Australian-based pundit believes Celtic boss is already an EPL level coach

By David Walton

November 10, 2021

Australian-based pundit Michael Bridges has pushed Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou for the Aston Villa job as he believes him to be at EPL level.

Postecoglou has only been in the door for 5 months at Celtic Park and is finally starting to build some serious momentum. The Greek-Australian has already completed a big part of the club’s rebuild, but we’re still well into the early stages of his Celtic Park tenure.

Meanwhile, Villa are on the lookout for a replacement for Dean Smith. The Telegraph reports that Rangers boss Steven Gerrard is their preferred target.

However, when asked by Optus Sport about candidates for the Villa job, former EPL striker Bridges surprisingly pushed the recently-appointed Celtic boss:

“I’m gonna throw one in here for you. I’m gonna throw in a guy I tried to get at Sunderland Football Club. If you watched the Sunderland Til I Die documentary on Netflix, Martin Bain was in charge, and he asked me about a guy called Ange Postecoglou.  He said he’d never heard of him. I gave this guy massive wraps for what he did over in Australia. What he did for the national team, for the Socceroos.

“And Celtic have gone and got their man and he’s won the fans over after everybody going, ‘Who is this guy? What’s he all about?’ That is a guy that can sort this type of stuff out. He’s the type of guy that can be a massive, massive wildcard and I’m just gonna put it out there just so everybody knows about this guy and how good he is on and off the field.

“What he’s had to go through to handle all the managerial scrutiny from all the press up in Scotland – he’s handled it absolutely brilliantly.”

Ange Postecoglou won’t even be thinking about swapping Celtic for EPL

Whilst Postecoglou is certainly making a name for himself in Scotland, it’s ludicrous to be tipping him for any EPL moves in the coming weeks or months. Not because he couldn’t take a challenge like that on of course. It’s more to do with the fact he’s been here for a minute and is so early into the project he’s building at Celtic Park.

We can understand Australians and Australian-based pundits wanting to big Postecoglou up. However, Celtic have taken a chance on him and that’s something we would expect to be rewarded with loyalty. Postecoglou will be the first to be talking up his long-term goals at the club too.

The EPL is undoubtedly a goal for the popular Celtic boss one day. Why wouldn’t it be? A chance to become the first Australian manager to ever manage in England’s top flight? You can see why it would hold major appeal for him.

But it won’t be something that happens anytime soon. Ange simply wouldn’t want it to, and any prospect of him ditching Celtic Park for Villa Park is laughable. As it would be if he was pushed for any other job in world football at the moment.

The Celtic boss will have his sights set on building a dynasty in Glasgow. He has so much to achieve here and it’s clear that we’re still a long way off from seeing his vision for the club come to pass.

The early signs are exciting, and it’s no surprise to see him being bigged up back home. But let’s calm down when it comes to potential job opportunities elsewhere. That won’t be on his agenda for a long time.

In other news, Celtic rivals are already in meltdown mode over Steven Gerrard to Aston Villa link