Ange Postecoglou told BBC Scotland’s Chris McLaughlin earlier this week that he had no intention of bursting the Celtic supporters’ bubbles ahead of the Champions League opener against Real Madrid. And as world football marvelled at the incredible backing given to the Celtic manager and his players, even when trailing the Champions of Europe by three goals, it was clear that even then those bubbles remained very much intact, and maybe even enhanced.
Yesterday Chelea parted company with their manager Thomas Tuchel, after allowing him to spend £300m in the summer transfer window. The German apparently received a pay-off of around £13m, which was near enough the same sum of money that Ange Postecoglou had to spend in the transfer market this summer.
Chelsea had an immediate approach to Brighton for their manager Graham Potter, and with the release clause in his contract met, he was given permission to travel up to London to speak to the Stamford Bridge club. Potter’s talks with Chelsea owner Todd Boehly seem to have gone well and a verbal agreement has now been reached for Potter to replace Tuchel as Chelsea manager.
That leaves a vacancy at Brighton, who are currently sitting in fourth spot in the Premier League, just ahead of Manchester United. The Seagulls of course hammered Leicester City, managed by the former Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers, 5-2 at the weekend, and Potter has them playing attactive football that is getting results and had earned their manager a massive jump in being offered the Chelsea job.
That bring us back to bursting the Celtic support’s collective bubble and while Ange Postecoglou has no intention of doing that, there’s no such reluctance elsewhere. There is an article in one of the tabloids today, which is paid for and generated by a betting firm, that makes Ange Postecoglou favourite for the Brighton job. Bookies do this all the time, it generates free publicity (although in this case they are paying for it to get the ball rolling) and everyone starts talking about it, with the media all over it.
They ‘create’ a market by mentioning half a dozen possible candidates and each one will have their own particular demongraphic that will be interested in a story linking their manager, or former manager, with the vacant Brighton job.
In the case of including Ange Postecoglou’s name, the timing is perfect for them, as his Celtic side performed so well against the Champions of Europe Real Madrid in the Champions League this week. The story will be picked up be the Scottish media, Celtic fan media sites and reported prominently in both Japan and Australia. In England it will be featured, especially around media targeting Brighton’s small fanbase.
And the same thing will happen around all the other names on this list, Ange is 5/1, Kjetil Knutsen 6/1, Thomas Frank 7/1, Nathan Jones 9/1, Bruno 10/1, Mauricio Pochettino 12/1, Sean Dacha 16/1, Scott Parker 16/ and Thomas Tuchel 25/1. It’s all done on the back of a fag packet but it’s ectremely effective.
Ange Postecoglou will be linked with managerial jobs in the Premier League and I’m sure will eventually go down south but he’s only just got started at Celtic and he’s building something special. He certainly wouldn’t downgrade to a club Brighton’s size just yet… why would he?
— Chris Sutton (@chris_sutton73) September 7, 2022
Pundits like Chris Sutton will get involved, he already has as you can see above, to dismiss the notion out of hand and will upset a few Seagulls face in the process as they’ll regard the former Celtic striker’s comments as insulting.
There will come a time when Ange Postecoglou no longer is the Celtic manager but it is hard to believe we are anywhere near that point. When Dermot Desmond popped up for his most recent interview on Celtic TV he talked about the recruitment process for the Australian as the next manager of Celtic. The Irish billionaire admitted he had no prior knowledge of Postecoglou but when Eddie Howe walked away from the opportunity, he listened to what Peter Lawwell was saying (on the back of what his son, Mark had told him) about Ange and Celtic’s main decision maker decided to hold a Zoom interview with the then manager of Yokohama Marinos.
🍀⚪️ #CelticFC’s principal shareholder, Dermot Desmond, today responded to a number of questions and issues raised by supporters in an exclusive interview with the official Celtic website ⬇️
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) March 23, 2021
There, Desmond asked Postecoglou about his intentions to remain at Celtic for the longer term, and if he was one of those managers who packed his bags and headed south on hearing the first offer to come his way.
No-one is particularly interested in a faltering football manager and clearly as Celtic manager you have to be successful or you won’t last long. But with success comes the inevitable links to other vacancies and it’s actually rather suprising that it’s taken so long for this to happen.
Celtic supporters hang on every word Ange says, and through his media conferences have really got to know him as a person. Few if any will have any doubts about his sincerity and having dreamed of the thrill of taking his team into the Champions League he is hardly likely to walk away from that for the Brighton job.
The money on offer down south is mind-boggling, as you can see by the pay-off Tuchel is getting from Chelsea, but it’s more than money that motivates Ange Postecoglou. Managing a big club, winning trophies, re-establishing Celtic as a force in the Champions League, that’s where his motovation lies.
Post-match on Tuesday night there was real emotion in his voice, probably the first time we’ve heard that over the hundreds of interviews we hae heard him give before and after matches. The Celtic support the other night loudly chanted ‘Ange Postecoglou’ in the closing stages and that backing did not go unnoticed. The players all recognised and appreciated it too.
So no disrespect to Brighton, but that is hardly a job that is going to give Ange what he has craved for many years, and which he is now getting in bucketloads at Paradise.
Ange is going nowhere, at Celtic’s he’s got bigger fish to fry.
