John Hartson has put his hands up to admit that he called it wrong with the appointment of Ange Postecoglou as manager.
The Greek-Australian came in in the most challenging of circumstances after Peter Lawwell and Neil Lennon had arrogantly presided over a disastrous season that left the club on its knees.
Players that wanted away had been scarred by a year of misery and failure, loanees had departed to leave a threadbare squad neglected in every area.
The new boss was also inheriting expensive flops like Boli Bolingoli, Vakoun Bayo, Marian Shved, Ismaila Soro, Albian Ajeti and Vasolis Barkas.
In response Liam Shaw had been brought in from Sheffield Wednesday with Postecoglou facing a Champions League qualifier just over a month after taking up his job. As an extra obstacle most new signings required to spend a fortnight in quarantine before they could join a training session at their new club.
It was an incredible task but after 50 games in charge Postecoglou has Celtic top of the SPFL with eight matches left to play.
Celtic fans can hardly believe their good fortune with Hartson admitting that he called it wrong last summer, telling the Daily Record:
Celtic have put themselves in this unbelievable position from nowhere, from nine points behind at one stage.
At the start of the season, Celtic couldn’t win the league. Impossible. It was a mess that Ange took over. At the time, I said it was a transitional period.
Look at it: they lost their centre-forward, their best player. They lost their best centre-half. They lost their captain. They didn’t have a manager. The chief executive left – and the team were just: what do we do now?
They brought in Ange. Nobody has ever heard of him. No disrespect, but people were asking ‘who is this guy?’
Even me. I said I thought they should be going for somebody with more of a name. It was total ignorance from myself. There were plenty of us ignorant. Who is this guy? What’s he done? Where’s he been?
But he’s come in and he’s just done unbelievably. The players that he has recruited, the style of football. He has united the full stadium from being very toxic for periods last season.
The way that they play, the Celtic way, front foot, aggressive, go forward, score goals. To think that they’re the position they are in, and they can possibly win the league, is just remarkable.
Ange has already said that he wants to win every competition that he goes into. Europe has been disappointing this season, he would acknowledge that and want to improve, but if you look at the Scottish Cup, Celtic are in it to win it.
With a track record that included appointing Tony Mowbray, Neil Lennon twice and Ronny Deila as manager over the previous 12 years Hartson shouldn’t be too harsh on himself over doubting a board that took 106 days to appoint a manager.
Ecstatically happy to say I was wrong to be underwhelmed by the appointment of Ange. Flair, pace and attacking mindset on the park. Players know their job. Mindset off the park is self belief and a togetherness in the programs set by the manager. What a turnaround from the shambles he inherited. Fantastic job Ange.