Chris Sutton, writing in his Daily Record column this morning admits no-one, including himself, gave Ange Postecoglou a hope of turning around Celtic’s fortunes this season and for that reason the former Celtic striker feels, whether Postecoglou maintains his course and wins the Scottish Premiership title or not, the Celtic boss deserves the manager of the year award right now.
“Ange Postecoglou is the Manager of the Year. That’s regardless of what happens between now and the end of the season. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no point in even starting the voting. Postecoglou’s work at Celtic makes him the outstanding candidate and you’d be as well just handing him the award right now.”
Of course, there will be those who will despair at Sutton’s comments, after all the season has some way to go and such statements may seem a tad premature, but even without a league title won, or a Scottish Cup added to the trophy pile just look at the job the manager has done.
Postecoglou arrived on his own, late to the party with little time to prepare, and inherited a staff and a club bereft of confidence and he lifted them up. He walked into a dressing room, shocked at the fallout from the season before that had previously been propped up by loan signings and with confidence on the floor.
He had a changing room of key players who wanted to be almost anywhere bar Celtic and he shrugged his shoulders and said ‘stay if you want, if you don’t then go’ and a great deal did. A team who finished 25 points behind their rivals and had meekly surrendered a 10-in-a-row season was rebuilt and the summer window saw 12 new recruits arrive and a further four in the January window.
The season started with signs of improvement but early points dropped, including a Glasgow Derby defeat had the learned press awarding the title to theRangers by October. Now Celtic are 31 domestic games unbeaten, lie three points clear and heading back to Ibrox for a game where a win would all but secure a league title. Meanwhile the only domestic trophy, the League Cup, lies in in the Parkhead trophy room.
And since Boxing Day the manager has also had to contend with his most expensive signing, top goalscorer and talisman being sidelined by injury, one of a spate of serious injuries that have blighted the manager’s efforts, but still Celtic sit top. There really is no contest.
As Sutton points out theRangers may well claim a Europa League win would trump it all and change the vote, but would it really, and is it even likely? Rivalry aside the European run has been impressive but if it doesn’t stop with Braga, it will with Leipzig and reaching a semi-final in Europe’s secondary tournament doesn’t come close to the turnaround in fortunes Postecoglou has overseen.
Yes, theRangers lost a manager but what Postecoglou inherited in comparison to what Van Bronckhorst took over doesn’t compare. As Sutton points out ‘having been so far ahead last term, this season should have been an open goal for theRangers. Postecoglou took over Del Trotter’s three-wheeler while van Bronckhorst was grabbing hold of a Lamborghini.’
There are of course strong cases to be made for Neilson at Hearts and Mackay at Ross County but in terms of a rebuilding job neither bears comparison to the job of work Postecoglou took on and nigh on completed in six months, when even the most optimistic of estimates would have put the reconstruction at the two-year mark.
Whether Celtic win this title or not, the job Ange Postecoglou has done is nothing short of miraculous and Chris Sutton is quite right, win or lose there is simply no other genuine contender for manager of the year, few fair-minded folk would even consider handing the award to anyone else.
Niall J
