Ange Postecoglou was today asked at his Celtic press conference about the recent debate surrounding the movement of the winter break in Scottish football.
As is normal, Celtic and the rest of the Scottish Premiership will take a break from action in early January before returning for Scottish Cup matches in the middle of next month.
Livingston boss David Martindale has proposed this is shifted to over the coming two-week period at the end of December, while Hearts man Robbie Neilson has urged Scottish football to keep pushing through the current problems. [Edinburgh Evening News]
Celtic boss Ange gives his thoughts
On the back of those comments, Postecoglou was asked about the situation today in a press conference 67 Hail Hail attended.
The Bhoys boss said: “Look, it’s a difficult one because again we deal with limited information and we are not best placed to make sweeping statements about overall policy I think.
“The one thing we do know about this thing is that it is very hard to predict the future and we could have a break and the worst is still to come and it puts more pressure on the fixtures and more pressure on clubs further down the line.
“My gut instinct is we keep playing until it’s impossible to do so or we get advice that it is best that we stopped playing. The paramount thing is the health and safety of our players, our staff and our supporters and for that, we have to follow the guidance. This is unchartered territory for the whole world.
“We can’t make assumptions and predict things when we all know how this thing works is that we don’t know potential pitfalls down the road and any sort of timelines with certainty.
“One certainty we do know is that we can play and we can have supporters in the stadium and my gut tells me we keep going and again that is me talking with limited information. I always sort of defer to people who have all the information for this kind of decision.”
A typically measured and insightful response from the manager. It sounds like he is wary about moving fixtures that are able to be played deeper into the season.
While it may be beneficial for Celtic and the rest of Scottish football right now, down the line in March, April and May, it might look like a terrible decision in hindsight.
As it stands there is no indication any Celtic games will be cancelled or played behind closed doors, so we can only hope vaccinations and societal steps keep football as protected as possible over a busy period.
In other news, SPFL release statement on Covid-19 situation as Celtic watch problems unfold.
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