and i change moniker regularly”
You dont go near Celtic Park,
Your Celtic ended 11 minutes from liquidation tf.
Stay in your cupboard or do what grifter gobbleaway did and find a new club(man.ure)
The folk who brought you up wo
celtic40me @ 1:38 pm,
“Who knew that the day after Ange wins a European trophy you turn it into argument about who’s best.”
But I didn’t…
You are making things up again aren’t you?
Well, that seems to be your wont
Hail Hail
“Neil Lennon outperformed Brendan and Ange in Europe ”
—————
Err, two CL group stages in six years?
Would be shaking their head bout your craven need for the back of the bus.
I recall you from the FAC demos slithering along the fence,afraid of eye contact,was that the last time you were out.banger.
Burnley78 @ 1:39 pm,
Our recent record is phenomenal and we are now in a great position and we can build on our success.
I’m with you, insofar as trophies will be harder to come by from next season but as long as Celtic improve that’s the main thing.
There are various reasons why BR is judged differently to other Celtic managers, one being the same as Engels and Idah, i.e. the big price tag.
Yet as long as we can improve, develop players and make money – we are on the right path.
Let’s hope for a great performance on Saturday to end the season on a high.
Hail Hail
Paul67
I don’t think that either Brendan or Anje planned to park the bus in Atalanta or Bilbao .
They were simply forced into defending deep by opponents desperate to score .
Their teams were due credit for defending like their lives depended on it .
But I’m sure if you asked Anje he would tell you his plan was for to dominate possession and win by attacking ,and not counter attacking .
There was no change in tactics in my eyes .
The players just defended well .
TT
Burnley78
Cheerleaders CSC
Pom Poming our way to Pardaise ( Thumbsup )
I completely agree Paul, it was very important that Ange´s Spurs beat the bloated Man U and shut up the poisoned pundits down south. Just like when ex-celt Davie Moyes was in Manchester, there was an orchestrated campaign in London to undermine Postecoglou and to take everything out of context. That context being winning trophies. Crystal Palace just won their first trophy after over a hundred years and it is the sign of a great club that they can still flourish even when they don´t win trophies, because the fans in the stadium enjoy themselves on match day.
Bill Nicholson´s Spurs which won the double in 1961 were one of the great modern teams in British football and since then Spurs have almost always played entertaining football. That is the only context that matters. Ultimately, the decision of whether a manager gets sacked or not HAS to come from the supporters in the stadium. When they give the thumbs down for a manager the club has to act ( I know, Glasgow Rankers are different). In the case of Tony Docherty at Dundee therefore, if there has been no unrest from the Dundee supporters then there are no grounds for him to be sacked. Clubs, managers and fans don´t always get it right but the media mafia should have no say when it comes to people´s employment.
Maybe they would try for Ange should he leave or be sacked, testing the water with saying he is a member of the Masons.
Aaah the old Easy Group chestnut again……
Re ange being a mason, was big Jock not one, maybe I’m wrong
KINGlUBO
i dont believe we have masons on the board.
or that ange is one either.
Apologies
Wrong stars stated earlier
We have won 16 /20 leagues
We have won 10/20Cups
We have won 10/20 league Cups
Since we lost on Helicopter Sunday.
Remarkable stats which could improve further.
I hope you are correct Bournesouprecipe…… I have my Cohiba ready !