ANGE POSTECOGLOU has won hearts and minds in the Celtic support since coming to the club. The manager has exhibited many qualities the fans love in a leader and most importantly, he’s pushed our club on in such a short period of time.
However, it’s not just people of a Celtic persuasion the manager has impressed. Former Dundee manager James McPake spoke in detail about the Celtic manager and how Ange took the time for James after the games they played Dundee this season.
McPake has since been removed as the Dundee manager, but he was keen to stress how well the Hoops boss came across and the time he gave James and his backroom team after one particular game.
“I think, the 4-2 game at Dens, he must have spent about half an hour with me – which is rare nowadays with Covid because you don’t go into the offices.” McPake told BBC Sportsound.
“You don’t do what was historically done as managers where you invited the opposition managers in for a beer or a cup of tea.
“But he spent a bit of time and he spoke… it was just a bit of guidance. But he just came across as a really good footballing man who had a lot of time particularly for younger coaches.
“I can’t speak for anyone else but certainly myself and my staff at the time were very impressed by him.
“We were very impressed by the way he sets his team up and the fact he sticks to his guns as well.
“He’s been questioned, he didn’t have a great start at Celtic but he stuck to what he was doing and now the fans get excited
“When they get it right they’re a proper team – we lost 6-0 and that could have been 12-0.”
Ange has an air of authority around him, and anyone who chats to him knows he has a great football mind.
Ange is very like Brendan Rodgers in many ways. Brendan had a lot of time for young coaches and helped them along during his time at the club.
McPake continued: “I had never met him! I met him at Celtic Park and he congratulated me on the promotion.
“I thought, oh well, you go away and obviously he’s read up and done his homework and seen, ‘ah, they’ve got a promotion’.
“I just thought it was just a throwaway comment but when they came to Dens, it was kind of like… I don’t want to sound bad but he came to me.
“And it was more of a, ‘let’s just have a chat’, and it was for 20 minutes, half an hour. ‘How’s your training going’, in the lead up to an international break, ‘how are you going to approach it’.
“I went away and spoke to a lot of people about it. I’ll be honest, I felt very humbled.
“Celtic were flying at that time, he’s the Celtic manager and no disrespect to Dundee but I was the Dundee manager.
“He went out his way to come and speak to me so I’ll be grateful for that and it shows the type of man he is. There aren’t enough in football that want to help you, in my opinion.”
It’s great to hear others outside the club having respect for Ange Postecoglou.
He has been a breath of fresh air for our game and he’s done wonders for the club. In a season where we thought a rebuild would mean a title challenge was likely too soon, the manager has offered up the chance for Celtic to win the league.
Nothing is guaranteed, but building a side quickly and going up against a team who have played together for a long time and going toe to toe with them shouldn’t be underestimated.
