Ange Postecoglou, political commentator, theatre critic and in his spare time manager of our football team…

We have mentioned before that the questions at the end of these conferences, which as you will know by now, are from the Celtic fan media, are invariably the ones that the Celtic supporters want to hear the manager talk about while many of the ones at the start are agenda driven from the mainstream media, often led by the BBC who are mute when it comes to anything at all controverial coming from the other side of the city.

There was a Green Brigade banner on display in Warsaw and that carried a message that the Green Brigade made on behalf of no-one but themselves, there was no consultation with the Celtic support for those three words used.  These words are actually an add-on to The Fields of Anthenry which was performed live at Celtic Park just last week against Real Madrid and plenty, but not all, would have added these very same three words, without comment from anyone.

Let the People Sing 🎶-https://t.co/GVjGm2ZDQn

— D Mcguire (@DMcGCfc1888) September 12, 2022

Earlier today we suggested a better wording for any banner displayed at Paisley on Sunday –

“You can’t expect the oppressed to mourn the oppressor”

– but there’s little to no chance that the Green Brigade will pay any attention to what any other Celtic supporter says or thinks.

Ange was always going to be asked about this latest incident by the Mainstream Media who clearly more interested in this than the football.  Here’s how today’s media conference went, starting with the hacks before moving on to the Celtic fan media…

Q: Squad update?

Ange Postecoglou: “At this stage, everyone is fine from Wednesday night. No issues coming out from that. James McCarthy missed Wednesday night as he was ill, but he was back training today. Carl Starfelt is still out until after the international break. Everybody else should be OK.”

Q: What sort of challenge are you expecting from St Mirren?

Ange Postecoglou: “A good challenge. A tough challenge as they have had a decent start to the season. It is always a difficult place to go to, and we are ready for it. Our league form has been really good and improved every week we have gone out there. Last week we had no league football, so we concentrated on the Champions League, and our focus is on making sure we go out there on Sunday and improve on our performances so far and keep our league form going.”

Q: Are there any tweaks you need to make for a Champions League game which is more of an open contest than a domestic encounter where you come up against stubborn defences?

Ange Postecoglou:  “Not really. Not in terms of our approach. The games could potentially go in a different way than the way the Champions League games go but in terms of the underlying stuff, I would focus on the same things – dominating the game and dominating where the game is played and making sure we are aggressive in our approach. We took that into the Champions League game with us, and coming back to the League is no different. Whatever the sort of differences may be, the answers still lie with us concentrating on the basic fundamentals of how we want to play.”

Q: Despite the squad depth that you possess, you have been fairly consistent in terms of your starting eleven has that been a relatively easy decision based on the performance levels that you have had in those games?

Ange Postecoglou: “We have been kind of building towards something, and with last week’s game getting called off, there was probably a rotation in there for some of the players who haven’t played, and we would have come out of this first group of games with everyone getting some decent game time.

“That sort of never happened, but we know after the international break that we will have 10 or 11 games in the space of 34/35 days, so we are going to need everybody, and there is no doubt the team will change through that process. It is about having everybody ready, and we have begun that process.

“I think during the Ross County cup game, I made nine changes, and the level of that performance was excellent on the night and would probably have done something similar last weekend. We are still gearing up for what’s ahead and what’s ahead is that we are going to require a really strong squad of players, and we won’t be able to rely upon 11 or 12 to get us through it.”

Q: What is your reaction to UEFA opening up disciplinary proceedings against the club with regard to the banners that were displayed in midweek?

Ange Postecoglou: “They are opening an investigation, and I am not really sure what you expect me to say to that. We will wait and let the investigation unfold.”

Q: Your St Mirren counterpart Stephen Robinson said that he hopes fans from both clubs are respectful on Sunday afternoon – do you have a similar message or a message to the Celtic fans as I will imagine there will be a lot of eyes on them on Sunday after what happened in midweek?

Ange Postecoglou: “I have the same message to our fans that I always have we always abide by the protocols, and we wore black armbands on Wednesday night, and I think there is a minute’s applause. We will abide by whatever obligations and responsibilities we have as a football club.

“We will do that in a respectful manner, and we want our supporters to do the same. I am not going to speak on behalf of anybody else or supporters. I’ll look after my one club and our own supporters, and we will do whatever is required, which I think we have done so far in a respectful manner as a football club.”

Q: It was a good performance in midweek, is it disappointing that it has been overshadowed by what went on in the stands at the game?

Ange Postecoglou: “It depends on what you are reading or what you are listening to. My focus is on us as a football club, and the performance was really strong at the highest level of competition. We have still got some growth to do as a football team and playing at that level on a consistent basis. I was encouraged by our progress, and I know we need to keep improving in those areas. We will continue to represent our football club in the best possible way.”

Q: Is this a chance to say more game time for Sead Haksabanovic and Oliver Abildgaard as well?

Ange Postecoglou: “We will have a look at it. It was good for Sead to start the game the other night, and we know he is not ready for 90 minutes and particularly the kind of football we want to play, but I just thought it was a good game for him because of his experience to come in and make an impact and he did well for the time he was on the pitch. He was never going to go beyond halfway or 50 minutes. We will see on the weekend as we have still got other players and other options in those areas who are also playing really well and in great form.

“In terms of Oliver, he is a bit different. He missed all the pre-season and came in late, and wasn’t really training with the team. We just need to be patient with him, and we have two weeks of the international break where we can do some work with him, and I think you’ll see more of him post-international break.”

Q: Looking ahead to the international break – is it a chance to regroup, or is it a bit of a worry that some of your players get injured?

Ange Postecoglou: “It’s part of the process now. You know that players will go away at the international level, and it is a bit different this year because we have only had one international break, and then it is the World Cup.

“The pleasing thing for us is that a lot of it is happening on this side of the world. Japan is having their games in Europe. That mitigates the travel factor for our boys. We have no issues with that. We are going to come up to a pretty intense period after it, so hopefully, being away from our football club and being in a different environment hopefully freshens them up and they come back raring to go.”

Q: Do you feel Greg Taylor’s performance in the Champions League has boosted him, and he is growing in confidence?

Ange Postecoglou: “Yeah, Greg is going really well. He is improving because he wants to improve. He is one of these players who, in the past, people put him in a certain box and classified him as a certain type of player for a certain kind of level.

“As I keep saying to all our footballers, that is up to them to change that perception with improvement in performance and in training and in everything they do physically and mentally on and off the pitch.

“Greg is one of those guys, and he comes in every day wanting to be better. I think he has been encouraged because he is seeing the fruits of his labour. His performance is continually improving, and I think he has done exceptionally well for us this year, including in the Champions League games. He is only 23, and that is key to us as a football team at the moment.

“I keep saying we want to have growth, and we want to keep improving, the beauty of that is that if you look at our starting line-up, then a lot of the players who played on Wednesday night or who have played so far is that their best years are very much ahead of them. As long as they maintain that mindset of improvement, then who knows what level they can reach? The dangers come when they get comfortable and plateau in a certain space, but Greg is not one of those guys, and since I have been here, he’s really embraced the culture and the environment and wants to be the best footballer he can be.”

Q: There was a lot of praise from your opposite number after the game on Wednesday. I think some people have compared how clinical you have been domestically, such as scoring nine goals against Dundee United and then missing a few chances in Europe. Does that just come with the confidence that you can play at that level?

Ange Postecoglou: “Yeah, it is experience. Not many teams score nine goals at Champions League level. The games, by nature, are tighter, and the chances are sharper. You cannot improve on that unless you are exposed to it. We know there is room for improvement for us.

“We need to take our chances. It is the most difficult part of our game, and the higher the level, the more difficult it gets. It is why the players who take their chances at the highest level are the most profitable assets. They are in a unique space, but it does not mean you cannot strive to get there. I do not see it as a weakness for us. It is more a case of the more we are exposed to it and take up these positions we will then get our rewards.

‘The difficulty is getting into those positions in the first place. It is not easy to do that. We are edging our way to being that team, and the next layer is turning those opportunities into goals. From there, you can turn this into regular victories at this level, but that does not happen with the snap of your fingers.”

Q: Speaking to Greg Taylor there, he was talking about the players always looking to move forward and how they never look back unless it is to improve. Do you think the mindset off the park is just as important as the mindset on the park in terms of what you are trying to build?

Ange Postecoglou: “Yeah, it is really the only bit. Everyone sees the end product, which is the game. They hopefully see us improving as a team performance by performance. However, the real work happens in between that and in training every day.

“Even away from that, how they conduct themselves in their private lives feeds into that. They come in here every day irrespective of what happened in the previous game, looking to be better. That is a mindset thing. You wake up every morning wanting to be a little bit better than the day before, and this will not happen after one good performance.

“Like I said, not just what they do here but at home, the whole life of a footballer, their career is very brief compared to how long they have on this earth. I hope they all have healthy and long lives, but their football career is less than a tenth of that. You have got to invest everything you can for that time you are a footballer to be the best you can be.

“That goes for on and off the field. We try to provide that environment here, so they know the moment they come through those gates, they are answering to me if they are not pushing themselves. When they leave the gates, though, I am not in the car with them or at their house, so it is equally as important they deal with that side for them to fulfil that potential.”

Q: For some of the players who featured in the last two Champions League games, it is their first experience of European football. Do you this season and next, they will gain more experience and confidence at this level, so going forward, we will take the chances we are missing?

Ange Postecoglou: “Unfortunately, the nature of life and football these days is that people have very little patience. They want results immediately. The moment you show a little bit of progress, they want the next development to happen straight away. To be fair to this group of players, they have made unbelievable progress in the last 13 or 14 months.

If you at the fact some of them were not even playing in Europe, some were playing in Asia, and some were playing at League 1 or Championship level. Very few of them had been exposed to this level of football before, so the progress they have made has been outstanding. You then fall into the trap of thinking the next bit of progress is going to happen quickly, but it is a process.

Matt O’Riley controls the ball during the UEFA Champions League group F match between Shakhtar Donetsk and Celtic FC at The Marshall Jozef Pilsudski’s Municipal Stadium of Legia Warsaw on September 14, 2022 in Warsaw, Poland. (Photo by Adam Nurkiewicz/Getty Images)

I want us to be a Champions League football club. That does not mean just getting a result in the group but that every year you are there and every year you get a little bit stronger or become a worthy challenger to get deep into the competition. It takes time, but you cannot fast-track these things. That is the way of the world. Unfortunately, these days, people think if you take your chances, you have conquered this level, but it is not about that. It is about playing the type of football we want to play at that level. If we can do that, then, as I said, the rewards will come when we are worthy.”

Q: Can I ask how you enjoyed your night at Celtic The Musical?

Ange Postecoglou: “Theatre critic? Yeah, five stars. Is that how they judge them? It was a great night. The cast does a great job, and the production behind them is brilliant. It is very much an interactive show, so the punters are just as much a part of the show as the cast. It was an enjoyable night. Everyone was there for a good time. It is great for guys like Kyogo to be there. He has fallen in love with this football club, and he had Welshy (Stephen Welsh) giving him the subtitles during it, so I think he got the gist of it. It is always great to be amongst our supporters, and it is well worth seeing. So there is my review, mate.”

Q: This will be the first domestic game after European football the boys will have faced. Is this something you prefer in the sense that we had such a long break after the Real Madrid game, so is it better to have a smaller window of time between games?

Ange Postecoglou:  “It is not about preference. It is about planning. We had planned for a game last weekend, and our training was geared around that. Obviously, with the game being called off, we had to adjust our plans. We made sure the players were prepared for Wednesday night.

“After the international break, we are going to have a lot of football in a short period of time. We know what we need to do from a training perspective and a recovery perspective if we want to maintain those levels. We know what is ahead and have been planning for it from the beginning of pre-season, and hopefully, that stands us in good stead.”

🗣 "What a night – Superb!"

A night to remember for any #CelticFC fans on the opening night of @Celtic_Musical! 🍀🎶

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— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) September 16, 2022