A report in the Scotsman has linked Kevin Muscat with a place in Ange Postecoglou’s backroom team.
Celtic are believed to be into the second week of advanced talks to secure the services of the Yokohama Marinos boss to end the 100 day plus search for a replacement to Neil Lennon.
Postecoglou’s only experience of coaching in Europe is a brief spell in the Greek Third Division in 2008.
Contact with anyone with a grasp of the Scottish or British game will be very tenuous but it seems that he might have someone with knowledge of playing on the other side of Glasgow lined up with the bonus that Muscat has a UEFA Pro Coaching licence.
Veteran Scotsman reporter Andrew Smith has dug into his Australian contact book to reveal:
Sources in Postecoglou’s homeland have suggested to The Scotsman that the 55-year-old could look to bring one-time Rangers midfielder Kevin Muscat with him, while former Yokahama F Marinos assistant Arthur Papas has also been linked as a possible recruit to the recast Celtic coaching set-up.
Muscat, an infamously combative performer, has first-hand knowledge of the Glasgow scene courtesy of the season he spent in Scotland as a member of Alex McLeish’s treble-winning squad of 2002-03. The English-born Australian international, who also had spells with Wolves, Crystal Palace and Millwall, is even more well-versed in the ways of Postecoglou. The prospective Celtic manager was Muscat’s captain for a season with South Melbourne, before becoming assistant and then manager while Muscat remained a player in the set-up across the mid-1990s.
Should Ange Postecoglou be offered the Celtic job?
Yes, we have to trust the club, they know their job
No, the club has lost the plot, demonstrated by this and Lennon
Muscat spent one season at Rangers, playing 26 games in the 2002/03 season before returning to English football with Millwall. The Australian arrived with a record of disciplinary issues and never played in any of the five matches against Celtic.
According to the Daily Record, reporting on a webpage removed by the BBC, Muscat was given ‘EBT’ payments of £1m on top of his regular salary. Those payments were later ruled to be disguised remuneration by the Supreme Court.