The Celtic insider line on Ange Postecoglou declaring 'this guy has balls' saw sorcery sink cynicism – Keith Jackson

For those of us who have had to learn to live with the daily inconveniences of dyslexia, this was an appointment designed to make the heart sink.

Ange Poste-what-now? Celtic manager.

With his arrival in Glasgow’s east end came the realisation it was going to take a couple of weeks just to perfect pronouncing the name, never mind spelling it.

The only crumb of comfort, a sense of inevitability that he would probably be someone else’s problem in just a few months’ time. I mean, this was never going to work out. How could it?

Hands up, there are many of us who owe this gruff, straight talking Australian a huge apology for ever doubting him in the first place.

And that’s not restricted only to the pundits and media ‘experts’ who suspected he was biting off more than he could possibly chew.

There were plenty of Celtic fans out there too who were whipping themselves up into a state of high anxiety at the thought of a relative unknown being shoehorned into what had become a full-blown crisis situation.

Suffice to say, on Wednesday night on Tayside, Postecoglou earned himself a far more manageable moniker.

From now on let’s just refer to him as the Wizard of Oz because what he has achieved in these past 11 months has been some kind of sorcery – turning the seemingly impossible into silver-lined reality and unifying a club which appeared to be fractured beyond repair.

His impact on Celtic has been a real life magic trick but it’s been no sleight of hand. What we have witnessed here is not some cheap illusion. This is the multi-million pound manifestation of a manager with an iron will, a contemporary philosophy and the courage of his own convictions.

Put it this way, the day after Eddie Howe finally headed for the hills