Former Celtic star Kris Commons has been forced into a full-scale U-Turn on Celtic and Ange Postecoglou today.
Back in August, Commons stated that Ange had formed “without question the worst Celtic team we’ve seen in well over 20 years. You would need to go back to the dark days of the early to mid-90s for anything to even get close.” [Scottish Daily Mail, 02/08, The Verdict Supplement, Page 12].
It was incredibly premature considering Ange was only just in the door and had only managed 1 Premiership game. Indeed, there was plenty of exaggeration after that opening-day loss to Hearts. But even so, the manager has managed to turn opinions around all over the country after taking Celtic to the top of the table.
And today Commons completed his own U-turn as he claimed Celtic are now the best team in the league and the Premiership’s pacesetters. Speaking in his Scottish Daily Mail column today [print edition, 07/02, page 12], Commons said: “There’s now a ruthlessness to this Celtic team. A relentless streak which, from their position at the top of the table, means it’s now their title to lose from here. They have all the momentum.
“That can take you a long way, but there’s also the fact that, quite simply, they are just playing a much better brand of football than Rangers. In terms of the style being implemented by both managers, Celtic are further along their journey under Ange Postecoglou than Rangers are under Van Bronckhorst.
“Celtic are now the pacesetters. They are the best team in the league right now and it’s up to Rangers to catch them.”
Kris Commons not the only one to change opinions on Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic
In fairness to Commons, he’s hardly the only one who’s had to revisit his opinions on the Celtic manager and amend them. Look at Hugh Keevins for example!
The truth is we all had doubts over Ange at one stage or another. Whether it was before he had even managed a game for us or well into that sticky period at the beginning of the season – the doubters were there and they were making themselves heard.
However, the reason we’re pointing out the likes of Commons’ verdict is because of the overboard nature of the criticism earlier this season.
Everyone acknowledged how big a rebuild Ange had on his hands. The summer transfer window hadn’t even ended before Postecoglou was being labelled as having the worst Celtic team since the 90s. It was ridiculous, over-the-top nonsense that failed to give the Hoops boss any time to stamp his authority on the team.
The concerns would’ve been had Celtic failed to get going by this stage of the season. But now Ange’s players have settled into the club and they’re all making an impact. He’s finally been given the tools to form his rebuild, and he’s making an absolute masterpiece of a team out of it.
Commons’ criticism back in August was far too hard-hitting and failed to take so many factors into account. That’s what makes his particular U-turn a touch embarrassing. There was no need to be so gung-ho with criticism at the beginning of the season. There was always a strong chance this could happen.
In other news, Aberdeen appear to be in a full-blown crisis just days before Celtic visit
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