Ange Postecoglou ‘wants’ Tottenham job; and key Celtic backroom staff

With the news of Ange Postecoglou’s imminent departure to Tottenham Hotspur now intensifying and starting to sink in and being accepted by the Celtic support, a late-night report brought further news to the fans.

Stephen McGowan of The Daily Mail has reported that the Celtic manager had informed the club and Dermot Desmond on Saturday night that he wants to take over at the London club. McGowan also says that Tottenham will look to make a formal approach to Celtic today and that Postecogou wants to take John Kennedy with him.

However, The Daily Record goes one step further and claims that should Ange Postecoglou accept the job at Tottenham, he is ready to take Gavin Strachan as well as Kennedy with him to the English Premier League.

In what would be an unusual move for the Australian, Celtic would face a major headache if Postecoglou did manage to persuade both of his current backroom staff members to make the move down south.

Ange Postecoglou revealed last year that he actually prefers not taking staff with him whenever he moves clubs. At the time Ange said, “People know me. I started at South Melbourne on my own, I went to Brisbane on my own, I went to [Melbourne] Victory on my own. In the national team, I brought Pete Cklamovski with me and took him to Japan. He was the only one that sort of stuck with me a little bit and then he went off and got a job.

“So the reality is that most of the assistant coaches I’ve had are now full-time coaches and that’s the way I wanted it all along. I just prefer it that way. I coach better that way and I love the fact that I can work with new people and get them to believe in what I want to do.”

So if this report is correct, why the change of heart now? Ange clearly trusts Kennedy and Strachan. He is always at pains to praise and credit the pair whenever he wins a managerial award and it looks like now that he is set to take the trusted duo along with him to his next project. And looking at what he is going to inherit at Spurs, he needs all the help he can get.

In what has been a remarkable turnaround for the Celtic coaches, both were awarded a lot of the blame for Celtic’s dismal effort at trying to win ten in a row under Neil Lennon. But now, after the recent success under Ange Postecoglou, it seems that their contribution to that is valued by both the Australian and the Celtic supporters.

Of course, Strachan had the opportunity to leave Celtic just over 18 months ago but turned down the opportunity to manage his old club, Hartlepool United.

And as for John Kennedy? He is no stranger to speculation himself after being previously linked to the vacant Hibernian job four years ago as well as the Hearts job this season.

However this all pans out, the one positive we could take from this is at least is that any new potential Celtic manager will have a clean slate to start his own project at Celtic by bringing in his own people with him. But as usual, this is all remains as speculation at the moment and no doubt Celtic will be preparing some kind of communication to clarify the situation sooner rather than later.

In other news, Why Celtic are in an incredibly strong position for Ange Postecoglou successor search