Ange Postecoglou has claimed that Celtic ‘can’t be more prepared’ for their Champions League qualifier against Midtjylland.
That claim will come as something of a shock to supporters with only Liam Shaw signed up for what looks to be a massive rebuild.
Postecoglou has still to arrive in Scotland, get a UEFA Pro Licence exemption and have a face-to-face talk with any of the coaching staff that the club has appointed for him.
Celtic have six players at the European Championships until at least June 22 with the home leg against a team that played in last season’s Champions League group stage less than a month later.
Speaking to the Celtic website, the new boss said:
I’m keen to hit the ground running and try to get as much work done before I get there, but my own view is that we can’t be more prepared than what we are at the moment in terms of the conditions we’ve had to face.
I’m fully confident that once I hit the ground, we’ll get started and I’m really excited about the fact that we’ve got something to look forward to and a bit of a target there over the next four or five weeks.
The work’s already started, to be fair. A lot of the lads, the staff at the club, are already putting plans in place. I’m talking to them daily so they kind of know how I want us to work.
Odsonne Edouard, Kris Ajer, Olivier Ntcham and Ryan Christie have all been strongly linked to leave Celtic this summer which would trim the squad down considerably.
Pre-season training starts tomorrow with Vasilis Barkas likely to be the only player that started the final match of last season, a 0-0 draw away to Hibs, reporting to Lennoxtown.
Stephen Welsh put in a media appearance yesterday but is expected to get additional time off after playing for Scotland’s u-21 side on June 2 and 5.
