Ange Postecoglou was in the mix for 16 different jobs during the season just ended according to a credible report from Australia.
Frank Trimboli is credited with pushing the former Yokohama F Marinos boss to Celtic in the spring of 2021 but his mission didn’t end there.
According to Keep Up Postecoglou’s final career destination was always to manage in England with agent Trimboli sharing the same ambition.
Throughout last season it was almost automatic that the Celtic boss would be linked within an hour or two of any EPL vacancy, while some of that was simply speculative there was substance to at least of those stories.
Profiling the route to Tottenham, Keep Up explains:
His stunning first 18 months at Celtic prompted strong interest from south of the border. And he could have been a Premier League manager sooner than June 2023.
Postecoglou was in the mix for many of the 16 jobs that became available in the 2022/23 season and was understood to have been a frontrunner for at least three positions.
Brighton, Wolves and Southampton are believed to have made a play for Postecoglou in the last nine months.
But Postecoglou was adamant he did not want to leave Celtic in the lurch and his long-term plan – if and when the right job became available – was joining a Premier League club in pre-season, rather than following the Brendan Rodgers and Steven Gerrard route of moving south mid-season.
When Postecoglou completed another productive transfer window in January, he remained focused on building a squad with the intent of staying at Celtic in 2023/24 and attacking the Champions League with vigour.
But interest grew and Antonio Conte’s sensational combustion and Spurs’ ensuing capitulation saw everything change.
With that level of interest and no new contract agreed the Celtic board really should have been given plenty of notice about Postecoglou’s plans.
Who do you want as the next Celtic manger?
Brendan- He is the best available
Kjetil Knutsen- Fresh, ambitious, exciting
Enzo Maresca- if Pep rates him highly...
None of them for me- other options out there
Celtic’s connections with the City Football Group have been highlighted this week but they could do worse that consult with Trimboli on who should succeed their recently departed manager.
Who were the other 13 clubs there wasn’t that many mngrs sacked,is this meant to make us feel better that he could have left earlier.He is just a rat that used us to profile himself,as for slapping the badge was a joke
Brighton,Wolves,Southampton,Leeds,Chelsea,Tottenham,Everton,Aston Villa,Crystal Palace,Leicester all sacked their managers … Notts Forest and West Ham were close to do so , Leeds Southampton and Tottenham all fired their replacement manager .. so it MAY have been true .. Let’s face it in the back of our minds we GUESSED that he would have probably gone this time next year .. he is a PROFESSIONAL with no strong emotional ties to the club . And to be honest I would prefer another PROFESSIONAL who gives us 2 years and wins everything to a CELLIC MAN who doesn’t. I don’t want Kennedy as I believe he needs to go out on his own and win something as a manager (that’s if he sees himself as a manager and not a number 2 or DOF )
The only sort of clubs who managers don’t walk out on to move up the ladder are the likes of Real Madrid & Manchester United (even Man City now) etc. However we might perceive ourselves, to the rest of the world we certainly aren’t in that bracket, and we definitely don’t pay like they do! So good luck to him at Spurs (although I lean more towards Arsenal), after 25+ years as a manager he deserves his tilt at the EPL, even if I think he has picked the wrong club. He won 5 of the 6 domestic trophies he competed for, saw off two iBrox managers leaving us facing a gibbering buffoon and had the decency to time his departure 2 days into the close season allowing plenty time for a replacement to be found (Brendan take note), leaving behind an exciting team, a squad of some value, a place in the group stages of the Champions League and with a decent sized compensation cheque in the post (or maybe CCV’s remaining transfer fee instalments cancelled instead).
This is the sort of disappointment I can cope with.