"A story every day about something"; Celtic boss tells Australian media about life in Scotland

By Euan Davidson

November 16, 2021

Do you ever wonder what it’s been like for Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou meeting the Scottish media?

It’s not as if Postecoglou never had a massive job before. He was Australia manager, and won titles in both the A League and J League. Yet, he was treated with intense suspicion. As if managing at a World Cup or winning league titles elsewhere made him less qualified than Roy Keane.

Even as Ange Postecoglou has proven his already impressive credentials at Celtic, the questions have remained weird. He’s been repeatedly funny about the title. There were even reporters unsure he’d heard of Heart of Midlothian, which elicited a classic response.

It’s been interesting, then, that he’s been consistently speaking to Australian media. His homeland’s press has covered Celtic with keen interest. From their perspective, it’s the biggest non-national job an Australian manager has had.

The Celtic manager told the Sydney Morning Herald:

“It is very intense over here, there’s a story every day about something, so if you start buying into that stuff you’ll be chasing things down rabbit holes that you’ll never get out of.

“We’ve been really good so far, concentrating on ourselves and making sure we keep building on what we’re doing. We had a challenging start but we’ve hung in there and shown resilience to give ourselves an opportunity in all the competitions we’re in at the moment and that’s been probably the most pleasing thing.

“What’s got us to this place is concentrating for ourselves, and that’s what we’ve got to continue to do and not worry about the external noise.”

To be fair to Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou, he’s doing extremely well with Scottish media

If he is finding it “very intense”, Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou isn’t getting frustrated by coverage.

Instead, he’s been a breath of fresh air. Fundamentally, his message seems to be about being a decent person, and having a long-term footballing vision to excite supporters. The external politics, and constant column inches about our rivals, titles and everything else seem not to bother him.

If anything, he seems to be having fun with the Scottish media. There isn’t a callousness or indifference, but he’s not particularly interested in offering concise soundbites either.

It’s also quite funny, perhaps, how used we are to the intensity. There are constantly stories emerging from Scottish football. There’s a hell of a lot to cover. Especially when it comes to Celtic and Rangers.

The Celtic boss is right, though; paying attention to external “noise” isn’t going to help. It might even sound cliché. Postecoglou is hardly going to say “I’m reading all the papers and lads, I’m rattled”. But there’s clear evidence of the focus at Celtic.

If the players and staff were being distracted by outside noise, they’d not believe for a second that they could win trophies this season. Such has the scepticism been about Celtic prior to the season, and it’s in early stages.

Now, though, we’re talking with optimism about the football club, and the man in charge.

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