Celtic of course are used to winning trophies and know a winner when we see one. No-one wanted Ange Postecoglou to leave Celtic after his five from six trophy haul in the two seasons before Tottenham came calling. Winning the Europa League delivers (yet another) Champions League place for England so either Spurs of Manchester United are going to benefit hugely from winning that Europa League final.
Ange won’t make the same mistake twice
Maybe Ange will be thinking about other things tonight. Not many teams embarrassed him during his time at Celtic but Bodo Glimt certainly did. Joe Hart last week admitted that Celtic underestimated the Norwegians, Ange won’t make the same mistake twice.
Ange Postecoglou, Manager of Tottenham Hotspur, talks during a press conference ahead of their UEFA Europe League 2024/25 semi final second leg match against FK Bodo/Glimt at Aspmyra Stadion on May 07, 2025 in Bodo, Norway. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
When Celtic was there on a freezing February night in 2022 (Matt Corr was at the game and wrote one of his brilliant European diaries which we’ll feature next on The Celtic Star) Ange decided against braving the elements the night before to train on their plastic pitch.
Kilmarnock and Livingston, so why bother?
The logic would have been that Celtic were used to these horrible surfaces playing at both Kilmarnock and Livingston, so why bother?
Not this time. Tottenham were out there last night to sample its delights and probably to scratch their heads and think ‘this is how the other half live’. It’s a long way from the lush Premier League surfaces that they are used to. They should try it in February when it’s icing over!
Speaking at his pre-match media conference, Ange explained why he’s changed his mind on training on the pitch the night before the game:
“No, it was different circumstances and a different scenario with Celtic. Tonight was more about we’ve done this, we did it at Frankfurt, we’ve done it consistently in Europe and I just feel it works better for us and the players are used to training the night before at the venue. So it made sense to do that this year.”
Matt Corr’s Diary from Bodo Glimt versus Celtic coming next on The Celtic Star, it sure beats one outlet repeating the news and multiple sites then doing the same to proclaim that Olympiacos don”t want to sign Luis Palma from Celtic for £3.5m after his unsuccessful loan spell at the Greek Champions.
So Luis Palma will be back at Celtic in the summer unless his agent sorts out a move elsewhere, which he is probably trying very hard to do.
Luis Palma in action for Olympiacos in action during the UEFA Europa League round of 16, 2nd leg soccer match between Olympiacos and Bodo/Glimt held at Stadium Georgios Karaiskakis in Piraeus, Greece, 13 March 2025. Photo One Inch Productions
Of course Palma still has three years left on his current deal at Celtic, he was signed in that summer when Ange was leaving and Brendan was coming in and the recruitment team in place bought as many £3m players as they could find, signing them all up on five year deals. How did that work out?
Best of luck tonight Ange.
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