Ange Postecoglou isn’t going to swap his Champions League experience for a lower level English Premier League side, regardless of where they are currently sitting in the table, reckons the former Celtic captain Paul Lambert.
Speaking the the media ahead of Wednesday’s second Champions League Group F match against Shakhtar Donetsk in Warsaw, the former Champions League winner with Dortmund, reckons that Celtic gives Ange everything that he is looking for.
Yet because of the brilliant job the Australian has done since arriving in June 2021, Lamert acknowledges that the interest in Ange from south of the border is to be expected.
“I think that will go hand in hand with him because of how well he is doing. If you are talking about the size of the clubs they can’t compare with Celtic. There is no comparison,” Lambert stated, as reported by Scottish Sun.
“You can compare the leagues, without a doubt, but the job he has got here is huge. He has got European football here and hopefully the club can continue getting into the Champions League. That will entice bigger and better players to come if they see the club getting Champions League football.
“It’s better to be linked with jobs than having fans calling for your head. You’d rather be told you are doing great than folk saying there’s a car waiting for you out the front,” Paul Lambert noted.
“I think he loves it here. You can go to another club and all of a sudden things don’t work and you are back to square one. At the moment he’s got everything rocking here, though keeping it going is easier said than done.”
There might come a time when Ange will seek a challenge elsewhere. He often reminds us that all the players and coaches are just passing through Celtic and the club will have others in the future to take the club forward. For now though Lambert is spot on in his assessment that Ange Postecoglou is fully committed to the Celtic cause.
“If he keeps doing well here then it will be up to him to make a decision if teams in England or in Europe come for him. But if he manages to maintain the success he’s had here he might not want to leave,” Lambert said.
“Ange must have a wry smile on his face when you consider some of the stick he got when he first came in. I see some parallels with Wim Jansen. He lost his first few games and people were saying he had to go. Henrik Larsson got stick after giving the ball away a few times, but he turned out not too bad either.
“People without much knowledge were criticising him but Ange is not daft. He’s a good guy with a great way about him and the fans are totally on board with him.”
It should be noted that the stick Ange received when he arrived at Celtic did NOT come from the Celtic support but from pundits and journalists. Alan Brazil gets quoted often when this is discussed but the one that really sticks out is Hugh Keevins stating that ANGE stood for Absolutely Not Good Enough.
“At the very least we now know what the ANGE in Ange Postecoglou stands for.
Absolutely. Not. Good. Enough.”
Hugh Keevins – August 2021 pic.twitter.com/W9fE7RTI0J— CelticQuote (@CelticQuote) February 5, 2022
It shows Keevins up for the absolute clown that he is. How can he expect anyone to take anything he says seriously after spouting garbage like that. I would like to see him put on the spot and asked to justify that statement.