Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou has had many odd moments with the media in his Parkhead career so far.
He’s not even a year into the gig and still he’s had to bat away some bizarre questions that have been thrown his way. Many of these came particularly in the early stages when people were too ignorant to even comprehend that he may know a thing or two about Scottish football.
However, one of the most embarrassing came back in September when Celtic drew 1-1 at home to Dundee United. At the time, the result had only put us 6 points behind Rangers with the vast majority of the season remaining.
When put to him whether he believed the dropped points was a hammer blow in the title race, Ange said the following via Clyde 1: “It’s a weird league! You call things early here, don’t you? It’s quite remarkable that we’re seven games in and people are calling the title already.
“It’s just not how I work and I’m not pulling up stumps after seven games because other people seem to think there’s some sort of unsurmountable challenge out there for us. If we weren’t playing well and we were struggling through things then by all means I’d be looking at things a lot differently.
“But with the efforts we’re putting in at the moment, the football we’re playing, the chances we’re creating and what we’ve got to come back into the team, I just see it totally differently”
Celtic boss was spot on then and it’s showing now
Even back then that media poser looked ridiculous. Of course there were concerns about being behind in the title race at an early stage. We all wanted a quick start to try and show Rangers that we were going to be a serious threat from the get-go.
However, absolutely nobody was calling the league or moaning that certain results would be fatal after only 7 games. It was symbolic of the ridiculously premature narratives that like to be spun amongst the media when it comes to Premiership title races.
Ange was spot on when he stated that people seemed to view it as some sort of “insurmountable challenge”, and that he saw things differently. He certainly did, and only through some patience have we seen exactly what Ange was talking about.
What he was effectively asking for here was some time for his team to click. Some time to get things right and to, first and foremost, get his best players fit. Nowadays, we’re 3 clear at the top of the Premiership having gone on a huge 31-game unbeaten run domestically.
Ange taught the Scottish media an important lesson with those comments. He showed it up for being premature, and if we’re serious, a touch unprofessional. Especially considering how long there still was to go in our campaign.
The full nature of what Ange was trying to describe is now on show. Will it make the media change its approach to similar circumstances? Don’t count on it.
In other news, Ghana international explains how close he once was to joining Celtic
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