ANGE POSTECOGLOU took time off preparing for Celtic’s game against Dundee United at Tannadice tomorrow night to deliver his thoughts on the controversial comments that emerged from the Scottish Football Writers’ awards’ night at the weekend.
The Hoops boss picked up a well-deserved Manager of the Year honour with his team a mere point away from securing the title in his debut campaign after arriving as Neil Lennon’s successor in June.
An apology was issued by the SFWA after speaker Bill Copeland sparked outrage and two tables walked out in disgust following so-called jokes described by guests as “sexist, racist and homophobic”.
THE WRITE STUFF…Ange Postecoglou delivers his verdict.
Postecoglou, who is on record as praising different cultures after managing in Australia and Japan, wants the fall-out from the ceremony to be used for good.
The 56-year-old former World Cup gaffer said: “The content was probably not appropriate. For me, the key thing to come out of that is that you can treat it as a little bit of a controversy – or you can treat it as a moment where you can be better.
“We are constantly looking for these moments where we can all be better in terms of what we do and the way we approach things.
“We’ve got to understand that there are people in that room who have different values, different views, irrespective of that, there is an opportunity there for us to learn.”
Postecoglou, speaking to Sky Sports News, continued: “The organisers have come out and apologised, I don’t think they did it with any harmful intent, but if they just focus on the controversy and try to put it to one side then there is a failure there.
“In that space, we shouldn’t really be having those kind of moments, people should already know.
“But in the place of a misstep, what you want to do is be better the next time.”
Looking at the Premiership encounter on Tayside tomorrow and the curtain coming down against Motherwell at a packed Parkhead on Saturday afternoon, the manager added: “We are in a great position with two games to go and all we want to do is replicate our performance from the weekend.
CRESTFALLEN…Josip Juranovic goes off during the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden.
“If we do that, we know we are hard to stop and we will get the job done.
“There is nothing that suggests to me that the way we are playing our football or the way we are approaching our training that says to me that we need to refocus.”
Postecoglou has no new injury worries to concern him after the 4-1 win over Hearts on Saturday.
Josip Juranovic has been out with a hamstring problem since limping off in the Scottish Cup semi-final setback last month and has no chance of playing against United.
However, the popular Croatian international will be every chance of making an appearance in the final game of the season against the Fir Park outfit.
🗣️"If they just focus on the controversy, or put it to one side, I think there is a failure to be better the next time…"
Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou says lessons have to learned from the fallout from offensive comments at the SFWA awards ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/mm277y99QH
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) May 10, 2022
