Ange Postecoglou mentions Celtic player in Tottenham presser

Tottenham Hotspur have made a flying start to the season and Ange Postecoglou seems to be enjoying life in the Premier League. With a win over Manchester United already in the bag, the Australian has quickly gone from ‘unknown’ to one of the managers to watch out for. Of course, it will come as no surprise to Celtic fans. They have seen this movie before.

Postecoglou arrived at Celtic Park under similar circumstances. By the time he left, he had won five out of the six domestic trophies he had competed for.

It would be safe to say that some Celtic fans might be already starting to miss Postecoglou. The team look like a shell of the one from last season.

Celtic are expected to make quite a few signings over the next week, as they look to bring their season on track. Unfortunately, they appear to be missing the eye for talent that Postecoglou had.

Postecoglou mentions Celtic player in Tottenham presser

One of the best signings that Celtic made during Postecoglou’s time at the club is Reo Hatate. The Japanese midfielder has not looked nearly as good under the management of Brendan Rodgers. On the other hand, the Australian had tried to sign Kaoru Mitoma as well but he ended up joining Brighton & Hove Albion and is the talk of the Premier League right now.

As reported by Football Scotland, when asked about Mitoma in his Tottenham Hotspur presser, Postecoglou said:

"“I watched Mitoma’s debut, I was on the opposition bench, he’d come straight from uni and destroyed us. I knew nothing about him and said to my opposition guys, ‘Who is this guy? He’s just come from uni how good can he be?’“He put his school books away and he blew us away, him and Hatate that day. We played Kawasaki and we were champions. These are guys from university straight into senior football.“I did (try to sign Mitoma at Celtic), but Brighton were too sharp for me. I ended up getting Reo but I said to the guys at Celtic at the time, Brighton put Mitoma on loan to Belgium, I said watch this guy when he hits the Premier League he’s gonna rip it apart, I knew.“I was exposed to that by having this different journey and that changed my thinking.“You take that open mindedness into the next role and when I went to Scotland I thought I’m gonna bring three or four Japanese and they’re gonna make it here and people said it was a bit radical, but it’s not actually.“I’m the same here and it’s not just about Japan, when you’re looking at players don’t just look at what everyone else is looking at.“There’s obviously a reason you pay premium for some players, you understand the talents there but I don’t believe that best talent is just at the £50million to £100million market. There’s some very good footballers if you’re prepared to look beyond what everyone else is looking at, you’ll be surprised what you find.”"

Of course, someone like Mitoma would have been a fantastic signing for Celtic. But it is quite clear that he made a great decision for his career.

On the other hand, Celtic need to make sure that they are able to keep Hatate at the club. He might not have made a great start to the season but he is a supreme talent.