Ange Postecoglou: More chance of me watching cartoon than Dundee v Rangers, says Celtic boss

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou suggested there was more possibility he would be forced to watch an animated cartoon rather than become animated by the events from Dens Park involving Rangers on Sunday afternoon, speaking after his team’s 4-0 flailing of Ross County.

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou salutes the fans.

The resounding result moved Celtic six points clear of the Ibrox men before their Tayside trip to play catch-up in the cinch Premiership. However, Postecoglou sought to hold to his line that he could not become caught up in the vicarious fascination with how his title rivals might fare in any given game – whatever the impact for Celtic – even when Rangers' Dundee assignment is their final league encounter before they host Celtic in a fortnight’s time.

Asked if he would watch the Rangers game, the Australian sought to make light of a standard line of questioning with which he has largely resisted engaging. "My Sundays are dictated by my wife and kids, mate,” he said. “If Sing 2’s on the TV, or something, then I’ll have to fight for the remote control. It’s not that… look, I get why people are focusing on that and I get why the question’s getting asked and maybe I should just say ‘yes’. In that way people will stop asking it [but] I don’t worry about things I can't control. What we can control is today.

"If we got three points today, why would we even bother about looking at anything else? If we get three points in the next game, why would we bother? We’ve had to be really focused because if we started thinking like that now, we would have been thinking like that at the start and looking at other results when we were on six points and in seventh position after a few games. And that’s where I think you can get caught up in things you can’t control. We’ve done our bit this round, we’re done, so I’ll spend my Sunday with my family. We’ll get back in and ready to go again and we’ll tackle the next game and try and get three points. And we know if we get three points we’re going to be in the same position we are today.”

Postecoglou believes his team delivered a “statement” success in obliterating their visitors at a pumped-up Celtic Park. A victory underpinned by another Giorgos Giakoumakis Parkhead hat-trick, the afternoon witnessed David Turnbull make his injury comeback after three months out. With Kyogo Furuhashi – whose return is still awaited from his 2022 on the sidelines – expected back imminently, the Celtic manager could have his full squad at his disposal for the Ibrox derby on April 3.

"We are in good shape, [though] it's still two weeks away from that,” he said. "We have guys away and others we can do some work with. Until we get everyone back we won't know but at the moment our squad is in the best place it's been all year. If we can get through this international break and keep everyone fit then I think we will be in good shape. After the break it's not just about one game. It's a series of games [with seven left in the league and the Scottish Cup semi-final against Rangers] and we need to be ready for every one of them.”