03 June 2023

Ange Postecoglou wants to savour Celtic’s success, not discuss the future

03 June 2023

Ange Postecoglou vowed to enjoy Celtic’s record-breaking treble for as long as he could before someone “drags” him away to focus on other issues as he continued to dodge questions over his future.

Postecoglou is odds-on favourite to take over at Tottenham and refused to give any indication on whether he would be departing Celtic Park after making it five trophies in two seasons with a 3-1 Scottish Cup win over Inverness.

Many Celtic fans fear their manager is London-bound and he would not give any assurances to the contrary.

“I will say to them what I said to the players, let’s enjoy this,” he said. “I deserve to enjoy this, the people around me deserve to enjoy this.

“Whatever other people want to focus on and talk about, I am not going to miss enjoying this moment with this group of people but also I owe it to my family, my friends, all of those closest to me.

“Everyone works hard and makes sacrifices to enjoy these moments. I understand that other people who aren’t invested in it want to ask these questions but for me, right now, the most important thing is that we reflect and just be in the moment of creating something special.”

I deserve to enjoy this, the people around me deserve to enjoy this

When it was pointed out that fans who are heavily-invested in Celtic are among those asking the questions, the 57-year-old said: “Yeah, but they deserve to enjoy this moment because, irrespective of what happens in the future, why would you not want to enjoy this moment just for what it is? It’s something historic.”

When asked if he anticipated being in Glasgow next season, the former Australia head coach said: “I anticipate enjoying this moment for the next 24-48 hours, as long as I can, before someone drags me away and takes my attention away from enjoying something that’s been hard-earned.

“The reality is, there’s probably players in that dressing room who won’t be here next year. That’s the nature of football.

“But I want them to enjoy it, I am going to enjoy it, and that’s all I am going to focus on until someone grabs me by the collar and tells me that I have to answer certain questions.”

Celtic sealed a world-record eighth treble, putting them ahead of Rangers, and a fifth in seven years.

Goals from Kyogo Furuhashi and Liel Abada put them in command and Jota clinched the trophy in stoppage-time after Dan MacKay’s header had briefly given Caley Thistle hope.

Postecoglou said: “It’s a little bit surreal when you think about what we have achieved.

“Coming off the back of last year when probably we had unexpected success in terms of a double and there was a gap there with the Scottish Cup.

“The challenge was to come back bigger and better and try and improve. It’s easy for me to say that but the lads have embraced every challenge along the way. For us to do that we needed to fill that gap we had last year.

“This football club has got an unbelievable history of success and this group now they have their small bit of history which is theirs forever. I couldn’t be prouder of them.”

Postecoglou follows Jock Stein, Martin O’Neill, Brendan Rodgers and NeilLennon in leading Celtic to a domestic clean sweep, the former threw in the European Cup with his first one.

“It’s enormous pride I am able to get my own little bit of history,” he said.

“When you join this football club you understand it’s a great opportunity but there is also great responsibility there. There are certain levels of performance and success you have to deliver. You take that on board and to do something that few have done is pretty special.

“All the success I have had in my career is all special in its own way but this one I am extremely proud of.”

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