Ange Postecoglou spoke to the Viaplay media panel after Celtic’s emphatic 5-1 victory over St Mirren in the Scottish Cup Fifth Round and revealed he is fully focussed on the day-to-day machinations at Lennoxtown, despite the ongoing furore about his future in the Scottish mainstream media.
Ange was delighted with his team’s performance and result over the Paisley side, which sees his Celtic side maintain their winning streak in all competitions since 2 January at Ibrox in the Scottish Premiership. The boss addressed assistant manager, John Kennedy’s press conference comments from the other day and quipped that he wouldn’t go against the big man’s wishes if he told him he was going nowhere!
Speaking to Emma Dodds, Chris Ewelumo, former Celtic boss, Gordon Strachan, Postecoglou said: “Bizarre. Anyone that’s seen the size of John, we don’t need security. Whatever he wants I’ll pretty much do. I’m focused on what we’re doing here and I just thought it was a good week for us to focus on training. John’s a very, very capable guy and handles the media well and I thought I’d have a break from everyone and everyone can have a break from me.”
When quizzed about his future and whether or not he wished to give the Hoops supporters a message in this regard, he replied: “I don’t think fans need a message from me. What the fans need is me to keep making sure that our football club represents them the right way. That’s my responsibility.
“If you’ve got a player that’s getting a lot of attention the first thing you’re going to say to him is ‘just keep playing well, don’t worry about anything else. I’m old enough now to know that football changes very quickly. I’m pretty blessed to be in the position I am, working for a special football club. I’m never going to lose sight of that my main responsibility is making sure I prepare the team for a game.”
The Greek-Aussie also added that Kyogo Furuhashi will have a scan to see the extent of the damage done to the Japanese player’s shoulder, following a really awkward fall to the floor quite early in the game. He added: “We’ll see how it is,” he explained. “We’ll get it scanned tomorrow. Obviously there’s an issue there. He’s a pretty quick healer so hopefully it won’t be anything too serious. But yeah, disappointed to lose him.”
Watch Ange give his post-match reaction below…
🍀 “I’m pretty blessed to be in the position I am working for a special football club”@CelticFC manager Ange Postecoglou joins the studio panel for a full-time conversation 💬#CELSTM | #ScottishCup | @ScottishCup pic.twitter.com/WrDbk09OWW
— Viaplay Sports UK (@ViaplaySportsUK) February 11, 2023
Paul Gillespie
