Celtic fans hearing the news that they are close to appointing a new manager from Japan’s J League would have been justified if they felt a little underwhelmed, considering the names linked to the Parkhead role since Neil Lennon’s exit.
Ange Postecoglou was not the first name on anyone’s lips. In fact, most European football fans will probably not have heard of the 55-year-old Australian, other than that he led his country at the 2014 World Cup.
Celtic have admitted that former Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe was their first choice to lead next season’s fightback against newly-crowned Scottish champions Rangers, but the two parties could not agree a deal for “reasons outwith both his and our control”.
Lucien Favre, Chris Wilder and even Frank Lampard – perhaps seeking to follow ex-England teammate Gerrard north of the border – are supposedly candidates according to the bookies.
But Postecoglou? Surely, us ignorant Europeans will think, there are better options out there than a coach whose biggest club success was two Australian titles with Brisbane Roar a decade ago?
Yet ask any Australian soccer fan and they’ll likely have a different impression of Postecoglou. Indeed, for a country that has only really fallen in love with the sport over the past two decades – with the advancement of the A League and the improved fortunes of the national team – Postecoglou being linked with a big European club job is about time.
Reporting on the news of Celtic’s interest in the current Yokohama F. Marinos boss, The Sydney Morning Herald said: “He has certainly earned the right for a tilt at a job such as Celtic”.
A piece for ABC News in Australia claimed having an Aussie coach managing a club competing in European tournaments is “Australian football’s final frontier”.
“No Australian coach has made it in Europe, or even been given a chance at a ‘big’ club,” they write.
“While this is a huge opportunity for Postecoglou personally, it can also lay the platform to demonstrate that an Australian passport need not be an obstacle to managing on the game’s biggest stages.”
And an article for FOX claimed Postecoglou is “arguably the greatest football coach Australia has ever produced”.
Big praise, then, from those Down Under. But what can Celtic fans expect of Postecoglou should he rock up at Parkhead this summer? Well, the coach is famed in his homeland for championing attack-minded football and successfully revolutionised the national team as its mid-2000s Golden Generation was waning away, which led to their Asian Cup triumph in 2015.
An intense and expressive coach, he has been branded Australia’s answer to Pep Guardiola. When he quit the national team to join Yokohama in 2018 it took them just a year to win the Japanese title. The club currently sit third in the J League.
Being connected with a European side like Celtic is also not a surprise considering Postecoglou’s agent is Frank Trimboli, who counts Raphael Varane, Son Heung-min and Kyle Walker as clients, while the Marinos themselves are part of the City Football Group that owns Guardiola’s Manchester City.
It has been reported that Postecoglou was recommended to Celtic by Fergal Harkin, City’s departing football partnerships manager who is tipped to join the Hoops as director of football this summer. On top of this, Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell is leaving his role, with Dominic McKay installed to oversee the club’s latest transformation.
The pieces, then, may well be falling into place as Celtic prepare to meet the bar set by Rangers in 2021-22. But even though Postecoglou has, as the Herald put it, “earned the right” to manage Celtic, no manager will last long at Parkhead unless results immediately improve.
The pressure, therefore, is on from the start to get the Hoops back to the top of Scottish football.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2R6dr6d
Post a Comment