Ange Postecoglou, asked if John Kennedy and Gavin Strachan would be retained as part of his coaching staff for this season was very clear in his response when asked by the MSM at the club’s summer training base in Newport, South Wales ahead of today’s second friendly of the week, this time against Charlton Athletic.
“I never thought otherwise,” the Celtic manager said yesterday, as reported by Daily Record. “My history is if there’s good people in the building then there’s no reason to change it. So far all the staff have been excellent and have embraced where we want to go to.
“I will back my judgement in all these things. I take responsibility at the end of the day. We need to add to our staff for sure. We will be bringing in people at the appropriate time. Not necessarily in the coaching area but there’s other areas we need to bolster.”
On the question of a replacement for Scott Brown as Celtic captain Postecoglou stated that he’s still considering the situation but will factor in the requirement of selecting a leader on the park who fully understands the traditions at the club, and it would be hard to see past Callum McGregor getting the arm-band. Maybe the club are looking at a contract extension and a pay-rise to reward McGregor for his loyalty and to ensure that he’s fully committed for the long term, as appears to be the case? That would certainly make sense.
“It’s always important. Whoever your leader is it has to be someone with similar ideals, values and beliefs that I have,” Ange explained. “With Scott Brown leaving it’s obviously a massive gap there. I will sit down with some good experienced players who have been here for quite a while and get their thoughts.
“Then I’ll see how they are round the place and make the decision.
“Scott Brown epitomised that. Someone who puts the club and its values above all else and drives those things. That’s not new – they have stood the test of time for over 100 years.
“Somebody who understands what it means to pull on the Celtic shirt and it’s history and traditions will be the person most suitable to the role.”
Yesterday at the Celtic Fan Media Conference (apologies for the sound problems on the fans questions) The Celtic Star asked new Bhoys Liam Shaw and Osaze Urhoghide about their initial impressions on working with John Kennedy, Gavin Strachan and Stephen McManus in pre-season training.
You can ‘listen’ to the questions from numerous fan media sites, podcasts and fanzines below.
On the sound problems, I just posted this on a thread on Celtic Noise..
The girl from Celtic was off on holiday last week , she just got back and took a flight down to Bristol to get to the training camp to do the fan media conference. It was delayed because she got stuck in traffic down there. She arrived just as the the conference, already pushed back by an hour was due to start. She’s seen right at the start setting up the players. When these events happen at Lennoxtown or Celtic Park as is usually the case, the sound is usually not a problem. It was clear that the players were struggling to hear some of the questions. Could have been easier to patch this completely and just report on some of the answers from the two new lads but for me the significance is that Celtic are engaging with the fan media and going to considerable trouble to do so.
During the week there was a story and an Australian agent who said that as far as he was aware Ange wasn’t allowed to bring in his own coaching staff but had to work with the ones he had inherited (thus my question). Given what the manager and the CEO told the fan media previously I wrote about this on The Star saying that what this guy was saying is nothing to be concerned about, as Ange is reviewing everyone (clean slate ) and has the freedom and authority to make whatever changes he requires. Two sites (Celtic Blog and Celts Are Here) asked Celtic to comment on the agent’s story and the club told them it was a lot of nonsense, referring both sites back to what was said on 25 June.
So there was no mischief, no hot air, no controversy – Celtic and fan media working together to INFORM the support of the actual situation. Events like yesterday gave the two players the chance to speak to a bunch of Celtic Supporters. And the hacks hate it so much it’s well worth doing!
While those two clowns remain on the coaching staff I won’t be returning.
Fans need to vote with their feet it’s the only way big business will understand.. Hit them in the pocket