Celtic usually look to take care of contractual matters with players already at the club after the summer transfer window closes and that looks like being the case once again this season with the New manager Ange Postecoglou keen to get Callum McGregor’s signature on a contract extension that will reward the Celtic captain for his loyalty and his outstanding leadership and contribution on the park.
Under Postecoglou McGregor has been outstanding and having appointed the midfielder as the skipper to replace Scott Brown, the Australian gaffer is obviously very keen to made his relationship with the Scotland midfielder one for the long term as the re-building job Postecoglou is doing at the club progresses.
“We will start addressing those sorts of things now that we’ve got through the transfer window,” Ange told the media last week, as reported by Scottish Sun. “We’ve not really worked on anything else while that was going on. But now we’ll work on players whose contracts are current and see what we need to do there.
“I’ve no doubt Cal’s going to be an important and pivotal figure in this football club for the next few years and the club will respect his position. We’ll also start working on the structure off the field, in terms of our staffing and how we do things, which is good.
“I want to build something that is going to be sustainable for the club to be successful. It’s going to take a little time but we are chipping away at it.”
Postecoglou and Dom McKay were brought in to transform the club after what was a collapse last season. Peter Lawwell stepped down, Neil Lennon ‘resigned’ (six months too late, failing to see the writing on the wall) and it appeared that the Winds of Change were about to sweep through Celtic.
Yet McKay lasted just 72 days before being removed and the old Lawellian tactics of briefing against someone on the wrong side of the stale Celtic boardroom to friendly hacks and compliant bloggers returned with a bang last weekend.
We’re now left hanging on to Ange Postecoglou who has proved himself to be an outstanding appointment – credit where it is due (to whoever) and all that. Yet in the background he still has to work with the hand (of Lawwell) picked backroom staff – and Celtic’s defending still remains as suspect as it was last season.
Ange needs to get McGregor’s signature on that new contract and he also needs to bring in his own people, professionals who know exactly the way the Celtic manager wants his football department to operate.
Meanwhile a week after being appointed as the Interim CEO and being elevated to the Boardroom at Celtic Plc Michael Nicholson has said absolutely nothing, not a single word publicly about his vision for the club and how he plans to operate. And because that’s what we all expected anyway no-one seems to be making too much of an issue about this slant treatment for the Celtic interim CEO…
Dont think its the worst plastic pitch and do realise the ramifications of lesser clubs using them but they should not be allowed in the top tier of Scottish football.Surely in this present day all top teams in the SPL should have grass pitches to make it a level playing field,unfortunately since their instalation they do not seem to have improved any and if anything have deteriated.