Big Ange is happy in Glasgow. And in other News.

[Joe O'Rourke]

CSA President John Andrews and I had sit down with Big Ange Postecoglou on Friday afternoon at our Lennoxtown Training Complex. It was a very enjoyable meeting with the Boss, he’s certainly a very bubbly and friendly character, and he has certainly took the Celtic ethos and values to his own heart. Ange said he’s very happy in Glasgow, and maybe more importantly, so is his wife and kids, so hopefully he’s going to be around for a considerable time yet, which is real good news.

One of the things he was really happy with, was the fact that Celtic FC had four players through to the last sixteen of the World Cup in Qatar. The experience gained by Cameron-Carter Vickers, Aaron Mooy, Josip Juranovic, and Daizen Maeda, will be invaluable for the players going forward. I know since then CCV’s USA team, and Aaron Mooy’s Aussie team, has lost and are now out of the competition, and it’s a straight fight between Josip and Daizen to see who goes to the quarter finals, and probably from a selfish point of view, I’m not too disappointed in that.

Another topic on the agenda was the Scottish Media, and how they treat Ange himself, and the team in general. Well I think his handling of the question with regards to the newest manager at Sevco spells out exactly how he regards these so-called sports writers, anyone who asks him a stupid question, and expects anything other than a sarcastic response, is in the wrong game. You have to ask yourself, just exactly what did the questioner expect Big Ange to say?

Obviously the main news headline on Friday was the return of Peter Lawwell as the new Chairman of Celtic, starting on January 1st 2023. I asked Ange his thoughts on that, and he said he was delighted that Peter was back at the Club. He confirmed that it was indeed Peter who phoned him to ask if he would be interested in taking on the role at Celtic, to which Ange immediately confirmed he would be delighted to do, so if that helps us as a club to achieve our goals, then we should all be happy.

I have to acknowledge that Peter wasn’t every supporter’s choice to take over the Chairman’s position at the club, but I think the majority are happy that we have a man who is a lifelong supporter with vast experience taking on the job of enhancing the Global Brand of Celtic FC. As a non-executive director he won’t be around the club on a daily basis, but he has a very important role in representing Celtic in boardroom’s up and down the country, while gathering support for any initiatives we may need other clubs support with. I can tell you this, there will be at least one club in the SPL who will not be happy at the return of Peter Lawwell, you won’t need any hints to get who it will be.

I believe that Peter Lawwell could walk into the boardroom of any major football team in the world and be instantly recognised, he also has his position on ECA, there are many changes being proposed by UEFA for the next couple of years with regards to the Champions League format, we need to make sure that we are not on the outside of those discussions. No-one gets it right 100% of the time, the man that never made a mistake never made anything, I believe that you have to get the majority of your decision right, and I believe that his record during his tenure as CEO proves that he did that.

What we need is a united club at every level, from the boardroom and the football team and staff, right down to us the supporters, we can only progress with that commitment from us all, we need to try to move forward and stop looking backwards. A lot of things have happened in the past that didn’t please me, but we can’t do anything about it now, let’s focus on the future. I know Peter Lawwell very well, I’ve dealt with him since he came back into the club in 2003, and like all relationships, we’ve had a few real dingdongs through the years, but what we have always done the next time we met, was shake hands and get on with business, that’s what we need to do now, concentrate all our energies on winning trophies, the League Title is more important now than it ever was, so Let’s Go Celtic.
Glasgow’s Green & White …. We Never Stop ……