The “we need a big name” Brigade always frustrate me when we are searching for a new manager. There are so many qualities a manager needs, being well-known is not one of them, as Ange Postecoglou is dutifully illustrating.
A “name” makes life easier for the appointees. Fans are always keen to see cash spent, and often the famous are the more expensive. Appointing someone with name recognition takes the heat off for a while. Contrast this to the reaction from some places to Ronny Deila getting the Celtic job in 2014, a young manager who over-achieved at a club most of us did not know how to spell (Stremsgodset).
Young Celtic fans will not be aware how big a name Liam Brady was when he took the Celtic job in 1991. One of the most cultured midfielders in Europe, Brady starred for Arsenal and Juventus, a legend on the field, a quiet nonentity in the dugout.
If anything, John Barnes was an even bigger playing legend for Liverpool and England when he drove up Kerrydale St in 1999. It transpired that goal in the Maracana was not proof positive of managerial abilities. Roy Keane is also a big name, just ponder that for a minute.
Being tactically gifted, an effective communicator of ideas and instructions, as well as a working knowledge of a value market to strengthen your squad. These are all high on my list. You want a name to please the fans? Knock yourself out.
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What NFL? :)) por cierto
…… the clock is ticking down Ibrox way.
13 minutes in and he gets a 3rd
If, as the Celtic board had stated, Ange was “On the radar” for three years. then why (fill in the blanks)…..
Big well done to Steve Clarke for turning things round at Scotland.
Such an improvement from the Strachan and McLeish eras.
He has implemented a clear style of play which the players understand and have bought into, even if for several of them it is quite different from how they play with their club sides.
Evolved things gradually – didn’t make the mistake of trying to change everything at once.
“a working knowledge of a value market to strengthen your squad”
Only if the manager is also in charge of recruitment. Not a necessary skill if the structure is in place & all parties are aligned in what type of players should be targeted.
Told you we were onto a good ‘un with this ghuy, Paul.
Very refreshing to hear a very lucid manager respond to a clutch of imaginative and searching questions from a group of citizen journalists whose thoughtful queries sought to let the Manager deliver genuine insights.
Compare this to the usual cavalcade of bait traps and attempted gotchas from tired meeja hacks only chasing tomorrow’s shockerooni headlines, potential controversies or comparisons to some other managerless mob.
Well done Ange and the Celtic blogging cohort!
And to all (even some of Paul’s blog adversaries) who slated him as a ‘no mark nobody’…intae yeez, sideways!
QUADROPHENIAN on 16TH NOVEMBER 2021 12:31 PM
Totally agree with your comments re the Celtic Fan Media presser.
The questions were excellent, well thought out and well presented.
Ange was outstanding and it’s clear he is hell bent on ensuring each and every person at Celtic shares his vision.
ONIL – your last observation surely sped-up ‘Steven’s’ trip to Aston.
Due diligence will almost certainly rule out any candidate with an ambition to manage somewhere after their time at Sevco – a skint Sevco will not be the stepping stone that GVB hopes it would. They have little option but start the inevitable downsizing.
Gerrard was a big name that worked out in three big ways for Ibrox.
1. Despite Brendan signing a new four-year deal only a year before Gerrard’s arrival, he was gone, spooked by Gerrard’s appointment, within nine months.
2. Despite only one trophy out of nine, it was the big prize that stopped 10iar. I’m sure the hierarchy & fans at Ibrox would have gladly accepted that if offered upfront.
3. Despite last season being played in empty stadia, the Ibrox players played “out of their skin”, not for the fans, but for Gerrard, whom by that time had signed most of them. His reputation as a player inspired them to play for him.
This has somewhat waned this season as maybe there was a feeling among the squad that the manager was restless and it was inevitable that he wanted a move to the EPL as a winner. Losing the league this season to a better Celtic after the Malmo debacle, was a risk SG was not willing to take – leaving Scottish football’s two-horse race as a loser is a blot on anyone’s CV. Neither Brendan, nor, Gerrard were willing to take that chance.
As a postscript, I think Neil Lennon’s future job opportunities seem to lie only on the island of Ireland. He was a multiple winner, but left Scottish football as a high-profile loser. It might have suited all concerned, and maybe saved the TEN, had he left, after his caretaker role, in June 2019. We’ll never know.
PPS: All of the above meant Lampard would never have considered the Ibrox job…..too risky!!!!
Blimey – FOUR trebles???!
https://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/19718797.ex-celtic-boss-neil-lennon-frustrated-job-knock-backs-slams-parkhead-exit-assumptions/
Bada
Do you have a link to the Ange talk with fan media ? Thanks
QUADROPHENIAN on 16TH NOVEMBER 2021 12:47 PM
ONIL – your last observation surely sped-up ‘Steven’s’ trip to Aston.
I reckon so. Although Stevie G was only interested in himself and the combination of a stronger Celtic, a failing squad and lack of finances to strengthen all must have played their part.
And Premiership team would have wanted him had he failed to win the league this season. he wasn’t hanging around to find out….
GLASSTWOTHIRDSFULL on 16TH NOVEMBER 2021 12:50 PM
Deluded to the very last…….
Paul – deliberate irony in spelling Stromgodset wrong?
I don’t have the umlaut character for the first “o”.
Right, back to kippers for breakfast.
No way was Brendan “spooked” by Gerrard, he just saw opportunity to get back in that League, it could have been LC, Everton, Arsenal, anyone.
He just wanted away.
JHB on 16TH NOVEMBER 2021 12:50 PM
Yep I agree with most of that
I will just share that BR left not because of SG but because he had no faith that PL would back him
BR is a top manager – he proved it with Liverpool he is currently proving it with Leicester and i suspect he may well do it with Manchester United
Hail Hail
67ECW
Celtic wanted a big name. He was called Eddie Howe. We wanted him so much we waited for months on his answer. He said no and so we went back to the list, plucking a guy on his lonesome into the middle of our empty vessel of a club structure.
Lots to like about Ange but I’m more interested in a club that is totally aligned to a footballing vision that will be built to last. We bought some players ill-suited to his style and who are now stealing a wage and have struck gold with a few others. Ange knows the Japanese market, but other markets are out there if only we had a head of recruitment helping him and perhaps a CEO too.
We stumbled into this season and I’m not giving the board any credibility for where we are. The effin charlatans that they are.
HH one and all.
BIG WAVY on 16TH NOVEMBER 2021 1:12 PM
Board tried to take credit for Ange with the “tracking him for three years” comment.
I am under no illusion that this was not true and that they have taken a punt on him and got lucky.
Footballing vision and the Celtic board are mutually incompatible.
JHB
I think Rodgers was ‘spooked’ by the Celtic board and certainly not Steven Gerrard.
Dessyboy
From yest ange presser
https://youtu.be/_7Vjon0Oq_o
HH
Turn the clock back a few months.
If our board have interviewed GVB and Ange.
Would anyone have chosen anyone other than Howe.
Dessybhoy-
https://youtu.be/HB72i9OCxm4
Ignore previous post, pushed the Post button too early
Meant to ask if we had interviewed GVB alongside Howe and Ange, what would have been our thoughts?
DENIABHOY on 16TH NOVEMBER 2021 1:20 PM
Fair point, I think you are spot on.
When Ange was appointed, it took a bit of research to establish what a great fit he was for us but at first I was underwhelmed…..
ONIL
They may have been tracking him but if the stars aligned for the board, then the current Newcastle United Manager and his backroom team would have been in Lennoxtown now. That’s a public fact.
We are where we are now. I like Ange but I’d like to see him backed from top to bottom to see if this is truly something we can build as a club going forward – an outward, European team punching its weight at that level. That focus will see us win locally and of course, eff the huns.
HH
Paul67
Back to Sevco?
Unemployed big name, unemployed wee name it’s all the same.
Between gigs is the key, nobody in a position to take over at Parksdome will take time to check the books, or with the SFA to see they’ve waived the financial fair play rules over a the three year period.
Besides five days, or five months without a manager is hardly time to play their orange card ace, zombie coaches have been like lemmings, since “ they were demoted ” © BW.
Zzzzzzzzz CSC
During Gerrard’s three years at Ibrox, his employer lost an accumulated £53m . Fifty three million quid for some temporary bragging rights.
They had last season’s title wrapped up by the time the January window opened. Their board could have released their inner Lawwell and carried out some player trading. They chose not too, fully expecting to negotiate the CL Qualifiers and enter the promised land. A modest outfit from Sweden had other ideas, just as they had in 2011. The delicious irony that is Malmo.
This now leaves big Dougie and co with a bit of a dilemma. Damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t.
BIG WAVY on 16TH NOVEMBER 2021 1:24 PM
Agree, very early to say how we will turn out, signs are god but Ange needs fully backed by the board.
*good
First televised cup final, 1955 Celtic 1 Clyde 1, Johnny Bonnar contrived tae dive over the ball in the closing minutes, we lost the replay which wisnae televised.
Next one on the box 2 year later falkirk v kilmarnock.
“DENIABHOY on 16TH NOVEMBER 2021 1:22 PM
Ignore previous post, pushed the Post button too early
Meant to ask if we had interviewed GVB alongside Howe and Ange, what would have been our thoughts?”
Almost certainly the majority response would have been in favour of Howe. I believe that majority would now be much smaller and if everyone felt as I do, it would have evaporated altogether.
I know we are in early days but I am very happy with Ange. I think we have someone special in the Big Man.
O.K. I admit it – as I age, the old memory has lapses. I used to be able to rhyme off all players in team photos back to the fifties, even the reserves. They still look familiar, the names are on the tip of my tongue, and that’s as far as I get. This is annoying me – who is between Davie Hay and Fallon, and between Big George and Danny?
I know I’ll kick myself when you tell me. Thanks in advance.😊
https://images.webapi.gc.celticfc.com/fit-in/1400×1400/3f755940-463c-11ec-8b7a-9781a00cf84c.jpg
67EUROPEAN CUP WINNERS @ 1:12
GARNGAD TO CROY @ 1:18 PM
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For talking sake – let’s say Brendan was “spooked” by a combination of what the Celtic board would allow him to spend. All I would say to that is I’m sure he must have known the financiial parameters when he signed the new four-year in 2017 – it wouldn’t bother him going up against the likes of a Murty, Warburton, or, Pedro, but Gerrard, a rookie who he was bossing as a player a couple of years prior- no, too risky!!!
Tontine
You are correct about the 1st televised cup final but if I remember correctly Clyde had a last minute corner. Johnny Bonnar went up to collect it and it dropped over his shoulder into the net.
I was at the replay as a nine yeat old, it was 10 years later (few cup finals lost in between ) as a 19 year old I had my 1st Scottish cup victory against Dunfermline.
david cattanach.
John Gorman…..hay/fallon