The summer transfer window opens again on 10th June and Celtic fans are beginning to get excited about what potential new recruits manager Ange Postecoglou will be looking to bring to the club.
As I wrote about a few days ago now, we have an established core group of players and playing style, and with Champions League group stage football secured for next season, many fans are hoping for perhaps 3-4 additions that will really strengthen our first team and take us to that next level.
You ca read that article below:
And Celtic supporters might just get their wish, as Big Ange has opened up about what Celtic’s summer transfer dealings could look like:
“I think it’s fair to say we are in the second year and things are embedded, that includes the core playing group. But that also gives you the opportunity to grow as a team. Part of that challenge will be the more success you have the more likely it will be that some of your players will move on.”
“They get the attention of other clubs. We have to be ready to fill those gaps with players who have the ability to take us to another level altogether. So there is always those challenges there.”
“Another year you get to the point where there is any great certainty about the team we are finishing with and the team we will be starting the new season with.”
“You always go into any window that there is going to be some uncertainty. “Well, I think we are going really well. In every window we have had so far since I have been here we have come out stronger in terms of that squad depth or just having a better quality of player than we had going in and that is what we will try and do.”
And Postecoglou has reaffirmed that he will continue to take a ‘hands-on’ role when it comes to bringing players into the football club:
“Look, it’s an important part of my role. I’ve always felt it was an important part of my role, particularly with the nature of the task I had. It wasn’t like I was picking up an established or core group of players. It was a team that needed rebuilding.”
“I knew our best chance of being successful with that would be if I had a massive influence over who came into the club, both players and staff. I knew what I wanted, I knew what we needed to look like.”
“The club were really good in trusting me with that process. We obviously had success fairly early in terms of our recruiting and I think I gained the trust of people at the club through that.”
“Since then, it has worked really well. They have faith the players I identify and bring in are going to enhance our football club.”
“I have always found that every year, and I have obviously been doing this for quite a while, there is always a different challenge.”
“Last year was about building a team, building some belief, building some trust and faith in me and what we were doing and trying within that context to try and have some success after a year where the football club I was representing went trophyless.”
“I knew that I couldn’t do another season like that. We had to have success. “That was a different mindset. This year was more about, well, we have had that success now, people maybe saw it as an unexpected success, but how are the players going to come back, how was I going to push them on to another level I knew we had to go.”
“I really felt we couldn’t stand still in terms of our football.”
Judging by Ange’s comments, it definitely looks like supporters are in for an exciting summer.
