It appears either Bodo/Glimt manager Kjetil Knutsen believes Norway has the monopoly on wintry weather conditions or he’s a broken record when it comes to repetitive messaging regarding the freezing conditions Celtic will face in their Europa Conference league second leg this evening.
He’s been at it again today, as reported by Football Scotland, Knutsen tries to paint a bleak picture of the playing conditions for Celtic players but it appears Ange Postecoglou is having none of it.
“The weather will be awful. It’s really cold and windy. The most extreme? Yeah, yeah – ever. For us it’s normal. It is winter in Bodo, so for us it is normal. But to play football in Bodo in February that is special for many teams and players.”
Ange was quick to dismiss the impact of the conditions and with it ensure Knutsen was put on notice as the manager headed straight for the word ‘mate’ to ensure passive aggressive was the tone taken in his response to Knutsen’s weather report.
“Nah mate, we’ll be all right. People get a little bit carried away with this type of stuff. Trust me, I was involved with the national team mate and we went from playing in zero degrees to 45 degrees humidity in the Middle East in 24 hours, so I know all about it.
“From our perspective, we’ll make sure our players are ready to perform. It’s not about anything that extreme, we don’t have to go to altitude or anything. It’s just conditions we need to deal with – and we will. There are no easy solutions.
“Us flying there today and having a session on their pitch is going to make absolutely zero difference. Us being here, getting a good training session with the boys, getting them prepared for a difficult game tomorrow, is much more important to me.
“It’s always a challenge with different conditions and with the pitch being artificial, all those things come into it.
“Like everything else it’s stuff we need to deal with and at the end of the day it’s all about how we perform and make sure that we don’t allow any other factors to stop us from playing the type of football we want to play.
“That will be part of the process.”
It appears Celtic have left a snow-covered Scotland today and simply exchanged it for a similar experience in Norway, as such it won’t exactly be a huge task for the Hoops to acclimatise to their footballing environment this evening.
Instead, the Hoops biggest concern will be overturning the two goal Deficit opponents Bodo-Glimt built up seven days ago, and given the mind games from Kjetil Knutsen regarding the weather, perhaps he’s not as confident in his own team’s abilities to see that out tonight. Perhaps instead Knutsen knows this tie is far from over, and it seems Ange Postecoglou agrees on that at least.
Niall J
