Ange Postecoglou doesn’t give much away but you can tell Hearts manager Robbie Neilson isn’t exactly his favourite Scottish Premiership manager. Last month Ange was as sharp as a tack in his response, after a frustrated and hurting Hearts manager claimed his side weren’t beaten by the Hoops but by ‘poor decisions from the officials’.
That was after Celtic’s 1-0 win at Celtic Park in December, where apparently Kyogo was in an offside position when an Anthony Ralston’s cross found the Japanese striker who scored with winner – you know the game where former Hearts skipper Christophe Berra told the watching millions the goal was onside, Kris Boyd had an on-air meltdown, and soon after the SFA Head of Refereeing Crawford Allan popped onto BBC Sportsound to, shall we say give his tuppence worth?
“That’s the galling thing,” Neilson told the BBC. “They work so hard, we get in the game with good chances, and then they don’t get the right decision and we have to take the consequences.”
That led to the infamous post-match interview between Ange and the BBC’s Jane Lewis where Ange tore the Hearts manager a new one.
Lewis: The Hearts manager says that his team weren’t beaten by your players this evening, they were beaten by the referee. He thinks that Kyogo was offside for the goal, I don’t know if you’ve seen it again. Do you have any thoughts on that?
Postecoglou: Well that means the referee is on three points, I mean he’s still bottom of the table, isn’t he?
Lewis: You can understand his frustration though, this is a massive game, no?
Postecoglou: No, I can’t. If anyone thinks the referee decided that game, they’re watching a different game than I am.
Lewis: I think what he meant was, that was a key decision.
Postecoglou: Well, there’s plenty of key decisions in the game. What I said was that we probably should’ve won by more and that’s my analysis. He has his analysis. He can communicate it the way he wants, I’m communicating the way I want, so that’s my view on it.
Short sharp and to the point from Ange at the time, and fast forward to today and Ange is back having to defend himself again as Robbie Neilson is quoted by Football Scotland as having as much to say about Celtic as he has his own team.
“They have a huge squad and resources where they can buy players for £4million and £5million. We have to try and find gems in the market and then try to keep them together.
“We are trying to keep continuity within the group and we have managed to get the majority of our out-of-contract players signed up. We have one or two more who we want to keep as well. We are getting closer but there is still a long way to go.
“Celtic probably have 30 top players. We run with a squad of about 16. If we have a number of injuries it makes it difficult but Celtic can bring in a number of good players.
“If Abada goes out, Forrest comes in and they don’t change formation. We just work towards that and deal with whoever turns up on the night.”
It’s probably not the best of weeks to raise squad issues with Ange Postecoglou, given the serious injuries picked up by Callum McGregor and Yosuke Ideguchi in Saturday’s fourth round Scottish Cup win over Alloa Athletic, and much like the last time Robbie Neilson strayed into territory it’s best to avoid, Ange once again to all intents and purposes told the Jambos boss where he can stick his opinions on Postecoglou’s squad at his pre-match press conference today
“Big squads only work when everyone is available. There is no manager who will tell you they want a big squad because they want to be able to call on players because of absences. They want a big squad to use that squad to maximum effect on a consistent basis.
“The reality of it is we haven’t been able to. We’ve had to play players repeatedly and it’s why we struggled in the first half of the year with having a settled team. The workload fell on too few, so hopefully moving forward that situation improves and we can navigate the fixture schedule which you also have to not.
“Our fixture schedule is a little bit different from other clubs. So other managers commenting on the squad I’ve got and so forth need to take into account the bigger picture.”
Robbie Neilson is rarely short of an opinion or two it would seem when it comes to Celtic, but given twice now he’s raised his head above the parapet and been shot down by the Celtic manager, it would take a brave man or a fool to return for a third time, wouldn’t it?
Niall J
The irony in this article lost on you?
Hearts obsessed Celtic rag has pop at opposition for daring to make a comment about a refereeing decision. Pot calling kettle black.
You should read what opposition says about Rangers and their refereeing decisions.
Paranoia is treatable apparently. Apply to your nearest shrink.
Don’t worry Neilson will come back for more ,his ego won’t allow him to do anything else.