Ange Postecoglou has no fears over Celtic rebuild amid prospect of squad break-up

The prospect of the current Celtic squad being broken up in the aftermath of this Champions League campaign doesn’t cause Ange Postecoglou to fret.

Instead, he actively hopes players are spirited away for high fees because that is the very means required for the growth that can translate into the club making an impact at the highest level. It is how such as Porto, Ajax and Benfica operate and Postecoglou embraces the prospect of Celtic fully replicating their model.

“I think it is an opportunity if our players do well and move on to so-called greener pastures,” he said. “If that is what they want, then there is an opportunity for me to improve the team. Because, if they are going to leave us we are going to get some revenue in. There have been a couple of managers talking about the fact that we spend a lot of money in the transfer market, but we have 60,000 people coming to our games every week. They don’t expect their money to be put in my pocket and just sit in the bank somewhere.

“My responsibility is to make sure that their hard-earned gets invested wisely so that they can be proud of their football teams. That is a responsibility. From the outside sometimes people think ‘ah, just spend money’. But there is a massive responsibility there. I don’t fear losing our players. I see that as part of the process. If you look at clubs who do well at Champions League level that are our size, what do they do? They develop players, sell them on, and replace them with better versions, they hope. That is where I think our growth lies. I think it is part of the process. I don’t fear that. I think that has to happen for us to grow. We need to be bringing money in to be able to keep bringing better players to our football club.”