Ange Postecoglou Handed Celtic Reality Check by Man Utd Legend
Ange Postecoglou will always be revered in Celtic history as one of the club’s most successful and popular managers over his two-year stint in Parkhead.
Celtic dominated Scottish football under the management of Postecoglou, and he led them to five trophies including league titles in back-to-back seasons and a treble before departing for Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur.
Postecoglou’s Celtic had a daring style of play, best illustrated in their 9-0 away win over Dundee United in the worst home defeat in Scottish Premiership history. It was an outstanding display featuring a pair of hat tricks by a couple of their former players, Kyogo Furuhashi and Liel Abada.
The one-sided win for Celtic is a distant rearview memory for the current Tottenham manager, whose current club have been struggling due to injuries.
It’s hard to field a competitive squad when pretty much every defensive starter is sidelined by injury, including the critical core of centre-backs Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven.
Postecoglou has been unable to stop the spiral with such strained squad, and Tottenham Hotspur find themselves in 14th place. They’ve only won two of their last 14 league matches.
But such is the life of football managers, according to his former midfielder Roy Keane, as 67 Hail Hail reports.
On the Overlap’s Stick to Football podcast, Keane seemed to have little sympathy for the situation Postecoglou is facing at Tottenham Hotpur right now. The Manchester United legend said: "When Ange was the manager of Celtic, he’s playing Dundee and Hibs every week, and they’ve got the smallest squads ever!
“I don’t think Ange was feeling sorry for them. So no, it’s Ange’s time now to suffer. You have to suffer, Ange, like lots of other managers.
“Celtic have the biggest budget and the best players, and you think he’d have sympathy at Dundee (United) when he was winning 7, 8, 9-0?
“After the game saying, ‘oh I feel for the other manager, they’ve got a small budget’. He didn’t care less!"
Keane doesn’t think Postecoglou felt any qualms about defeatingg opponents with smaller budgets than Celtic and was perfectly happy to prevail in Scotland. He referenced the 9-0 win over Dundee United.
While Postecoglou was able to innovate at the helm of the Hoops, his time at Tottenham has proved less seamless for the former Celtic hero to manage.
Maddy Hudak is the deputy editor for Tulane on Sports Illustrated and the radio sideline reporter for their football team. Maddy is an alumnus of Tulane University, and graduated in 2016 with a degree in psychology. She went on to obtain a Master of Legal Studies while working as a research coordinator at the VA Hospital, and in jury consulting. During this time, Maddy began covering the New Orleans Saints with SB Nation, and USA Today. She moved to New Orleans in 2021 to pursue a career in sports and became Tulane's sideline reporter that season. She enters her fourth year with the team now covering the program on Sports Illustrated, and will use insights from features and interviews in the live radio broadcast. You can follow her on X at @MaddyHudak_94, or if you have any questions or comments, she can be reached via email at maddy.hudak1@gmail.com