‘No chance of survival if I didn’t’ - Celtic’s Ange Postecoglou on backdrop to trophy dominance

There is now every chance that come the end of Ange Postecoglou’s second season in Scotland, the Celtic manager will have hoovered up five of the six trophies available to him.

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou maintains days like Sunday's Viaplay Cup win have been made possible by his endeavours in his debut season. (Photo by Paul Devlin / SNS Group)

On the back of the League Cup being stashed following Sunday’s Viaplay final triumph over Rangers, it is only a matter of when the Premiership joins it for the Australian. Courtesy of the holders’ nine-point lead with only 12 games remaining in a campaign wherein they have claimed 73 out of an available 78 points. Meanwhile, the bid for a treble goes on the line in their Scottish Cup quarter-final against Hearts at Tynecastle a week on Saturday. Postecoglou is in no doubt how all of this has been made possible.

It didn’t just require him to pick up a club broken into tiny pieces by the shattering of the previous season’s travails. It didn’t just require him to recover from becoming the first Celtic manager in the club’s history to lose his first three away league games to chase down Rangers as he integrated nine new players into his starting XI, a group that weren’t just required to show immediate promise by snaring the first trophy of last season too, thanks to now replicated League Cup success. Postecoglou is insistent all these building blocks were no less than demanded of him to be in the position he now finds himself.

“Look, most of you were after me. If I didn’t win anything in my first year I had no chance of survival,” the Celtic manager said. “Even though the club have been fantastic with me from day one. The support I have had behind the scenes from the people who matter at this football club has been outstanding. I think they have seen something in me to believe in me, but that wasn’t enough for me. I really felt that I had to deliver if I was going to stay at this football club for any length of time, and deliver in a meaningful way.

“I was determined to do that. I wasn’t going to shy away from it or bide time or ask for patience. I really felt that. Some of it is due to the fact I am 57, mate, so the days are numbering down in terms of how many years I have got left in the game. So I am not going to waste it for myself let alone this football club.”