The treble was won on Saturday with a bit more anxiety than many of us anticipated. Just as we discussed and hoped for last week, Kyogo was the man of the moment again. Celtic have played in three cup finals when Ange Postecoglou has been in charge, the opener on Saturday was the fifth goal scored by the club in that time and the fifth by Kyogo. The player is an inextricably linked to his manager’s success as Henrik Larsson was to Martin O’Neill’s.
I can scarcely remember a more effective winger than Liel Abada, certainly not for someone still only 21. He ghosted into the box, then timed his forward run perfectly to latch onto Callum McGregor’s cross, giving Celtic an unassailable lead. His added-time cross for Jota to complete the scoring was a piece of craft that largely went missing for Celtic during the final.
Inverness were miles out of their depth but defended well and on 84 minutes scored the best goal of the game. A diving header is always easy on the eye, even when it hits the back of your own net. It was never going to be, for the Highlanders.
We will look back on that final, on this last month, as a time when a great Celtic team emptied its tank. Whether or not this is linked to off-field events is moot, a refresh is needed if these incredibly high standards are to endure.
It was painful listening to Ange duck questions on his future after the game. In doing so, he answered, nonetheless. We’ll talk more at the appropriate moment, in the meantime, as Bill wrote, ‘If it were done…., then ‘t were well it were done quickly.’
Let’s get on with it.
410 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- »
A couple of things…..
1). I am led to believe that the players were aware that he was for the off. They knew before the game at Easter Rd, and possibly before that. And it showed….
2). If this is where we are, that any successful manager will be so easily enticed away, then we absolutely need to institutionalize our structure and processes. For me, this mean a Director of Football. We will need that continuity.
That aside, I wish no particular ill on Ange. He’ll not take up much of my thinking. He’ll not have a major place in Celtic’s history. He was a fling. Good while it lasted, but already receding in my memory.
Ronnie
Spurs spent £178m in the 2022 trnsfer window. Their very entitled fans, well into 2nd place in the North London bragging cup & out of Europe altogether, will not accept a team peppered with SPFL-level talent, when their 2 talismen Kane & Son are for the off. I do think 2 from Kyogo, Jota, Hatate & CCV are at risk (although Cam is viewed as a dud by their fans).
His ego and final EPL payday will drive him but a big ask from a guy who has traded further down the food chain.
Anyway, feck him. Looking forward our next chapter.
HH
FOURSTONECOPPI on 5TH JUNE 2023 12:39 PM
PICINISCO on 5TH JUNE 2023 12:27 PM
If it all goes ‘tits up’, would we want him back?. Personally from me a NO.
I’ll settle for a new venture. HH
It’s reaching that stage, all right.
I’m sitting in the departure Lounge at Glasgow Airport .
Two weeks in Dubai .
Planned a couple of months ago .
Get away from the press coverage if The Huns won the cup or celebrate if we did .
Now it’s a bit of both .
Celebrate our treble and avoid the press coverage of Ange’s betrayal .
I do not blame him .
It’s the right decision for the security of his family and the next couple of generations.
It’s how he has Boris Johnsoned it that riles me .
Celtic first , Celtic last , Celtic overall.
TT
It’s difficult to ignore SMSM when there’s a whiff of Celtic negativity, impossible once Spurs had started leaking the Ange story. I’ve never seen a Champions League side described with a “ but they’ll be a bottom seed “ caveat . This type of reporting is surely from a damaged career path.
If there was an end of season form dip
attributable to off the field stories, Celtic did well to fend off any vibes. Flag and Cup final days were unaffected, Ange Postecoglou was the perfect Celtic manager and he smashed all comers.
Tottenham Hotspur represent everything that is wrong with capitalist SKY based football. They wanted a super league whilst they are measured in FA cup wins at best. If it wasn’t them however, it would be some other SKY monster, where there is daisy chain of new hopefuls and bullet dodging dinosaurs.
Celtic are way down the football food chain, punching above our weight, constricted by where we have existed and flourished Ange tapped into the other side of the universe, and made us bigger and better.
There is no room now for complacency next season even with Ange would have required change. Another way would have had to be found to skin the wary cat, The squad under AP may have shot our bolt, he wasn’t hanging around to find out.
Supporters don’t get to cross the white line but from a position of great strength the season ticket deadline once again quietly passes, thanks for the memories easy come, easy go, every Celtic manager from Calton to Corfu is just plain lucky.
Some good posts on here today. I don’t feel betrayed. I am grateful to Ange for the success he brought us when I consider what he inherited when he arrived. It was a shambles. I expected us to be in the doldrums for 4 or 5 years at least. None of the ‘top’ or lauded up and coming managers were likely to touch us with a barge pole. The relatively unknown Postecogleou came in from Japan and won 5 out of 6 trophies. Took us back into the CL group stages and repeats the feat again this season. He has left some great, high value players at the Club compared to when he arrived. We don’t own him. He has a right after what he achieved for us to seek further success and financial success in a more competitive environment.
I think we should focus on who’ll be his successor and hope that our Board make the appointment as quickly as possible.
Achht well.
‘It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all…’
My bigger concern is not about the already well-off Ange leaving for greater challenges – and obscene riches – but of who he might take with him to try and consistently deploy the elusive ‘Angeball’ in the EPL (if we’re honest we saw too little of the ole Angeball blowing teams away in the tail end of his stint in Paradise anyway).
IMO he leaves without having to prove he can master Europe and to a club desperate to take an educated punt.
Forget losing Kyogo (who’s prob at his last chance to get the big money move he really deserves). My big fear is that CCV will go; he is the real rock of this side’s home success and we look pretty puny without him.
PS: A lot of Oz media talk is that Ange singlehandedly rescued a basket case of a club in us, and turned us round: Some basket case to have just won a quaddie treble then squibbed it due to Covid and shooting ourselves in the footy boots.
Thanks Ange; it’s been emotional.
Anybody want to take their thoughts away from this saga for a while,tonight,on Sky,Hamburg v Stuttgart,in the 1st leg play off.There will be thousands of that mob cheering on their Fascist heroes,The Hamburg SS.
Was brilliant last week,when they celebrated too early,and were left desolate on FF that night,thinking they had avoided the play offs,and the other team scored 3 goals in 14 minutes added on time,to win 3-2.
https://twitter.com/AdamLynch27/status/1665482431518986241?t=w-o2dUIYAOoYwOOKvoIULA&s=08
Hadn’t seen this interview with Rodgers before…
To keep the speculation going, I just heard from my brother-in-law about this guy this morning:
https://www.skysports.com/amp/football/news/11095/12753465/francesco-farioli-alanyaspor-manager-on-roberto-de-zerbi-the-old-firm-derby-and-mikel-artetas-arsenal
TURKEYBHOY on 5TH JUNE 2023 12:49 PM
Leicester want him and he’s been linked with done other jobs but nothing as attractive as Celtic so far. But he’s only been out of a job 5 minutes and the way the prem works there will be better jobs out there soon enough.
You might be right, he might be interested but I think it’ll be a hard sell, and although he’s obviously got plenty about him and failing at the bin fire that’s Chelsea is no shame I’d worry about how he’d do with all the pressure that the job brings up here
Maybe too nice? Who knows
Ange was good for us and we were good for him. I have every respect for him and wish him success if he takes the spurs job.
We took him from Yokohama and spurs look like they are taking him from us. That’s football.
They did say that about Eddie Howe and it’s clearly not the case with him
Ange wants that dream retirement Home one a Greek Island. I can’t feel bitter. At least He didn’t Claim to be a supporter and didn’t leave mid season. And someone with a more pragmatic approach in Europe might Not BE a Bad Thing.
I’d also worry a bit about his well Brighton have done without him. De Zerbi is an excellent coach but a lot of Brightons success is being put down the how well the club is run.
THEORIGINALSADIESBHOY on 5TH JUNE 2023 1:03 PM
Certainly a contender that the Celtic Ma’s will get behind….the handsome devil.
Potter is on one of those 12 month gardening leave payments that they expect some EPL mob to payoff when he is next approached. Did a terrific job at Brighton but I’d like to see someone the other way (Europe to England) who will stay for 3+ years helping us build a proper European-level club.
HH
79caps,
Like his last move, Ange would have left mid-season if Spurs came calling. We got lucky on timing.
It’s purely business with these guys.
HH
No big surprise to me. Relationships between Celtic and ambitious managers are never likely to be long-lasting, particularly when you get too far in front of partner club and then speak about wanting to improve further (while the silence from the boardroom was deafening). It’s not like we haven’t seen that movie before!
Weeron @ 12:54
Great post. Agree
Ange is leaving.
It’s the board’s fault. Yawn.
If he leaves I’ll hate it, but I won’t hate him.
Brendan Rodgers bookies’ favourite? Is that really likely with Lowball around???
Next manager?
I have inklings but no clue.
IMHO, an anglophone with a strong character is a must.
Playing at Kilmarnock and Livingston will not float the boat of a top football manager.
But Playing in Madrid, Munich, London etc most certainly will.
We must prioritise European football, even if it means resting players. Our squad must be capable of playing on two fronts and be physically up to the task. Coaches must work night and day with the less talented players and ensure they can effortlessly blend in.
Recent games show there is much work to be done, but having the best training facilities in the country must reap rewards akin to our investment.
Our journey will inevitably suffer hitches, but we are by no means derailed.
HH.
as our previous manager would say , we keep going , we will be bigger and stronger and we definitely never stop, if we bring in a manager every 2 years win treble after treble , as they say in Yorkshire that’ll do for me.
Ange never claimed to be a dyed in the wool supporter. We took advantage of his wish to manage in Europe and persuaded him to leave Yokohama for us. We’ve had tremendous success and seen some of the best football in our history. Now he’s been persuaded to leave for one of the biggest leagues in the world for a much bigger salary – having done to us what we’ve done to others. We can have no complaints.
At least Ange saw the season out (the big difference IMO between Ange and Brendan).
Thanks Ange, good luck (I think you’ll need it right enough) and I hope you are welcomed back.
Never really been one for hero worshipping but I really liked Ange. If he stayed another year and made a substantial dent in Europe it would be a much more painful split.
I’m not too sure that Postecoglou was not wanted by Spurs right away. Celtic may have dug their heels in, and the downward spiral in form might be a testimony to the players finding out about it and that his time at Celtic was coming to an end. All my own thoughts are made up in the sun in Lanzarote, actually, it’s quite cloudy, that’s why! por cierto
What impressed me most about the Ange stint was we got our transfer work done early,
There was none of this crap where we’d buy a player and see nothing of him for 5 or 6 League Games and tell get told he missed pre season and is still building up his match fitness, by the time we’d get to see the ghuy the buzz was gone from both player & fans.
At one level we can’t rush the appointment process, unless we appoint Rodgers who knows the Club & the League and we know him, at another level there are glaring areas where we need to bring in new players, we are also likely to lose a few and they will need replacing,
I did here somewhere that there were deals already done on bringing in a few.
Not sure how accurate that info is and if Ange’s exit will impact on the deals.
Fingers crossed that everything comes out right in the end.
We are also likely to lose a few
UNCLE JIMMY on 5TH JUNE 2023 1:13 PM…
Thanks. Onwards and upwards.
Ronnie
Think I’m losing it myself, the stress is affecting my already dodgy typing skills.
Good afternoon all from the International Bar. A warm day in Polmadie. What happened to the Ange money?🤔
Only Celtic could have back 2 back Tifos
Well done to everyone involved
There is zero chance of Spurs chasing Kyogo, unless it’s all the way back to Scotland. Brilliant as he is for us, he’d be swallowed up by the big bullying EPL defenders. No top English side would go near him.
The bookies move on to their next victims, as St Brendan pipes up
Compensation figure – if ever revealed (leaked) – will be interesting.
Just watched the highlights of the Ross County V Thistle game. The Thistle fans will now have an idea what it is like to be a Celtic fan after some of the decisions made in that game.
Mercenaries the lot of them. It’s just about money and status and who can blame them? It’s a bummer for us but this is what we’ll have to put up with for many years to come. Any successful manager or player will be off to pastures new and lucrative.