ANGE Postecoglou will be well placed to oversee an extensive rebuild of the Parkhead squad this summer if he is appointed Celtic manager after utilising the City Football Group’s renowned global scouting network at Yokohama F Marinos in Japan for the past three-and-a-half years.

And the Greek-born coach also possesses, despite spending the majority of his career to date in Australia, extensive contacts throughout European football who he will be able to tap in to if he agrees to take over at the Glasgow giants in the coming days.

Those were the confident predictions from Craig Moore, the former Rangers captain who has both played under and worked alongside Postecoglou in the past, yesterday as the appointment of the former Socceroos supremo edged closer.

Celtic supporters were surprised when they learned who the Parkhead board had targeted after their pursuit of Eddie Howe, the former Bournemouth manager who had seemed to be a certainty to replace Neil Lennon, ended suddenly last week for reasons “outwith their control”.

The fact the 55-year-old has only worked briefly in this continent – he spent 10 months at third tier Panachaiki in his native Greece way back in 2008 – has led many fans to question if he is the right man to take over at this critical juncture.

Captain Scott Brown has moved on after 14 years in the East End and many of his former team mates, including centre half Kristoffer Ajer, playmaker Ryan Christie and striker Odsonne Edouard, could depart in the coming weeks as well.

Whoever comes in will have to make several excellent acquisitions in the transfer market ahead of the opening Champions League qualifiers in July.

However, Moore, who was a member of Postecoglou’s backroom team when Australia won the Asian Cup in 2015, has no concerns whatsoever about his old colleague’s ability to carry out an overhaul of the Celtic squad.

He feels the time the PFA Manager of the Decade has spent with the Yokohama Marinos – who are part-owned by the City Football Group, the holding company that runs Manchester City and is involved with many other clubs around the world - will prove invaluable to him.

The defender, who helped Rangers to complete Nine-In-A-Row during his time at Ibrox in the 1990s, believes that the first Australian to win the J-League will have no difficulty adapting to Scottish or European football.

“Ange is a proven coach,” he said. “He has coached at international level, he has been successful at international level. He has gone to Japan and done extremely well there. He has won a J-League title with Yokohama, who were basically a mid-table team when he joined them.

“People are saying: ‘Well, what does he know about Scotland?’ When he was the Socceroos coach Jackson Irvine and Tom Rogic were playing in Scotland. He was watching Scottish game years ago. He is very knowledgeable about Scottish and European football. He is a student of the game.”

If Postecoglou is brought in by Celtic he will face a huge task building a team capable to deposing Rangers, who went undefeated in all 38 of their Premiership matches in the 2020/21 season as they landed their first Scottish title in 10 years, as the dominant force in the country next term.

But Moore said: “A lot depends on the roster of players he has available to him. But players leaving creates the chance for him to put his own imprint on the team. I don’t forsee any issues.

“When it comes to attracting the right players, Celtic is a massive football club and they will always be able to attract top players. Ange has been working with the City Football Group because that is who owns Yokohama F Marinos. They have good a pretty star scouting network. It is not going to be new to him.

“He has managed in international football, he has managed at the World Cup. He had a brief coaching spell in Greece. He lives and breathes football. He follows football 24/7.

“He has got a great knowledge of European football, has got good European contacts and knows what European football is all about. He has won trophies wherever he has been and I am sure he will do the same if he goes to Celtic.

“He thrives under pressure and has always been desperate to do well. If it does come off, I will have to say: ‘Fair play to Celtic for going for him’.”

There was a sense of anticipation among Celtic fans about the impending arrival of Howe, who performed wonders during his time with Bournemouth, but Moore feels the Parkhead club will actually have a far more accomplished coach if they bring in Postecoglou

“Around 20 or 30 years ago, before any Australian players had come across and done well in the Premier League in England, there was not a particularly high regard of Australian footballers,” he said.

“Then you get one going over and everyone says: ‘Australians have good mentality, great character, excellent in the dressing room, good athletes’. Then all of a sudden you have 20 or 30 of them at many of the biggest clubs in Europe.

“The coaching scenario isn’t any different for me. Ange is the one who has made coaches in Australia aspire to go on to bigger and better things. We have a lot of Australian coaches who have playing experience in Europe. For people to suggest these people are rookies is a little bit ignorant.

“Celtic were in the hunt for Edddie Howe. But Eddie Howe doesn’t have the experience of the manager who they may now bring in.

“The reaction has been no surprise to me. In the UK they tend to follow the British coaches. There are Scottish coaches who have never had the experience of being in charge at one of the Old Firm clubs, of being under pressure, of only ever being one game away from disaster.

 

“What I do know is that this would be a job that Ange would have no fear whatsoever of going into.”