Ange Postecoglou was last night named as the Scottish Football Writers’ Manager of the Year, yes that’s the one voted for by the mainstream media hacks some of who reckoned the Celtic manager would have been heading for the departure lounge at Glasgow Airport heading back to Australia with his tail between his legs after seeing Celtic drop to become a mid table team this year.
Remember these were the mob who were calling the league back in September after Celtic lost a third consecutive away match in the league to drop to 6th spot in the table.
Ange will receive his award at a dinner this evening after seeing off challenges from Steve Clarke, Robbie Neilson, Malky Mackay and Dick Campbell.
🚨 BREAKING!#CelticFC boss Ange Postecoglou wins SFWA Manager of the Year for 2022. pic.twitter.com/Hlu9abDnwc
— PLZ Soccer (@PLZSoccer) May 8, 2022
Ange was photographed with the signage for the award outside at Lennoxtown a few days ago with the result just being announced last night. “I’m enjoying it, but at this club I’ve just scratched the surface,” Ange told the SFWA as reported by Scottish Sun. “It’s the first year of us trying to build something special. I love the challenge. I don’t coach my best if I get comfortable. I love that little bit of the unknown, it brings out the best of me.
“If my competitive juices are flowing and I can see something special being built, I don’t get agitated about doing something else. The endgame for me was always to build a team people talk about long after I’m gone. For the most part that’s happened at my clubs.”
Ange also spoke about his period in isolation after arriving in Covid-hit Britain and how he used that time to plot a course for Celtic this season. “I had a week of isolation where I could exorcise all my demons and any doubts I had in terms of the enormity of the job. I knew I had no time to waste. There wasn’t a time where I could sit back and take in the landscape of what we needed to do.
“As soon as I got appointed — even when I was still in Japan — I’d started mapping out the steps we had to take. The blueprint was there but putting that into practice was going to be the challenging bit. There was no time to switch off, there was too much to do and I was well-aware of that.
“I knew the enormity of the task, I was confident we could build something but at the same time my feeling was we couldn’t go 12 months without some sort of success. I could’ve said, ‘This is going to be a re-building year’ and for the most part people would’ve understood that if we were competitive.
“But my thinking was I had to make sure we gave ourselves a chance of success this year in one form or another. That would give me the opportunity to build what I want to build and gain the trust and confidence of the people in the club who support it.”
READ THIS…Sandman’s Definitive Ratings – Celtic v Sorcerers’ Apprentices
🚨 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗲 𝗔𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗲
The Bhoys hit four and break some Hearts! 💔
A fantastic atmosphere in Paradise! 🍀#CELHEA | #cinchPrem | #COYBIG pic.twitter.com/OmTxdOWUEc
— Celtic TV (@CelticTV) May 8, 2022
David Potter’s new book, Putting on the Style, a biography of Celtic legend Willie Fernie is out next week, thanks to everyone who has pre-ordered and your copy will be posted out as soon as the lorry arrives. If you would like to order your copy please use the link provided below.
