Sports journalists at Daily Record reckon Ange Postecoglou is not quite Manager of the Year material…
Former Celtic striker and now popular TV pundit Chris Sutton revealed on Saturday in his weekly column in the Daily Record that he reckons Ange Postecoglou should win the Manager of the Year award no matter what happens between now and the end of the season.
In the same paper today, in their weekly segment called the ‘Monday Jury’, four of their journalists were asked did they agree with the former England strikers opinion. With the panel consisting of Keith Jackson, David McCarthy, Scott Burns and Gordon Parks the chances of them saying they agreed with Sutton was minimal, but some of the nonsense they came out with was bewildering.
This was the question that was posed to the panel, along with the range of strange answers that followed:
‘Chris Sutton reckons Ange Postecoglou is the manager of the year. Do you agree?’
Keith Jackson: No. Steve Clarke wins this one hands down.
Good start here by Jackson. He’s voting for the Scotland international manager. Is this even possible I think most people would ask but yes in the past one of the three annual ‘manager of the year’ awards, the Scottish Football Writers Association award, has been won by the national team boss, back in the 1989-90 season when Andy Roxburgh won it.
Steve Clarke has done well with Scotland this year to be fair but unless he can navigate the national team past both Ukraine and Wales and make it to the World Cup he won’t have much to show for it. If he did manage to lead Scotland to the World Cup then maybe ‘wins it hands down’ wouldn’t sound like as much of an exaggeration from Jackson, but saying it at this stage when Scotland could potentially end up with nothing and Ange potentially a treble is just silly.
David McCarthy: Well, if Giovanni van Bronckhorst were to win the Europa League, he’d have a serious claim! Dick Campbell’s incredible season with Arbroath can’t be overlooked either. But Ange has produced wonders at Celtic and is definitely in with a shout but until the prizes are handed out, I’m looking for a fence to sit on.
On to McCarthy now who has decided to sit on the fence. He does at least say Ange is in with a shout but also mentions that if Gio Van Bronckhorst wins the Europa League, then he has serious claims. Not going to happen David.
Scott Burns: I can see merit in Chris’s point but if Giovanni van Bronckhorst wins the title and the Europa League then how could you give it to Postecoglou?
Next up and Scott Burns who is also fantasising about Gio Van Bronckhorst, but goes one step further saying he will have it in the bag if he wins the title in Scotland and the Europa League. Why not add the Scottish Cup too there Scott? At this rate Gio is going to have a statue at Ibrox as well as his manager of the year award.
Gordon Parks: Robbie Neilson at Hearts and David Martindale at Livingston have had remarkable seasons and when you add the budget factor then there’s a case for both being stronger candidates than Postecoglou. He’s had a fortune to spend in comparison and there needs to be more credit given to managers achieving on a shoestring.
So now on to Gordon Parks who thinks because of the budget Ange has had to spend then he doesn’t deserve as much credit as others. He thinks more credit should be given to managers achieving things on a shoestring. I hope he was disgusting then when Callum Davidson was overlooked last year after claiming two domestic cups in favour of Steven Gerrard who only won the one. Somehow I doubt it.
When I came across this today I genuinely laughed. I wasn’t surprised that none of them wanted to give Ange Postecoglou the credit he deserves, but the way they try to justify it is comical. Chris Sutton is of course correct. The Celtic manager should definitely be manager of the year. He has taken a club that had an absolute disaster last season, ending 25 points adrift of theRangers and incredibly turned it around almost instantly.
Not only did he have to pick the club up off the floor but he had to do it without the help of some of the best players at Parkhead during the previous few years. He also brought no staff with him and had the upheaval of losing Dom McKay shortly into his reign.
As he got rid of ‘the wantaways’ on top of the deadwood that had been hanging around the club for too long, he had to try and integrate 12 new signings into his squad. Many looked at the project and assumed this season would be beyond the Australian as he tried to bond together this new team while also demanding that they get used to a completely new style of play under his management.
Unbelievably he has been able to do this while remaining in the hunt for all three domestic trophies, with one already in the bag, another at the semi final stage and his team currently 3 points clear in the league.
I genuinely can’t think of any previous manager who deserved the manager of the year trophy as much. Yes Brendan Rodgers when he led the invincibles during that special season but he had taken over a team who were already proven winners and settled as a squad. The tweaks he implemented were minor compared to the job Ange Postecoglou has had on his hands since the summer.
I’m sure if Ange can end the season with Celtic claiming all three trophies he’ll not care one jot if the Scottish press still thinks he’s undeserving of a personal award.
Conall McGinty
