Kyogo won’t start at Hampden against The Old Firm, Postecoglou confirms

“You give it all but I want more,” might be the lyrics from that old U2 number one that sums up Ange Postecoglou’s demands made of his Celtic players after yesterday’s game and indeed every other game that they’ve played under the Australian Stein – a wee term mentioned on here earlier in the season which resulted in calls of ‘way too soon’…perhaps now though?

After a 7-0 win over St Johnstone yesterday Ange’s attention is already turning to the next game, against theRangers (hilariously now being referred to as The Old Firm by Celtic fans on social media and by a caller on SSB last night, where the reference was completely patched!)

“That’s been our mantra all year, to be better than the week before. That’s what we’ve been building towards,” Ange told the media after the win over St Johnstone, as reported by Scottish Sun. “We have a lot of contributors which means our training levels are at the best they have been.

“We are getting some good weeks into training because there are no midweek games, so those things are in our favour in terms of producing our best football.

“But it’s not like they just roll out there and it just happens. They worked their socks off today.

“When we didn’t have the ball we were determined to get it back. When we do that we have the quality in the team to blow teams away like we did today.”

And on the most welcome return of Kyogo – have you ever seen a reception like that before for a player coming back from an injury lay-off? – Ange had this to say: “I’m pleased for him because he is a great guy. And a super footballer.

“He was so important at the beginning of the year when we really needed somebody to step up. The whole group has watched him work really hard on his own in rehab, so it was great to get him back out there.

“Whenever somebody is out for a significant amount of time you have to be a bit more careful.
I wouldn’t think we will be throwing him in next week. I doubt he’ll start next week.

“But if we can get him some more game time in the next couple of weeks you think he would be ready to go the last three or four games.”

And back to his management mantra, repeating once again that Celtic will never stop. “We needed to start well and like a lot of games we were on top early, but it was good to see us keep going.”

Yesterday Celtic didn’t stop for the entire game and you can see the result of that in the highlights below.

About Author

The Celtic Star founder and editor David Faulds has edited numerous Celtic books over the past decade or so including several from Lisbon Lions, Willie Wallace, Tommy Gemmell and Jim Craig. Earliest Celtic memories include a win over East Fife at Celtic Park and the 4-1 League Cup loss to Partick Thistle as a 6 year old. Best game? Easy 4-2, 1979 when Ten Men Won the League. Email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk

2 Comments

    • You’re missing both the irony and the joke Ady. Celtic fans have been calling the latest Ibrox club Old Firm FC after their recent branding when we pumped them 2-1 in their own midden.