‘If players get comfortable, I’ll sign another’ - Celtic keep squad on toes as only one assurance over on Cameron Carter-Vickers and Jota

It can appear that the trick for Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou over the closing months of the season will be keeping his sizeable squad happy.

With the Scottish Cup quarter-final away to Dundee United on Monday night beginning a period where the cinch Premiership leaders have regular midweeks, his two-players-for-every-position will have fewer opportunities to be dropped in and out of his starting line-ups. Yet, spreading the contentment by rationing out game-time isn’t in his thinking when he sees banking outings as on his players, not him.

With English suitors with much deeper pockets circling for Tottenham Hostpsur loanee Cameron Carter-Vickers and Jota, on a season-long deal from Benfica, it could seem another source of difficulty for the Celtic manager will be persuading the pair that the attractions of his club offset greater remuneration elsewhere. Except that Postecoglou is sanguine about that situation. His only demand from them is retaining full focus over the closing two-and-a-bit months of this campaign, which he has no concerns over.

"How do you define happiness? I've never worried about players being happy,” said Postecoglou. “I assume players get their happiness from winning things and being part of something successful. I don't expect them to be walking around with smiles on their faces and singing a tune if they are not playing. I want them to be disappointed and determined to break in, as long as they don't use that in a negative way. At the moment, training is really competitive and at a great level because they want to play and be a part of it - they don't want to miss out. They are disappointed if they miss out, but what they do with that disappointment is come back to training the next day and try