Former Anderlecht assistant manager Craig Bellamy has revealed that Vincent Kompany wanted Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou to work with him in Belgium.
Kompany is currently manager of the Belgian heavyweights and has been since August 2020. He promoted Bellamy up to be his assistant after his appointment, with the former Celtic winger previously working with the under-21s.
Postecoglou, meanwhile, was making waves in Japan after earning Yokohama F Marinos their first J-League title in 2019 after a 15-year drought. Nowadays, he looks favourite to win the Scottish Premiership title back at Parkhead – a feat that looked impossible as recently as last August.
However, Postecoglou could’ve also been learning the ropes about football management in Europe under Kompany at Anderlecht had things turned out differently.
Bellamy has been speaking to The Central Club Podcast, and said the following about Kompany and Ange: “He was very different as a player to what I’ve come across [Kompany]. When he walks into a room you know he walks in. He has a real presence about him.
“He’s so forward in that he wants to know everything. He wants to know things like ‘what’s going on with his fitness?’, ‘what’s going on in Japan there? They’ve got this coach here, we like him, look at what he’s doing’.
“He ended up going to Celtic, but he wanted to bring him in with us. But he’s ahead.”
Ange Postecoglou was making waves long before his Celtic arrival
If anything, this is just further justification when it comes to Celtic’s move for the Greek-Australian tactician in the summer.
We all remember the newspaper columns. The patronising pundit opinions that were quick to demean Ange and perhaps even downright disrespect his achievements in Asia. We were made to believe that it was a ludicrous appointment that made no sense simply because there was a lack of knowledge in this country about the man himself.
Yet here we have a progressive tactician and of the world’s best centre-backs in his playing days sourcing that same target. Recognising just what an incredible job he did in Japan with Yokohama. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather take the opinion of someone like Kompany than some of the pundits we see cropping up in this country.
It’s nailed-on proof that Ange was impressing more than just Celtic before we managed to bag him. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that had we turned our noses up at him in the summer, he would already be making big moves with another club in Europe.
But it’s all worked out for the Celtic boss since his summer arrival. It’s opened our eyes up to how ignorant we can be to foreign arrivals. How backward Scottish football can be with foreign imports instead of actually giving them some common decency and allowing them the time to make their mark.
Ange is showing them all up now, and thank goodness that move to Anderlecht never came to fruition.
In other news, Joe Hart explains the meaning behind his ongoing Insta joke with Celtic teammate Carl Starfelt
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