Three competitive games. One draw. Two losses. Out of the Champions League. Hammered 6-2 by West Ham United in a friendly. A lack of leaders on the pitch. A lack of reinforcements both up top and in the back. A frustrating recruitment process. Ange Postecoglou is a man who fancies himself a challenge, but the Glasgow Celtic rebuild could be the toughest one that the Australian has ever faced.
An 89th minute goal from John Souttar condemned Celtic to a 2-1 defeat at newly-promoted Hearts of Midlothian – the first time in 24 years that the Bhoys had been beaten in their opening Scottish Premiership match. And the defeat immediately rang alarm bells within Celtic – they had fail to win any of their three competitive games so far and the 51-time Scottish champions were knocked out of the Champions League in the very first hurdle, going out 3-2 on aggregate to Denmark’s FC Midtjylland in the second qualifying round.
The 1-1 draw in the first leg and the 2-1 loss in the second leg in Denmark sandwiched a humiliating 6-2 loss to West Ham at Celtic Park in a pre-season friendly, a result that signifies how much work that Ange must do in restoring the men in hoops’ glory days.
Ange was no stranger to huge projects – Brisbane Roar, Melbourne Victory, the Australia national team, Yokohama F. Marinos, you name it. However, European football proved to be a completely different beast for him to tame.
Celtic themselves were already in turmoil prior to Ange’s arrival. Once Neil Lennon stepped out of the door in February, Celtic played 13 games underneath caretaker John Kennedy.
They only won four of those games – against Falkirk in the Scottish Cup and league games against Aberdeen, Livingston, and surprise double cup winners St Johnstone.
The Hoops, dominant in Scotland before Steven Gerrard’s Glasgow Rangers denied them a 10th consecutive Scottish Premiership title last season, are hoping for a huge overhaul that would see them keep up pace with their ominous city rivals.
To that end, Celtic went out and seek someone brand new to succeed Lennon, someone who will oversee the Celtic rebuilding project. Eddie Howe was approached but he turned down their offer in the last minute, leading the Bhoys to recruit Ange, who won plaudits in Asia thanks to his swashbuckling attacking style of play.
However, as Ange stepped into Celtic Park, he soon realize the scale of work that he must do.
Influential captain Scott Brown, a presence in the midfield that glued Celtic together during their reign over Scottish football, has left for Aberdeen. Following suit was key defender Kristoffer Ajer who left for Premier League new boys Brentford.
Ajer’s departure marked the end of Celtic’s formidable back-line from their golden era underneath Brendan Rodgers and Lennon, consisting of the Norwegian, Kieran Tierney, Mikael Lustig, Dedryck Boyata, and Jozo Simunovic, with Nir Bitton being the only player left from that group of dependable defenders.
Another hallmark player of the Rodgers-Lennon era, Olivier Ntcham, also left the club after his contract had ran out in the off-season.
Granted Celtic still has some talent in Odsonne Edouard, Callum McGregor, Ryan Christie and Leigh Griffiths, however they too have a turbulent pre-season.
New captain McGregor is still trying to learn the ropes of leadership as he inherits Brown’s sizable boots in the midfield, while Christie was dropped to the bench for the Hearts match amidst interest from numerous teams, ranging from Burnley to Crystal Palace, Nice to AS Monaco, and even Saudi Arabian giants Al-Hilal out of all teams.
Christie’s contract runs out this winter and Celtic are currently on a crossroads regarding him – should they retain their midfielder with a new contract, cash him in in his final year, or let him walk way for nothing at all?
Odsonne is also another player whose head isn’t in the game at all, having stopped scoring after Brighton & Hove Albion had declared their interest in the Frenchman.
And regarding Griffiths…the less this writer say about him the better.
The board did show their support for Ange by bringing in four players that he felt would galvanize Celtic to suit his tactics – Liam Shaw was brought in from Sheffield Wednesday with hopes that he could become McGregor’s new partner in midfield, while Carl Starfelt was brought in from Rubin Kazan as a replacement for Ajer.
The arrivals of Liel Abada from Maccabi Petah Tikva and Kyogo Furuhashi from Vissel Kobe should add more exciting options up front, however the duo still has to adjust themselves to the rustle and tussle of Scottish football first.
However, Ange felt that the Celtic board should do more to support him in the transfer market, as the Australian felt that more reinforcements are needed for his squad.
The likes of Scott Bain and Vasilis Barkas are not good enough for the Celtic goal and the Bhoys have been linked with Tottenham Hotspur’s Joe Hart to play as their main goalie.
To improve the team in his image, Ange would also need two new full-backs – with Celtic having failed to find a proper replacement for Tierney since his departure to Arsenal in 2019 – a new centre-back to compliment both Starfelt and Bitton, a leader in midfield to properly succeed Brown, and some new strikers in case Odsonne leaves and Griffiths was unable to find his shooting boots in time.
Unfortunately, the board have failed to adequately provide Ange with the players that he need. This meant that Ange had to mash together a defensive back-line severely lacking the experience necessary to tackle important matches – something that Midtjylland was able to exploit in their disastrous Champions League qualifier.
Ange was also unable to assemble a coaching staff of his own and Celtic also lacked a head of recruitment and a sporting director. This signify how much of a mess Celtic are in right now since the past few months and those in the higher echelons of the club board remain silent throughout the whole chaos.
The problems in Celtic are not Ange’s fault – no matter who’s the head coach should they lack the support of the higher-ups during such an important rebuild like Ange is right now they would undoubtedly struggle as well, but for now the Australian must focus in preparing his squad for a grueling August.
This month alone, Celtic must face a daunting gauntlet of 8 matches – two Europa League qualifiers against FK Jablonec of the Czech Republic, a Scottish League Cup match against Hearts that will provide Celtic an opportunity to pull off a quick revenge on the Jam Tarts for their opening day league defeat, and a crucial Old Firm tie against Gerrard’s Rangers in August 29th among others.
Adding more to the challenge, the end of the summer transfer window looms more and more closer with each passing day, shortening Ange’s chances of bagging his ideal players.
The month of August will indeed become a pivotal point of Ange’s Celtic tenure, very early into his reign in Scotland. Should he successfully navigate his ship despite all the limitations brought onto him, Ange would’ve adjusted himself well with Scottish and European football. But if the decline continue, Ange will follow in the footsteps of compatriots Tony Popovic and Kevin Muscat – highly-rated Australian head coaches who are successful within Asia, but struggled massively in Europe.