Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou has confirmed that the club is preparing to lose some of its key players to international duty against Rangers in February.
The Hoops could see their Japanese and Australian talents leave to tackle vital World Cup qualifying matches on the other side of the world. Japan will face both China and Saudi Arabia in crucial matches whilst the Aussies play Vietnam and Oman.
Celtic have 4 Japanese stars who could be called up in Kyogo Furuhashi, Daizen Maeda, Yosuke Ideguchi, and Reo Hatate respectively. Tom Rogic, meanwhile, will likely be away with the Socceroos.
And Ange Postecoglou has stated that this has all been in Celtic’s preparations as they look to ensure they’re tooled up enough for the challenges ahead.
As quoted by the Daily Record, Ange said: “This has been in our planning for a while now. We’ve known that they are going to be away in that period if they get selected.
“And I totally understand that whatever fixtures we have at that time, they’re likely to miss out. They are World Cup games so there are no negotiations. Both countries have important qualifiers and the World Cup is important to every country, irrespective of where you come from.
“We are obliged to release the players and we will.”
Nothing Celtic nor Ange Postecoglou can do about international call-ups
This just about sums up the kind of reaction you would expect from the Celtic manager here. After all, what can he truly do about international call-ups?
There seems to be this notion that Celtic should be pleading their case with the Australian and Japanese FAs. As if there’s a way in which we can convince them not to call up our top stars so that they can play against Rangers.
But the truth is Celtic are obliged as a football club to release their talents. And let’s get real, why on earth would either FA care about Celtic’s fixtures? Especially when you consider the importance of the World Cup qualifiers they’re involved in?
Having the likes of Rogic and Kyogo would be massive for us ahead of the Glasgow derby. It certainly won’t be straightforward without them. However, Ange should have more new signings in the door by the time the game comes around.
Not to mention the fact that we’ll have the likes of Giorgos Giakoumakis up to speed by then too. Who knows? Perhaps the derby will be his coming-of-age moment in a Celtic jersey.
But these comments from Ange can finally put to rest any idea that we’ll look to either get the derby postponed or put a case forward for the players not to be called up.
In other news, Report: Celtic have interest in bargain winger; stood out in Ligue 1 last season
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
