ALAN HUTTON almost sounded starstruck talking about his encounter with Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou on Cup Final day at Hampden.
Alan was on media duties on the day where Celtic added another piece of silverware to their collection at the expense of the Ibrox club.
While Alan wasn’t really up for discussing the cup final itself, for obvious reasons, he made it clear the Celtic boss had made a lasting impression on him.
He told Football Insider: “The turnaround, the recruitment, the players that he has brought in have been excellent. He is performing at a high level and he comes across as a really genuine guy.
“At the cup final Ange came out of the tunnel and walked right over to us and he stood and chatted for ten minutes. He was answering questions, he was talking about me and my career. I was thinking ‘how does he even know me?’.
“It felt strange but it was a touch of class. He did not have to do it. He talks a lot of sense so it does not surprise me that he is a really likeable guy.“
Ange knows his football, so it’s no surprise to me he’ll know what Alan did during his career.
The Celtic manager is a class act. Most people who meet him, even the journalists he sometimes makes feel silly tend to still like him. He garners respect in the way he carries himself.
There will be plenty of opposition fans out there who will admire Ange and even wish he managed their club. When someone wants to try and have a go at the Celtic gaffer on social media, you tend to find their scraping the bottom of a very flimsy barrel.
Elsewhere, Ange has been praising his winger Liel Abada after the Israeli came on and changed the game for Celtic against St Mirren on Sunday. Ange directly addressed any notion Abada wasn’t happy at Celtic.
As quoted by the [DAILY RECORD] he said, “What do you reckon would happen to players who throw their toys out of the pram, mate?”
“liel’s a really ambitious guy who wants to be at a big football club. He wants to win things and be the best he can be. That’s exactly where he is at. All our players, particularly the younger ones who want to go on to further opportunities, maybe to a stronger league, do you think they are going to go to a club where they are guaranteed game time? No, so it’s no different here. We are a big club. Nothing is guaranteed. You’ve got to earn everything and these boys do that.
He’s a pretty strong-willed young man. It wasn’t easy for him to come across here at his age. He’s come into a big club where there are expectations. When you are a winger at this football club people don’t give you allowances for your age or whatever kind of player you are. They want to see goals and assists and he’s been consistent in doing that. I know he’s not had a lot of starts but he’s still played a lot of football.
“he and matty o’riley are probably the only two who have played every game for us this year. People focus on who starts and they think players aren’t getting game time. But from our perspective he was a really strong contributor last year and this year and he will continue to be.”
Celtic play Hearts on Wednesday evening and Liel is pushing to start after his contributions in Paisley. A win would keep Celtic at least nine points clear at the top of the table with ten games remaining. The bhoys also have a superior goal difference which does amount to an extra point at this stage.
