ANGE POSTECOGLOU joked he’s like his wife out shopping when he’s allowed to delve into the transfer market and get the signings he wants and needs.
Celtic have backed the manager this season and let Ange have a bit more freedom than many previous managers when it comes to the personnel he wants through the door.
The J-League signings are perfect examples of the Celtic manager getting the trust from the club to make the right calls.
Under Neil Lennon, it felt like we signed players and we were somehow to jam them into the team.
Nowadays, Ange has parameters for any player coming in, they need to match up with his footballing philosophy and the identity the Australian is building at the club.
Speaking to Stan Sport Football, Ange revealed his transfer process.
He said: “It comes from having a real clear idea of how you want the game to be played.
“I’ve often said that I could go into a shop with my wife and she’ll know exactly what to pick up and buy — and mate, I’ve got no idea!
“When I go looking for players I’m the same. I’ve got a real clear idea.
“When I see what I want, I picture them in my team and when they fit that picture, most of the time it works. It comes back to the first thing being I have absolute clarity about how I want my team to play, what quality each player should have in each position.
“And that should make it easier for the players as well because they’ve already got some of the things I’m looking for, so their adjustment period becomes quicker.
“The players I’ve brought in have hit the ground running and people ask, ‘Why so quickly?’.
“But it’s because I already know they’ve got the attributes I want and the rest is just understanding the game plan.
“I knew getting the right players was going to be the first critical part of what I’m trying to create and how I will be judged in history.
“If I signed players that didn’t fit, it was going to be hard. I wanted to make sure the players fitted the ideology of the team I want us to be.
“They also had to hit the right demographic in terms of their ages. That was all important.”
Celtic have had much more hits than misses when it comes to transfers since Ange came in. The signings that haven’t quite worked out to this point are earlier signings from the summer when the club was just trying to get the numbers up.
