In the midst of speculation that he could become the next manager of Spurs Ange Postecoglou has outlined his medium term plan of where he wants to take Celtic.
It certainly doesn’t sound like the thoughts of someone clearing out their desk and looking for the next stage of their journey.
On Saturday Postecoglou celebrated as much as anyone Celtic’s SPFL title success but while there is a strong element of local bragging rights the Celtic manager sees a bigger picture.
In September Celtic will be back playing group stage football in the Champions League, something that can never be taken for granted with names like Cluj, Ferencvaros, Malmo, Maribor and AEK Athens too fresh in the memory.
Rather than bask in the acclaim and pick up praise from high profile visitors Postecoglou wants to build a team that is comfortable and competitive in the Champions League which requires constantly raising the bar in terms of quality of player.
Speaking to the Daily Record about what is required to develop in Europe the Celtic boss said:
It’s more than investment. There are plenty of examples where investment alone is not the answer. This club needs to play Champions League football on a consistent basis, and being in the position where every – if all the stars align – they can make an impact at that level. That’s not going to happen every year, it might be every three or four.
Hopefully, by being in the Champions League every year, revenues would increase which gives you an opportunity to then look at a different quality of player. But you can’t just have that as your end point, it’s got to be ‘that’ because it gives you ‘this’. You don’t dismiss the Premiership, you don’t just say ‘we want to be champions’.
You want to be champions to give you an opportunity to go into a space where you can be really challenged, and that’s where your growth happens. If it’s just about being champions for being champions, this club’s got a long, long history of doing that.
You’ve seen it in the past with Martin O’Neill reaching a European final or at times getting out of the group stage, the growth comes by being consistently in there. I’m sitting here just now and, hand on heart and without the bias of me being the manager, I think we’re a better side than we were 12 months ago. We needed to be to achieve what we have so far.
That’s got to be the goal next year, to be sitting here saying we are a better team. That doesn’t mean winning the league by 30 points, it may still be a narrow margin, but your football, the way you’re playing, the development of your players has gone to another level.
Postecoglou has clearly studied Celtic’s past failings in Europe, an inability to build on relative success such as Seville in 2003, Gordon Strachan reaching the last 16 of the Champions League in successive seasons and Neil Lennon’s side beating Barcelona to take 10 points from a group and reach the last 16.
With the manager ruling the roost it looks like there could be interesting arrivals over the summer, managed by the guy that many believe is currently the target of manager-less Spurs.
If Ange stays with us I assume it will be because he has been given the money to have a go at the European competitions.
That in turn will mean we will have a team with better quality players, that in itself is a mouthwatering prospect.
I just cannot wait, given Ange likes to get his transfers in done early we shouldn’t have long to wait for a clue as to Ange’s decision about his future.
I have decided not to read anymore speculation regarding Ange’s future