Celtic’s title win is testimony to Ange Postecoglou’s unrelenting excellence

A t a forum with Celtic supporters last season, Ange Postecoglou was asked what the club could do to retain the services of their manager for a lengthy period of time. Within months of his appointment, the Australian, quite clearly, was revered.

Postecoglou’s reply echoed the intensity that exists within Scottish football, and Glasgow especially. He articulated how he had spent a coaching career longing for this kind of environment. A deep understanding and acceptance of this domain, allied to the demands which come with it, partly explain why Postecoglou’s Celtic perform with such unrelenting intensity.

“I keep saying [to the players]: ‘Don’t waste a minute of it,’” Postecoglou recently said. “Why waste a minute of it? We are doing what we love, we are passionate about our football, we are playing for a special club. Why would you want to waste a game or waste a minute of that thinking about something else? Or thinking that maybe this isn’t what you want?”

Such comment conjures memories of the 2020-21 campaign, the clear outlier in Scotland’s recent domestic history, when a group of influential players decided they had spent quite enough time sampling the delights offered by Ross County and St Johnstone. Associated turmoil was the precursor to Postecoglou’s arrival.

“The memories that these guys will have through their time here, the memories they have created at this football club, you don’t want to waste a minute of it,” the manager added. “And this group doesn’t. Every day they come into training and train like they play. We are coming to the end of the season and you think some might be protecting themselves, but we have to pull back training at times because that’s how hard at it they are. They just embrace that