Ange had to pull people out of the ticket office- Chris Sutton’s brilliant throwback comment

Chris Sutton has paid tribute to Ange Postecoglu’s squad building and player management with a great reference to last season’s juggling act.

After a couple of intensive months reliant on a core of around 15 players the Celtic squad was falling to pieces as they moved into December.

At the start of the month against Hearts Jota suffered a hamstring in jury, a week later against Real Betis Albian Ajeti and Kyogo Furuhashi suffered the same injury.

Kyogo made it to the League Cup Final but David Turnbull’s hamstring went in the first half although the trophy was won.

Liam Shaw came off the bench for his only domestic match when Owen Moffat started in the 0-0 draw away to St Mirren.

When Celtic finished 2021 with a win over St Johnstone Kyogo was crocked again, Vasilis Barkas was in goals with a bench that included Ryan Mullen, Boli Bolingoli, Ben Doak, Moffat, Adam Montgomery and making what is likely to be his only ever Celtic appearance, Joey Dawson.

Referring to that period 11 months ago, Sutton told the Daily Record:

Postecoglou was having to pull people out of the ticket office to fill a bench at times at the tail end of last year with resources stretched and he hit the transfer market in January and last summer to ensure he’d be ready for this season. It’s been a gamble. Making five and six changes going to places like Tynecastle for difficult away games is a risk. Losing points creates problems for the following game. Pressure builds.

This season no-one from the B team has made it onto the bench. Yosuke Ideguchi and James McCarthy have regularly struggled to make the 20 man match-day squad.

With more signings coming in January the Celtic squad looks like getting even stronger with the stamp of Postecoglou on every arrival.