Ange Postecoglou gave a polished, diplomatic answer when he was asked about Dom McKay’s sudden departure from Celtic but he did drop one telling comment.
The now departed CEO arrived to shadow Peter Lawwell in mid-April when the club was still without a manager.
When Eddie Howe dropped out of contention the focus quickly turned to Ange Postecoglou who was duly delivered and unveiled alongside McKay as Celtic’s new leadership package.
The Australian would have been known to the Celtic board as a manager within the City Football Group, in charge of Yokohama Marinos.
After that initial media conference McKay took a back-seat. At a club without a Head of Football Operations and missing the CEO who had been in place for 17 years he was presented with a massive rebuilding job while selling off three important players.
In light of those circumstances Celtic’s squad emerged from the transfer window in better shape than most fans anticipated.
Who deserves the credit for that is anyone’s guess. Postecoglou did have a hands-on roll in bringing in 12 players but after today’s win over Ross County he made it clear that his employment wasn’t build around the judgement of McKay.
? “We just need to be careful about the narrative about who brought me to the club…”
Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou says chief exec Dom McKay leaving after 2 months isn’t a distraction to him… pic.twitter.com/xslMBSUOP2
— Clyde 1 Superscoreboard (@ClydeSSB) September 11, 2021
We just have to be careful about the narrative, about who brought me to the club. All those kind of things.
From my point of view I was as surprised as anyone that Dom resigned yesterday, I’m going to be respectful of him and his family, when people cite personal reasons there is a reason that they do that.
From a club perspective Michael (Nicholson) is now in charge which is good for me. I already know Michael, I’ve already worked with him. My attitude to all this is that we are all just transient figures here, we all pass through this great club, the constants are the ones that come in here (fans) and what they expect, irrespective of what happens is that you get on with representing this football club and try to do your best.
I’ve had that view for my whole career and nothing that has happened recently changes that.