The coaching resume of Ange Postecoglou continues to grow after leading Celtic to the Scottish Premiership. Surely it’s only a matter of time before he ends up in England.
When Ange Postecoglou took over Celtic at the start of the season, most fans did not know who he was. That has now changed, with growing speculation he will soon end up in the English Premier League.
Twelve months ago, even the most die-hard, passionate Celtic fans would not have believed that their club could win the Scottish Premiership this season.
Celtic were struggling – they had no manager, bitter rivals Rangers had won the title by a huge 25 points, for the first season since 2009/10 Celtic ended the season trophy-less, players were leaving and fans were disillusioned with the club.
Postecoglou was then handed the difficult job of bringing success back to Celtic.
For the fans, they were left unimpressed early on. However, if proper due diligence was done on Postecoglou’s resume, those first impressions might’ve been different.
In 2009, Postecoglou started the rebuild at the Brisbane Roar and released numerous players from the club, much like he was planning to do at Celtic.
He had the Roar playing entertaining, possession-based football with the team being dubbed ‘Roarcelona’ and going on an incredible 36-game unbeaten run.
The 56-year-old led them to back-to-back A-League championships, a premiership and consecutive qualifications for the AFC Champions League.
Embed from Getty ImagesPostecoglou then signed on as Melbourne Victory coach and the side reached the preliminary final against the Central Coast Mariners in the 2012/13 A-League season.
In October 2013, Postecoglou was given the honour of becoming the Socceroos head coach.
He guided the Socceroos through a difficult 2014 FIFA World Cup group featuring Spain, the Netherlands and Chile.
Although the Socceroos lost all three matches, Postecoglou was praised by the fans for the team’s fighting spirit and the attractive brand.
In 2015, he delivered success to the Socceroos when Australia won its first ever Asian Cup title with a 2-1 extra-time win over South Korea in Sydney.
After leading the Socceroos through a successful qualification campaign, Postecoglou quit as head coach months before the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
He then became head coach of Japanese side Yokohama F Marinos, a team that had not won a title in 15 years.
Marinos finished 12th in Postecoglou’s first season in charge, before the side won the J-League title in 2019.
At Celtic, Postecoglou signed a 12-month rolling contract in June 2021 and became the first Australian manager to coach a major club in Europe.
Following Celtic’s title success, the club will want to act fast and sign Postecoglou to a long-term deal.
With the English Premier League season coming to an end, speculation will build that Postecoglou will be offered a head coaching role.
The off season is always full of rumours so no doubt Postecoglou’s name will get thrown around.
If not next season, it won’t be long before Postecoglou is in charge of a big club in England. Given what he’s already done, nobody can question he deserves an opportunity in the UK. It’s important, though, he gets the timing and the destination right.
