By next week, we’ll know if Ange is the real deal or just the same as all the rest
Eric Knott 
Craig Williamson - SNS Group/SNS Group/Getty Images
Today is Cup final day and the speculation continues.
Everybody knows what’s happening, yet nobody really knows.
The bookies have stopped taking bets on Ange becoming the next Spurs manager.
Spurs are like the woman who has been turned down by all her preferential choices and has turned to her booty call.
Ange has become the choice of desperation.
Spurs are desperate and if you can’t see that, then you’re blind.
They’ve been turned down by all of the managers they actually wanted, now they’re trying to steal Ange Postecoglou from us.
Soon enough, we’re going to find out whether or not Ange Postecoglou is a man of integrity or whether he’s the same as everybody else who passes through the doors of Celtic Park and enhances their reputation by doing so.
Celtic is and always has been a stepping stone for players and managers of repute.
Ange gave us the impression he was different, that he had an acute understanding of Celtic due to his own background.
No doubt about it, he does, but he also has an acute understanding of his own ability.
Seemingly Tottenham Hotspur do too.
Or at least they’re pretending they do.
Because you can’t tell me that they’ve been following the Scottish Premiership closely for the last 2 years.
The same way you can’t tell me Peter Lawwell and Dermot Desmond had been closely following the J-League for 3 years before they contacted Ange about the Celtic job.
Daniel Levy has looked at how Celtic effectively lucked into appointing Ange Postecoglou, and he now believes he can do the same.
The bookies believe things are so far advanced now that they’ve installed David Moyes as the odds on favourite to replace Ange.
It’s all happened at the speed of lightning.
If you were naïve enough, you’d believe it was a done deal.
Yet one person in all of this will not accede to all the the white noise surrounding him.
Ange Postecoglou.
He will not accede to Spurs, the bookies or the Scottish media.
This leaves us as Celtic fans with two options.
Either he is all in and he has no intention of leaving us.
Or he is filling us all full of crap.
Because if he has agreed to talk to Spurs, regardless of the upcoming final or not, then he should at least have the decency to admit it.
He should have the decency to say, yes, I am going to speak to Spurs, and yes, there’s a possibility I could leave Celtic.
We would respect him a hell of a lot more as a person if he did that much.
What we will not respect is being filled full of badge kissing bullshit.
Ange is on the cusp of a treble and immortality.
He has the chance to be the man to deliver a world record achievement for the club.
With it, is the chance to become immortal at Celtic.
Or the man who delivered it, and then headed off to Spurs for a big pay day.
And just turned out to be the same as everybody else who builds their reputation at Celtic.
Look, I know Ange Postecoglou will eventually leave Celtic, it’s inevitable.
But if he leaves after today’s Cup final, you get the feeling he will be leaving without having achieved everything he could have.
He will have given that up to head to the EPL and take on a basket case club in Tottenham Hotspur.
A club that has a stupidly ruthless chairman, who is completely unwilling to give any manager breathing space to deliver success.
His current strategy has achieved absolutely nothing bar a Champions League final appearance.
He sacked the manager who achieved that not long after.
Ange will be going to a club that has managed to secure one trophy this century.
If he feels he can buck that trend, then more power to the man.
He has always believed in his own ability.
On Thursday, at the pre-match press conference, he was focussed on only one thing.
Today.
He would not speculate on the whole circus that is now surrounding the Spurs job.
That tells me one of two things.
He is confident that he will be the Celtic manager for next season, and what he’s saying reflects that.
Or he is actually as ruthless as we thought, and he doesn’t really care what affect it would have on the fanbase if he did move to Spurs once the Cup final is over.
He doesn’t care that that special rapport, and that special relationship will end.
That legendary status doesn’t matter to him.
It will be strange if he does leave after the final, and that he didn’t take the opportunity to be upfront with the supporters before hand.
That just doesn’t strike me as the Ange Postecoglou we’ve come to know and love.
Either way, we’ll know next week whether he’s the real deal or just the same as all the rest.
For today, we’ll bask in the glory of another treble if we can overcome Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
After that, what will be, will be.
Celtic will still be there if Ange Postecoglou leaves and Celtic will still be the biggest club in Scotland.
With the biggest budget and the biggest fanbase.
And the world record holders for trebles won by one football club.
Ange will have played his part in that.
Whatever happens, we will always be grateful to him for that much.
He might just surprise us all after today and make us eternally grateful to him.
Once the game is over today, his body language will speak volumes.
Either way, we’ll know soon enough.
Enjoy the Cup final folks.
Regardless of everything else, we deserve today.
If we got conte
I absolutely agree with every word in this article, it’s so similar to comments I’ve been making elsewhere. This is the big test for Ange – Is he truly committed to Celtic, at least until he achieves something in Europe, or is he just another who has used the club for his own ends? I think there is more depth to him than just another user, but who knows. We’ll find out very soon now.
There is a name that pops up on many discussion forums about the SPL aka “The Pub League” associating with leagues of various. Establishments around the city played on a Sunday. But from that so called league, came a team Glasgow Celtic, or The Celtic football club and association. That had eleven home grown Scots that took on the best of the best in 1967 and delivered what many couldn’t before,” a European Cup Victory”. I know times have changed as well as the game, and all of the money that’s bee pumped into the EPL because of four letters of worldwide magnitude ESPN. These four letter had a fanbase in the millions watching the EPL on Saturday mornings. But the now known competition known as “The Champions League” was won by that not known team from Glasgow, Scotland with eleven men from within 30 miles of Glasgow, to show the world that a team from “ The Pub League” in Scotland could be Champions of Europe.
I don’t think he’ll be leaving – and here’s why. I admit there’s some speculation in my arguments, especially regarding the implications of some of his statements, but I think they make sense.
1.) If you listen to him, he almost ruled himself out. He’s talking about transfer targets for next season, he’s looking forward to the Champions League – doesn’t sound like a manager on his way out. And he’s playing down the Spurs rumours, saying that “someone else was favourite last week” (implying: and they didn’t go there either) and “we’ve already had that dance” (implying: and I didn’t leave then, either).
2.) People say he won’t be able to resist the appeal of the Premier League and Tottenham. But hasn’t the same been said about Arne Slot, about Xabi Alonso and (to a lesser extent, as he’ll be in the Premier League anyway) Vincent Kompany. Obviously, resisting this attraction is possible, and there must be a reason for this.
3.) Then there’s the Dermot Desmond meeting earlier in May. I think the talks were about a pretty serious matter, as Ange refused to talk about their content. I don’t think he would have done that had the two just had small talk about the Scottish weather. But then again, the talks can hardly have been about Spurs, for at that time Arne Slot seemed to have been as good as appointed. Hence, I think the talks have been pretty favourable for us.
All these reflections make me think that Ange will stay. But even if he chose to leave: This club is bigger than any single person. I’m confident we’d find a good replacement – with a good option already in the club.
Get off his case. He owes us nothing.
If he leaves he will be up there with Rodgers in my book.
Badge kissing, chest thumping, sing my Ange song louder, turncoat and we believed his words. Every bit as bad as Rodger’s
I think that’s a really poor article. Disrespectful. Whatever happens next, Ange has been transformational for us and has taken us to another level. He gets what we are about and respects our heritage. What more can he do or say?
He is a professional. He moved to a higher level when he joined us. The EPL is at the highest level globally and it is natural for a professional to want to operate at that level. Are you he was disloyal when heft Japan for us? Of course not. Spurs is a dubious choice while Levy remains and he would never have the control he has with us but he deserves respect whatever happens.
When Ange said, “Do not get too attached to your Hero’s” was he talking about himself? Love Ange as a manager, but if he is offered (and this is a big IF), I believe he will take it. He is 56 I think and will be offered life changing money that will secure him, his children and grandchildrens future, plus he really trust his own ability to do the job at Spurs as well. I hope he does not get offered the job or I am wrong.
No harm to you but I think your article is a bit naive although I understand the emotion we all feel at the thought of losing a manager who has brought us practically instant success.
Ange is no different to any person who seeks security for himself & family & to a large extent, money brings that. If he earns anywhere near the sort of figures, bandied about, that Spurs apparently, can offer, with a 4/5 year contract, then he is set for life no matter what happens his career after that.
What he has done for us in a short space of time has been amazing & the football has been a joy to watch so surely we can’t begrudge him leaving to earn the huge sums reportedly on offer.
In saying that, however, I agree that Spurs are a basket case & if Ange goes there he could end up being sacked within a year. Being set up financially for life may well be worth that risk for him & it remains to be seen if he will actually go.
If he goes he goes but at least he’s doing it the right way.
Going out a winner at the end of the season.
The chances of getting another offer from the EPL is slim so if he takes it good luck to him we’ll move on and keep being successful.
100% agree with everything you have said. 👍☘️🇮🇪🏴
What should be a great day is being overshadowed by the Ange speculation. Celtic have backed him to the hilt since he came in and I’d be upset if he ups sticks. We deserve better.
Let’s be real, if you were managing Ajax, had a great couple of seasons and an EPL team offered you SEVEN times your salary and a bigger budget to move to them, would you not be tempted?
We need to remember that he’s just a man who’s trying to do the best job he can, he’s not grown up a fan…
If he goes I’ll wish him the best and hope we can get another quality manager in to replace him. (Though I hope he sticks around for a decent shot at the Champions League!!)
He certainly didn’t take Celtic to another level in Europe last year. Or, to put it more concisely, he took the club to a lower level. That’s something he would surely want to correct if we are to take him at his word about improving the club.
I recognise the good he’s done domestically, but he hasn’t really shown that he can do anything great at a higher level. If he leaves now then that failure will always cast a shadow over any domestic success, which other managers have enjoyed in the past. If I were to put that in context, he has shown himself thus far to be a good Celtic manager, not a great one. The club really needs a committed manager whose ambition is to really take Cetic to a new level in Europe. The badge thumpers who leave after one or two seasons for personal ambition are no good in the long run.
My take is that there’s a way to do things and Ange has been brilliant for Celtic but we have been great for him also, we got lucky when we appointed him, the way this has all played out is a disgrace. Ange should’ve come out on Saturday and said I’d like to talk to Spurs if he did that our support would’ve been upset but understood and wished him well. The overwhelming feeling I’m left with is that this has been the biggest confidence trick ever played on us as supporters, I think Ange played us like a fiddle. All the badge kissing and chest pumping was a charade his integrity for me is gone and I didn’t think I’d say that but it’s how I feel, we all know he and his family will be set for life but he’s taking one almighty risk. If those goes tits up and he has a start like he’s had up here his career could well be over as Daniel Levy is quick to pull the trigger if he’s not happy and he’s not been happy with a plethora of managers. Since the year 2001 Spurs have had sixteen different managers I’ve verified that by checking their history of managers. The portents for Ange are not favourable as sixteen managers in twenty-three and a half years is a ridiculous amount for any club and it may not end well for our outgoing gaffer. The question is are all those men bad managers or are Spurs a club who have illusions of grandeur and what their real status is, I suggest it’s the latter. Ange has made a brave call. There’s also another thing to consider here if these talks breakdown Ange can’t stay at Celtic because we’ll know for certain he’s not committed to the club any more. In my opinion Ange is as big a fraud as Brendan Rodgers, this hasn’t happened overnight either the man came on the stage at the Hydro at Broony and Mika’s farewell and overshadowed both of these tremendous servants and I’m convinced he knew then he was going. I’ve never felt as let down as this by a manager before if he’d handled this better we’d still have loved him but that’s gone for me now. Nobody is bigger than the club though Celtic will be here tomorrow morning even if Ange isn’t and so will we be, “we’re there and we’re always there and God bless every single one of us.”