When Dermot Desmond popped up with his unannouced interview on Celtic TV earlier this year, he talked about the role that he played in interviewing Ange Postecoglou on the recommendation of Peter Lawwell, who in turn was convinced of Ange’s merits via conversations with his son Mark.
Dermot Desmond told us that he’d asked Ange about coming to Celtic as a long term project and would not jump at the first offer that would inevitably come his way if he was a successful Celtic manager. That bitter experience with Brendan Rodgers may well have motivated the Irish Billionaire’s question to the job interviewee.
Ange gave Dermot Dermond to answer he wanted to hear and we have recently entered the period where that answer is significant. To be fair to Ange he has shown little or no interest in the links with the likes of Brighton and Leicester City and the latest one with Liverpool for some time in the future.
So having already asked Ange about seeing out his chipping away plan in the Champions League that is going to take time, our second question was on his relationship with Michael Nicholson but more specifically Dermot Desmond, Celtic’s largest shareholder.
Here’s how that conversation went at the Celtic Media Conference earlier today…
The Celtic Star: You’ve got a very good working relationship with Michael Nicholson. Is that the same with Dermot Desmond and how often do you speak to him?
Ange Postecoglou: “Yes, I have got a very good relationship with Michael, I’ve got a great relationship with everyone at the football club, including Iain Jamieson, we survived the trip to Oz together.
“I think that it is important. I understand that I’m kind of the frontman and I’m the person that every week is rolled out as a spokesman for the club. That’s not an indication of why we have been so successful since I have been involved.
“We’ve been successful because the whole club is pulling in the same direction, that’s Michael and his management team, that’s Board level, that’s the staff that I have here (at Lenoxtown) and yes, that includes Dermot.
“I’ve got a great relationship with Dermot. He was the first person that I spoke to when I first interviewed for the role and the one thing about him, he’s very supportive. He’s said to me at the outset, he’ll only call me after we’ve had a loss so I haven’t spoken to him for a year!
So we’ve had a good chat (after the St Mirren game)!
“He’s been very good, very supportive. Like I said, the whole club is. And I think people would see evidence of that in that there’s a real whole-club purpose in what we are doing. At the moment there aren’t too many distractions that are taking up or we are allowing to take us away from where our focus is.
“That can only happen if everyone is on the same page. As the manager of the club I couldn’t be any happier with the support I’ve been getting from all levels.”
Here’s today’s Media Conference in full…
There were also some words from Ange today at the end of the Media Conference on Jock Stein’s legacy as the club gets ready to pay tribute to our legendary manager tomorrow on the 100th anniversary of his birth. The Celtic Star’s tribute comes in the form of David Potter’s new book which is titled The Celtic Rising ~ 1965: The Year Jock Stein Changed Everything and this is available to pre-order now (link below) with the book coming out on Friday 4 November.
