Why Ange Postecoglou won't re-visit Dermot Desmond 500-miles meeting that should be music to Celtic fans ears

Ange Postecoglou has hit the right note with the Celtic supporters, just as he did during a meeting with Dermot Desmond last summer.

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou says it is 'irrelevant' what other teams do with his team at the top of the league . (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

In an interview released on Friday morning, Celtic’s major shareholder revealed the Australian had quoted lyrics to The Proclaimers’ 500 Miles song to express his desire to take the manager’s job at Parkhead – but Postecoglou insists he didn’t sing it.

Instead it is the supporters now singing his name after he won them over with his brand of football which has taken the club six points clear at the top of the cinch Premiership with six games to go, including Saturday afternoon’s match with St Johnstone.

“I don’t know what I was thinking! There’s the Scottish connection there and you try to get a connection with people. I did say it though... I never sang it!” Postecoglou admitted.

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou quoted the Proclaimers when he met Dermot Desmond, but won't be meeting up again as he's comfortable to 'just get on' with the job. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

“When the opportunity came to speak to Dermot, Peter Lawwell set it up, I had a great chat. Not so much about football, he’d done his research, it was more about me as a person, who I was and my values. We had a great conversation. He has been really supportive of me.”

Though on the same 12-month rolling contract since last June, the relative success so far won’t prompt any further meetings any-time soon. Postecoglou insists there is no reason to, which will be music to the ears of the fan-base won over by his “rebuild” phase one.

“The last thing I want to do is talk to chairmen or Dermot or anyone about my position,” he went on. “As managers we just get on with it. Usually when you have to talk to people involved it’s because you’re worried.

“I’m quite comfortable with the way things are going, I’m really happy and enjoying the role. I still have a helluva lot to accomplish as we are at the first stage of the rebuild.

“Until they tap me on the shoulder and tell me the road is going elsewhere then I will keep doing what I’m doing and be happy about it.”

With the Premier Sports Cup already banked, their six-point advantage plotting a course to the league title, and a Scottish Cup semi-final date with Rangers next weekend, a potential treble is edging onto the horizon and the mood is buoyant. A three-trophy haul in his first season would match the feats of both Martin O’Neill and Brendan Rodgers, and Postecoglou already mirrors the early popularity of both in the east of Glasgow.

“Good company in any situation,” is how he describes the notion. “Great people, both of them. From my perspective what’s important is we have to beat St Johnstone. If we don’t do that I will be having company with other people not mentioned, so I don’t think too far ahead.”

That means no thoughts on how second-placed Rangers fare at St Mirren tomorrow either. Postecoglou famously said he’d be watching a cartoon instead of his rivals’ previous Sunday away fixture – Sing2, appropriately enough – and the idea still stands.

“What other teams do in the competition is irrelevant. If we were chasing a team then I would be looking at other results. But we’re not and we don’t have to look at anyone, if we keep winning we will be in a good spot.”

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