Ange Postecoglou

Ange Postecoglou has been announced as the Glen’s Manager of the Season hot on the heels of previously picking up the PFA Scotland Manager of the Year, closely followed by the Scottish Football Writers' award for the season as well.

The latest accolade, after picking up the past four consecutive Glen’s monthly awards, was announced today, giving the manager a clean sweep of the end-of-term awards to cap a season to remember in his first year in charge of the Hoops, with the big one, the SPFL title, added to the League Cup won earlier in December.


After receiving the SPFL trophy following the 6-0 season finale win over Motherwell on Saturday, the manager said: “I just want to thank everyone involved, the board management,” and pointing over at his fellow backroom Bhoys in the middle of the pitch, he added, “I’ve got the best staff in the land – unbelievable effort.




Today’s announcement is just another feather in the cap to top off a truly magnificent season for the Aussie manager who will be looking forward to a well-earned break but will still be keeping an eye on what is to come for the Celts next season.

The manager said on receiving the award: "As I have said before it is very pleasing to win awards such as this and it shows we have been doing something right and achieved success, but once again it has been earned by the whole group of players and staff at the club as a true collective.

'We’ll dedicate this one to all our fans who have given us such phenomenal support during the season.'

“Celtic Park on Saturday was just one example of this. It really was an atmosphere like no other and a day of celebration it really was a privilege to be part of.

“The club and the fans connected brilliantly again and the players put on a real show, demonstrating exactly why they are Champions of Scotland.”


Colin Matthews, CEO of Glen’s owner the Loch Lomond Group, said: “This has been a really significant first season in charge for Ange Postecoglou, where he has rebuilt the side and held off a strong challenge from Rangers to win the title and secure Champions League group stage football for Celtic next season.

“Celtic’s form throughout the season has seen the manager pick up a series of our monthly awards and there is no doubt he is a worthy winner of the Scottish Premiership Glen’s Manager of the Season award.

“My congratulations to Ange and his team for a superb season.”

Not only will the Celts be out to successfully defend the silverware won this season, but theywill also have that UEFA Champions League football to look forward to.


And thanks to the successful campaign, the Hoops will go straight into the group stages of world football’s top club competition.

 

lol. He is dead man walking

 

The Celts, led by Ange Postecoglou, wrapped up their 10th title of the past 11 years over the past week – an end-of-season finale that culminated with a wonderful Trophy Day celebration that will go down as one of the most memorable in the club’s history.

Over the course of the campaign, there were a whole host of stories, statistics, slogans, scorers and signings that slotted together to bring the SPFL trophy back home to Paradise in the manager’s first season.

Here we take a look at just a few of the facts and figures from a fantastic title campaign.




GOALDEN SIGNINGS
Of the 92 league goals scored by the champions in the title-winning campaign, no fewer than 67 of them have been scored by 10 of the new Bhoys brought in by Ange Postecoglou. The rundown is Giorgos Giakoumakis 13, Kyogo Furuhashi 12, Liel Abada 10, Jota 10, Daizen Maeda 6, Cameron Carter-Vickers 4, Reo Hatate 4, Matt O’Riley 4, Josip Juranovic 3, and Liam Scales 1.

NO PASARAN
From the 38 league outings, no fewer than 20 of them have delivered clean sheets from the most proficient defence in the country. Saturday’s visitors, Motherwell, failed to score in all four games, and the Hoops had two clean sheets against Dundee United, Hibernian, Ross County, St Johnstone and St Mirren, while Dundee, Hearts, Livingston and Rangers also had non-scoring efforts. Strangely, Aberdeen who finished in 10th place are the only side to score in all three games against the Hoops with results of 2-1, 2-1 and 3-2.

FUN RUN
In the run-in to the title, the Hoops went through the final 32 league games without defeat since a loss at Livingston on September 19. On the journey since then, there have been 26 wins and six draws with the Celts scoring 74 goals for the loss of only 18


MISERLY DEFENCE
No side has scored more than two goals against Celtic in any one league game this term. Aside from the 20 clean sheets, there have been 14 single-goal efforts against the Hoops and only four two-goal games by the opposition. Even then, of those four games, the Celts still won three of them - Dundee 4-2, Aberdeen 3-2 and Dundee again 3-2, with the 2-1 defeat at Tynecastle in the opening game being the only negative. Only 22 goals were scored against the Celts in the 38 games and a goal



GIORGY BHOY
Top scorer was Giorgos Giakoumakis on 13 goals who just pipped Kyogo Furuhashi on 12 with both scoring doubles on Trophy Day in the 6-0 win over Motherwell. And Celtic finished the day and the entire campaign in style with the Greek striker scoring the final goal with the very last kick of the game, and the season, to edge ahead of his Japanese team-mate by that solitary goal.



STAT ATTACK
Giako also shares the SPFL top scoring spot with Regan Charles-Cook of Ross County with both hitting the 13-mark over the course of the season. Celtic’s Greek goal-getter actually edges ahead of the Englishman in the stats, though, with his strikes coming in only 21 appearances to the Ross County man’s 37 games. Giako’s on-field stats means he scored a goal every 81 minutes he was on the pitch – over a goal-a-game. Kyogo’s on-field stats also bear witness to a fantastic season as he netted a goal for every 101 minutes on the pitch.


TOP CELTS
Celtic used 35 players including three keepers - Joe Hart, Scott Bain (two games) and Vasilas Barkas (one game), and of the 32 outfield players, the 92 goals were shared between 19 of them, and the vast majority of the non-scorers only played a handful of matches. A total of 16 of the 35 played 10 or fewer games. Joe Hart had the most starts, with 35 games played, and he was closely followed by Carl Starfelt with 34 starts, Cameron Carter-Vickers with 33 and Callum McGregor on 32. Liel Abada actually played in 36 of the 38 games with 24 starts and 12 substitute appearances taking him to that tally.



HATS OFF TO THE CHAMPIONS
There were four hat-tricks scored during the campaign with two of them coming in successive home 6-0 league wins, two of them coming against Dundee and two of them scored by Giorgos Giakoumakis. Kyogo Furuhashi got the ball rolling in the hat-trick stakes in the 6-0 win over Dundee in the club’s first home league game, while in the next such match, this time it was David Turnbull scoring half the goals in the same scoreline over St Mirren. Then Giako took over by netting three in a 3-2 home win over Dundee, in February before doing the same against Ross County in what, for the player, were consecutive home league games, with the Hoops winning 4-0 this time.



SHARP SHOOTERS
Celtic’s best scoreline was the 7-0 win over St Johnstone and that was closely followed by no fewer than three 6-0 wins – the first two home games of the campaign and, of course, the Trophy Day 6-0 win over Motherwell to set the celebrations off in the best possible way. There were four games in which the Hoops netted four goals and no fewer than eight matches in which the Celts hit three goals. So those 16 matches accounted for 65 of the 92 league goals.

NEW BHOYS
Ange Postecoglou signed 14 players who made their league debuts in the title-winning campaign and between them they accounted for no fewer than 302 appearances over the course of the 38 games. Top of the list is Liel Abada with his aforementioned 36 outings in the league, while, at the other end of the scale, Liam Shaw, who spent the bulk of the term on loan at Motherwell where he made eight appearances, made one appearance by coming on for the final 10 minutes of the 0-0 draw at St Mirren in December.

 

I'm waking up with erections again because of him.

He's a cure for ED.

 

No doubt...

But we still have what's left of a totally * up WC campaign to negotiate. I would kill to have Ange back... and I'm a lawyer and a pacifist.

Instead we have Arnie's useless old mates trying their darndest.

* off Arnie!

If you can't pick a decent team (and we do have a decent team) then just * off and die into the absolute oblivion that awaits you.

Erm... but back to Ange.

 

Another day, another new level of love for this man. The ultimate leader.

 

I just hope Ange and Celtic can keep this squad in one piece going into the new season.

We have good players in this team who have won the SPL championship.
Do not be surprised if clubs from the EPL come calling with tempting offers to sign some of our players, especially in positions where they have a need.

I want the Paradise fans next season singing, 'Oh I just can't get enough...."

 

We may have more of a connection than many may think.

' What the Greek was to the ancient world, the Gael will be to the modern'. Patrick Pearse - 1897 essay.

The Irish identified some of their earliest ancestors as the Fir Bolg, mythical refugees who had left Ireland and lived for centuries in Greece before returning to Ireland, where they were driven west to the Aran Islands.

 

Thanks for that George..

 

https://play.acast.com/s/roweybicks/d4b23d2c-e91d-47bd-bd5f-ae99008c0808

 

Article is two years old - what wormhole did you go down to find this one, George?

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/...me-in-the-roots-of-irish-identities-1.4438707

 

I did a unit on Irish Literature when I was at Uni back in the 70s and I clearly remember still, reading material that related to a Greek connection in the early Irish myths. Also studied W.B.Yeats, the Easter Uprising, and the writers of that period,and before, as well. Interesting.

 

He was clever not to be too specific here. It would've been easy to fall into the trap of saying, "We've still to play them 3 more times" or something.

 

https://fb.watch/d6pmrgziJ0/


Ange Rocky vid