Ange Postecoglou might have arrived at Celtic as an unknown manager in European football, despite his past success in both Japan and Australia. But just a year on, and it is safe to say that most of Europe has taken notice of the job that he has done with the Hoops during his time at the club, under the most difficult of circumstances.
One cannot overlook the fact that when Postecoglou arrived, this was a side that was set to lose several key players over the summer and had finished 25 points behind the Rangers in the previous campaign. And he successfully guided them to a Premiership and League Cup double in his first season in charge. That is a remarkable achievement to be very honest.
Celtic’s game against Real Madrid in the Champions League opener was in many ways a breakout party for the Hoops in the eyes of Europe, as they went toe-to-toe with the current holders and showed how far they had come under the management of Postecoglou.
That has already led to Postecoglou being linked with a move away from Parkhead, with Brighton & Hove Albion a club rumoured to be interested in his services. Alan Stubbs does not believe that the manager would be very interested though.
Would Postecoglou leave Celtic for Brighton & Hove Albion job?
As reported by The Herald, Stubbs said about the Postecoglou situation:
"“When you look where Celtic are in the Champions League and what that can do in terms of your ability to then bring players to the club, I think that is a bigger incentive than trying to sign players – no disrespect – for Brighton.“And there aren’t many places where at 3-0 down you can have 60,000 fans singing your name. Definitely not.“This is a big thing to say, and I know with Brendan Rodgers in the end that it turned a bit sour and a bit acrimonious because of the way he left, but the fans absolutely adored Brendan before that, and Ange for me is well on his way to surpassing that.“That is how much regard they hold him in, he is god-like with the fans already.”"
That is certainly a big claim from Stubbs. Rodgers had won every domestic title available to him during his time at Celtic, before shockingly leaving the club for Leicester City in the middle of a season.
On the other hand, Postecoglou has already managed to establish himself as a cult figure at Celtic, since arriving.
It does very much feel like Postecoglou might be on his way to surpassing Rodgers in terms of popularity, if he has not already. A lot of that has to do with the situation that the former Australian national team boss found the team in and how he guided it out of the dark times so seamlessly.