Here’s everything that was said at today’s Media Conference with Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou ahead of Sunday’s early kick-off at FirPark where a win will see Celtic extend our lead at the topi of the cinch Premiership to four points. We’ve separated the Mainstream Media questions from the Celtic Fan Media questions and you’ll notice that the answers to the supporters are much longer and also more informative that the way that the manager answers the questions from the hacks. And watch how Ange’s answers to the Celtic Fan Media questions makes the news in the mainstream media over the next 24 hours…
How was the other night as an experience for you as you seemed to enjoy it with the fans afterwards and you do have a special bond with the Celtic supporters? The whole night was pretty special from the moment we walked out. You could just feel the energy in the stadium and how our supporters were getting behind the team. The performance of the boys was worthy of that support. I took my time acknowledging the after the game as I felt it was important we did that. I realised, in the end, I took too long as I was the only one out there and I had to run off pretty quickly as I was a bit embarrassed by it. We were walking around and the supporters were still there and none of them had left early. I wanted to take in the experience myself as I realise it was a special night and you want to store it somewhere in your memory bank which can be recalled in your old retiring years.
Is it possible to maintain those levels that the players reached against (the)Rangers for the remainder of the season? Why not? You go through the whole season trying to continually create new benchmarks and new levels for yourself. That is the constant message and theme. We have never set out a clear goal in our mind as the kind of team we want to be. We leave that kind of hanging to see where it takes us. When you set down a marker against a good opponent it shows you that can play at that level. That’s what we should be thinking moving forward and also improving on it.
Can I ask about the squad after theRangers game – how have they all come through it? They are all fine. There are no issues. We had a couple of little niggly ones with some of the boys who were starting but they were okay. We’ll get Niro (Bitton) back from suspension and Tommy Rogic and Daizen (Maeda) are fully available to us now.
Will Tom get a break before being put straight back into the squad to face Motherwell? We don’t do breaks during the year he will get a break at the end of the season like everyone else. He’s back and he’s raring to play.
There is a real bond among the players, you are an important part of that, what do you do and why is it so successful and evident? I always believe that environment and culture is driven by people and not me trying to enforce conditions on how the players should be. If you get the right people in that kind of drives itself. I am really big on everyone in this building being respectful of one another and being good people – there is nothing wrong with that. In life we all grow up with intentions of being the best people we can be and that is what we strive for and I expect that here. Within that context, people will make mistakes in that family and some will step out of line but if you have the right people then it gets addressed straight away.
It is led by Callum (McGregor) who is our experienced leader and he has good people alongside him. The environment is driven by them. They come in every day and I am not in the dressing room. They hardly see me during the day apart from training and so forth and it is what they want it to be. You are quicker to get to success if there is a common bond between them.
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A result and performance like Wednesday night brings a boost within the squad, is there a fine line between you encouraging that and as a manager having to taper that as well? I haven’t sensed the boost or a change in approach from anybody. Pretty quickly after the game – whilst we were delighted with the way it went – players got into recovery mode and we were getting ready for the next challenge. Again that comes back to people. The end goal was never to be on top in February but on top when it counts.
All Wednesday night did was push us closer to that goal but we are not there yet. There is nothing to suggest that mindsets or approaches should change. The boost we got was that we got three points, we played well and gave ourselves a chance in the next contest beyond that there has been nothing to suggest that we have to address anything.
A very different environment and opposition on Sunday, is your message to the players to approach it in the same way? That’s what we have been doing and that’s what has got us into this space. We have not got here because of one performance or one set of conditions and we have had to battle on our way since the start of the season. Sunday will be a tough game as Motherwell are a good side and they have ambitions to stay in the top half of the table they will test us out and that is what we have been doing from day one. I haven’t come in and felt that I need to address some sort of shift in attitude around the place. What we did the other night is what we have been doing for quite a while now and overcoming whatever challenge is put before us.
