Inside the mind of Ange as Celtic boss turns stars into wounded animals that haven’t even been hurt

There was a hint of the wounded animal about Celtic at the weekend as they came out roaring against Hibs like a side with a point to prove.

Ange Postecoglou set the tone. His ferocious defence of his squad’s performances in the Champions League, snapping back at being lumped in with the rest of the Scottish club’s who’d suffered in Europe. The Hoops boss got the response he wanted as his players tore into Hibs to banish an Euro blues and then fired a few more shots at the snipers after the final whistle.

It was the reaction Postecoglou wanted but it did leave some wondering who he was aiming his ire at. After all, there was no real savage criticism of Celtic after the Leipzig game. Sure there was analysis, and while there were references to a run of poor Scottish results, no one really chucked the Hoops result in with Rangers and Hearts shipping seven and five to Liverpool and Fiorentina.

It looked like a classic case of a managerial mind games to wind up his players – and it worked a treat. It didn’t go unnoticed by former Celt Mark McGhee. As a gaffer with nearly 1000 games in the dugout, the Hoops hero is known a master at finding ways to motivate players, sometimes by wild and wacky means.

And he said: “It’s funny. My son Archie is now playing rugby and they were playing against this fancy big school and his teacher came over and said he’d heard their boys saying they didn’t think this lot would beat their third team. He said, ‘We were so angry…’

“I just smiled. I’d bet they never said anything like that but the teacher was just using it as a method of winding them up!

“The vast majority of players are intelligent boys and you can’t kid them on too much. They are not 14 like Archie.

“They’ll think about what