John Hartson isn’t too proud to admit he got it wrong when it came to the appointment of Ange Postecoglou. Now the former Celtic striker and current TV pundit, believes a title win for a Celtic side who lie three points clear and with a further eleven goal advantage over theRangers, with just eight league games left to play, would be a title win on a par with Celtic’s 1998 season under Wim Jansen, when the Hoops stopped the 10.
And as reported by Football Scotland, ahead of Celtic’s Scottish Cup Quarter final visit to Tannadice, Hartson admits to his own ‘ignorance’ of a manager who now has the Celtic support ‘in the palm of his hand’ and he’s happy to eat his words.
“I was one of the ignorant ones. I said I don’t think he’s a big enough name and I’m not alone in that. A lot of people said ‘who is he?’, ‘what’s he done?’. Boy has he not surprised everybody. He’s stood up.
“He’s very enthusiastic and knows how he wants to play and has the crowd in the palm of his hand right now. I said earlier in the season on a radio show that if Ange was to win this league, when you think of what he came into.”
“These guys have come in and hit the ground running. When you’re a young lad coming from Benfica, a young Israeli international coming to a club like Celtic it can take a bit of time and it would be an incredible achievement. They’ve got their foot on the gas and it looks like they’ll keep going. They’re hungry and you can see it in their general play.”
“It would be a remarkable achievement. I know people talk about ’98 stopping the 10. That was a magnificent achievement. This would be right up there.”
When you consider the squad turnaround and the job of work Ange Postecoglou had to carry out, comparisons with Wim Jansen’s season that stopped Rangers reaching ten-in-a-row is probably a fair one. Jansen had to find replacements for the likes of Jorge Cadete and Paulo di Canio and Pierre van Hoojdonk had also left prior to the end of the previous season, as well as contending with the retiral of club legend Paul McStay.
And much like Postecoglou this campaign, Jansen also had a slow start to the 97/98 season. Both then benefited from the lifting of the League Cup instilling confidence in the new group of players, before kicking on with consistent league form to boot.
Jansen of course staked his claim in Celtic folklore with that scarcely believable title win, and now Postecoglou has that job to finish to ensure Hartson’s comparisons stand up to scrutiny.
John Hartson however certainly feels Ange Postecoglou can do just that and few within the Celtic support would disagree with his assessment – even if it did take him a bit of time arrive at his conclusion.
Niall J
