Celtic Diary Saturday May 29: Eddy Put to Beddy

Eddie Howe won’t be Celtic’s next manager.

After what seems like taking an eternity to make up his mind he finally decided he didn’t want the job after all.

That alone should indicate that he wasn’t exactly over enthusiastic about it in the first place, and maybe he just fancies a part in the remake of the Disney classic Crystal Palace, or some other comfortable number where he can while out his days without too much hassle.

Lets face it, matters such as the CEO getting his house firebombed, riots on the street when somone else wins the league and the novel and refreshing way the league is ran in Scotland probably aren’t for everyone.

Thats not to absolve the board from any blame on the fiasco that leaves Celtic yet again without a manager at such a crucial time of the season, they should have got a written commitment from Howe that he was coming, and not allowed him to string them along.

Thats what appears to have happened, and if its the case that he wasn’t one hundred per cent sure when asked, he should have been dismissed as unsuitable and then we move on to the next candidate.

But lets face it, the environment a Celtic manager has to work in, and thats without the board taken into consideration, isn;t the most attractive. We’re not going to get a top level manager, we need one though, who is on the way up, and who is not afraid of a challenge.

What we need is someone who lives far enough away not to have noticed that sort of thing.

What we need is someone who wins things, at say club and international level.

What we need is someone who doesn’t take any shit from referees or anyone else, including players.

Someone off the EPL/Sky radar but known to at least one of our players who can vouch for him.

Someone who actually has a job, and not someone whose last job saw him being sacked after relegation.

And most of all, if we have a director of football in place who knows of such a man, we should go with that director of football.

There has been a lot of work done behind the scenes, which means that the next choice won’t be a panic move, and the news that Celtic will move for Ange Postecoglou has been met with a collective groan and a major headache for the police searching for the man who firebombed Peter Lawwell’s  house as the list of suspects grew exponentially overnight.

The speed with which his name cropped up suggested that a plan was in place, and possibly even that Ange…I’m fucked if I’m typing Postecoglou every time I mention him, I still haven’t got the hang of Edouard….was not only a second choice, but happy to be a second choice.

He’s the guy that told Tom Rogic to quit Celtic to further his international career when he was Australia manager, a period that saw him win the Asian Nations Cup, and bear in mind some fans would happily take a manager from the international stage who got Scotland to the Euros by beating Israel over a series of about a dozen matches.

Ange also won the J league with Yokohama and won praise for the way in which he did it.

Brisbane roar fans still speak of him with reverence, and Australian journalists haven;t been this excited since Kylie Minogue told them she was off to record a record in London.

Ange ticks all of the boxes above, and from a few bits and pieces I read and wathced last night two or three things stand out.

His teams play attractive and entertaining football.

They play with desire and passion.

He takes no shit from the media.

And intriguingly, his Japanes translator once got booked for repeating what he said, implying that he’s not the sort of guy to watch his charges on a laptop.

In one interview he says that managers have lost the power of communication, part of the result of a society that largely now communicates with its fingers and rarely does face to face conversation.

His communication skills, not speaking Japanese, to do that and get his message across to the Yokohama players must be phenomenal.

All managers are a gamble, but some managers less so because their strengths match the environment they are in.

Ange may not be a big name, and may well be unheard of by many of not most supporters, but to demean his achievements is on a par with those who demean our own achievements simply because they were in Scotland.

Gabriella Marcoti, a respected football journalist…something we don;t have in Scotland….wrote this about him….

At 50, Postecoglou feels he’s entered his maturity as a coach, though he says he’s always learning. He’s not too proud to learn from his setbacks. In 2007, he was fired as coach of the Australian U20 and U17 national sides. He reacted by going to coach for a season in the Greek third division, at a tiny club called Panachaiki. He went back to his roots and he was rewarded. He returned to Australia and eventually took over the Brisbane Roar, whom he led to two A-League titles, during which he also enjoyed a 36 game undefeated streak. He then spent a season with the Melbourne Victory before landing the Socceroos job.

He’s committed to Australia, but he knows his career path might one day lead him elsewhere. If it does, he knows some may baulk at his roots. But he’ll turn it into a positive.

Aussie journalist Daniel Garb seems to have had his frock blown up by the news….

Australian football woke up in raptures this morning to the news that former Socceroos boss Ange Postecoglou is set to take over as manager at Scottish giants Celtic, in an unprecedented move for the Australian game.

While the deal is yet to be completed, all of the major media outlets in Scotland are reporting that it is imminent, and that the 55-year-old from Melbourne will take charge of the 51-time Scottish champions.

He will be tasked with masterminding Celtic’s quest to wrestle back the title from fierce rivals Rangers, who this year ended a run of nine straight Scottish Championships for the team they call ‘The Hoops’.

So why have Celtic gone for a man who is completely unknown to Scottish football fans?.  

Postecoglou doesn’t need this to prove he can manage at a high level. The J-League, where he is currently based, is a top competition. But in order to get to the top of the game, which is competition in Europe, this is a necessary step.

If you can remove the myopia of a purely European football lens, his string of Australian domestic titles, Asian Cup triumph with the Socceroos, and most notably the miraculous J-League crown with Yokohama that ended their 15-year title drought and came in just his second season in a nation where he doesn’t even speak the native tongue, are outstanding achievements.

Furthermore, his style of football which is so attractive on the eye, so dominating in attack and suffocating of the opposition in defence, is an easy sell to a club with expectations of being ruthless winners both by the week and the season.

We needed fresh ideas, a new start, if we get Ange, I think we might also get just that