Gordon Strachan writing is writing on Celtic Shorts this evening courtesy of our colleagues at Gambling Zone. The former Celtic manager looks at Ange Postecoglou’s situation at Tottenham and previews the match at Ibrox this evening. He talks about his son Gavin working for Ange at Celtic and makes some interesting comments about how Ange’s ideas has shaped the current Celtic team under Brendan Rodgers.
So without further ado we’ll hand over to WGS…
Gordon Strachan launches a passionate defence of Ange Postecoglou and explains why he will be looking forward to returning to Glasgow
It was a match that represented a microcosm of the problems at the club under Ange’s tenure. Throwing away a 2 goal lead against a rival, being in control and letting the opponent back with costly individual mistakes. How does Ange put this right?
He won’t change. Managers and people will say, ‘Stubborn.’ This one’s stubborn. That one’s stubborn. Ferguson was incredibly stubborn. Arsene Wenger was incredibly stubborn. But we’re all stubborn to get to the top. And if you’re right 80% of the time, then you’re going to be a very successful manager. You just have to take the hits because everybody will say you don’t change.
But if you’re changing every week because of every pundit, then you’ll be all over the place, and the players themselves will be confused.
As a player, there’s nothing better when you see a manager and think, ‘I can follow him because he believes in what we’re doing, he believes in me, and he believes in that, so it’s fine.’
I’ve got to say that I did believe that Ange Postecoglou could go into Man United and change it completely, as quick as anybody, I did. Now how long he could have stayed there, it doesn’t matter. I think he would have put them back onto that football that Man United fans expect. Just to go along and get entertained and see that every pass is positive and they’re looking forward. I think Ange could have done that. I really think he could have done that. And that’s what he did at Tottenham. That’s what he did at Celtic. Obviously, a bit easier in the Scottish Premiership. We all know that.
What he’s brought to Tottenham is this positive thinking with all the players. And it’s been great for us as fans, because no matter what happens, if Tottenham are on, we’ll go and watch it, because something’s got to happen. There’ll be great goals, crazy games, disappointment. For Tottenham fans, it doesn’t matter. And the funniest thing about it, because they’ve gone back to this again, but do you know when you speak to fans, what do we want to see? Well, do you want to see positive football? Attacking football? You’re getting it.
But when you ask Tottenham now, they want to be above Arsenal, that’s all they want to do. So, there’s a conundrum here for most managers. If you go to clubs like that, we’ll give you attacking football, you’ve got it, it’s wonderful, it’s great.
They’re all sitting watching that game at the weekend and we all knew at 2-0 that Chelsea weren’t out of the game. We knew it wasn’t finished. It was unfortunate losing a centre-back during the game. Then two of them went down. So, that was a problem, but it was a wonderful game.
Say, Ange does move for whatever reason. Whoever the next manager is, they’ve got to be a very lucky man because he’s got players with a mindset that want to go forward with positive thinking.
At Celtic, when Brendan went in, he had to have a look at it for a while, but I think there’s now a fantastic hybrid at Celtic between Ange and Brendan.
Because Brendan realised, Jesus, these boys just want to go forward and have a bit of imagination. So that will be a legacy. If Ange ever does move on, it will be that legacy of attacking football and leaving players with a wonderful mentality.
I hope he’s there for a while because I do like him as a man, he’s unusual. Gavin (Gordon’s son, Celtic coach) worked with him a long time, and he’s fantastic at work because everybody knows exactly what they’re meant to be doing.
theRangers vs Tottenham tonight
What kind of a welcome can Ange expect when he takes his Tottenham team to (the)Rangers?
I think, for Ange, I think it’ll be great. It’ll be away from the Premier League. It’ll be back to something he knows. He’s going to come under a lot of humour – whatever you want to call it – from Glasgow. It takes your mind away from the kind of pressure of this, that and everything.
I think he’ll enjoy getting out of that English environment, the Premier League. Coming back, there’s new voices speaking to him at interviews. It makes a difference.
Instead of seeing the same faces asking you the same questions all the time. So, I think he’ll enjoy it.
Gordon Strachan
Celtic in the ThirtiesÂ
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