Ange Postecoglou received some well deserved praise this morning on the first anniversary of his appointment as Celtic manager, from his former boss at City Football Group. Brian Marwood, the Managing Director of Global Football at City Football Group told Australian media outlet KeepUp that he is “immensely proud” at what the former manager at Yokohama F.Marinos has achieved in his first year in Glasgow.
He also talked about the great working relationship which helped bring Ange to Celtic after the Celtic Board acted on the recommendation of former City Group man Mark Lawwell, now Head of Recruitment at Celtic.
“We have a great relationship with Celtic. We were happy to endorse Ange when they spoke to us about potentially appointing him as head coach.
“Again, you look at the work he has done there, after having a very difficult start. He went late in the summer, it was very difficult for him to bring players in and he was very resolute in terms of his thinking, what his objectives were and how he needed to create those and deliver them. You look at where the team got to at the end of the season, playing fantastic football and winning the title. In his first season he has walked with two trophies.
“I am immensely proud of what he has done there. I know his family have settled well, he has really enjoyed being in an institution that is Celtic Football Club and really up for the challenge of taking that club on a journey that everybody can be proud of.
“The success he has had there doesn’t surprise me, particularly after such a difficult start, but I think he will be working hard in the summer to make sure that they improve on what they have done this year.”
Marwood also outlined the back-story to his long standing relationship with Postecoglou. “The story of Ange, I first met him when he was Australian national team manager,” the City Football Group recalled. “He came over to Europe to do a bit of a trip watching players and games. He got introduced to me when he came up to Manchester.
“He was somebody that straightaway we connected really well. Up to this day we are very, very good friends. At that time, he was somebody that you could sit and talk to and we just chatted football and we just connected really well.
“We stayed in contact and I was obviously following what he was doing with the Australian national team whose performances were very good and the way they were playing football was very good.
“We were looking for a coach at F.Marinos and he was somebody that we put forward to F.Marinos for what we believed would be the right choice in terms of the connection between what F.Marinos were trying to achieve and really what Ange was looking for in the next stage of his career.
“We introduced him to the people at F.Marinos, they really liked him, he was really keen to coach in the J-League and the rest is history.
“He went there, developed a wonderful style of play which got great plaudits and also won the title, which was their first title in many, many years.
“The way he is as a person, he won a lot of friends and admirers. It was great to see how that grew in terms of him as a person but also his Yokohama team, to the point where he got the opportunity to come to Europe.”
