Have you ever heard a manager categorically state they will stay with their football club? Nope me neither. And there are good reasons for it.
Firstly, why would you ever close the door on future career prospects in a role that has you ‘flying high in April and shot down in May’? And secondly if you haven’t been asked by the club – or in Ange Postecoglou’s case multiple clubs – then just what is there to comment on, other than mainstream media’s self-created headlines plus their wish for clicks to continue for a few more days at least?
Yet for Keith Jackson in the Daily Record, it appears his wish to cut paste and twist the Celtic manager’s words for a few more articles more was cut short by Postecoglou’s week long abstinence from media duties, prior to Celtic’s Scottish Cup win last weekend – to focus on a rare free week of fixtures and use the time wisely on the training ground, rather than anything more controversial – and it’s had him react like a scorned ex-lover!
‘This was Postecoglou’s first chance to deal with all the speculation head on – and to say exactly what the Celtic support wanted to hear. Something along the lines of: “I categorically won’t be leaving” would have done the trick.
‘And yet, deliberately or not, Postecoglou left a huge question mark hanging in the air when he opted to stay locked inside his office instead. The party line is that this had been the plan all along. But even if that is the case and Kennedy really was always pencilled in to handle the front of house ahead of Saturday’s Scottish Cup tie with St Mirren, it all felt a bit like the big boss was ducking out of his duties.’
Actually, Ange Postecoglou ducked nothing of the sort. Instead, his duties were on the training ground that week. And Celtic, offering up John Kennedy as an able deputy is something that has happened in the past – particularly during Scottish Cup weekends. Indeed, what’s the point in having an assistant if they can’t do some of the heavy lifting for you when you want to focus on your team?
And there was plenty of scope for the assembled hacks to question the Celtic boss on anything they liked. After all Big Ange fronted up post-match and spoke to a multitude of media outlets, and whisper it, he even addressed the speculation linking him with other jobs. It’s just he didn’t do it in a way that offered the Scottish fitba mainstream scribes the headlines they were after.
Jackson certainly has the Celtic boss in his cross-hairs at the moment. After all, it was he who questioned whetherPostecoglou was fuelling VAR conspiracy theories recently, when the Celtic manager dared to offer his opinions of VAR. As such you can bet it would be a case of ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ if Postecoglou had taken on Celtic’s media duties in the build-up to Saturday’s impressive 5-1 Scottish Cup fifth round win over St Mirren.
Perhaps if Jackson actually relayed what the Celtic manager said rather than what he wished to report, then Ange Postecoglou might respect him enough return his calls. But Ange is too smart for that lot, and it’s possibly that which pains them more than the Celtic manager’s radio silence.
Still, it’s good to see Ange Postecoglou has got under Jackson’s skin to the point the Record man has chucked a very public hissy fit. Turns out a week off media duties has its advantages.
Niall J
