"I lost a bit of hope"; Ange Postecoglou credits Michael Nicholson for Celtic transfer coup

By John McGinley

January 27, 2023

Ange Postecoglou revealed today that Celtic have been working on the Hyeongyu Oh signing for quite a while and that he had been earmarked to be one of the Bhoys’ first winter window signings.

The Celtic boss even shared that at one stage he had given up hope on the signing going through, but credit chief executive Michael Nicholson and the player himself for persevering on the transfer.

Suwon Bluewings were not keen on selling their star forward, but Celtic’s powers of persuasion were ultimately just too strong.

Speaking in a media conference today, Postecoglou said: “It seems like it’s been a long time coming. It’s one that myself and Mark Lawwell identified pretty early. To be honest, I thought he would be the first one in the building.

“Obviously and understandably his club weren’t keen on letting him go. He’s just broken through there and he was really important to them last year. His form just kept getting better towards the end of last year then he was selected for the Korean national team.

“There were times when I didn’t think it was going to happen. Great credit to Michael Nicholson and everyone working with him, and the player himself. They just kept persisting. I kind of lost a bit of hope that we were going to get him in but I’m really happy to get him over the line.

“I’m really excited to get him part of the set-up here. He’s a young guy but he’s really mature and really determined to make an impact.”

Oh, still just 21, scored 14 goals for his club last season and helped them avoid a damaging relegation with consistent scoring at the tail-end of the campaign.

Now competing with Kyogo Furuhashi and, for now, Giorgos Giakoumakis in the Celtic attack, it’ll be exciting to see where the player can go from here.

Postecoglou is clearly a big fan and hasn’t steered us wrong on transfers since arriving as manager, so it’s fair to say fans are optimistic about an impact.

In other news, Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic AGM words are already coming to fruition.