Ange Postecoglou New Manager at Celtic

06/14/2021 2358

The 2020/21 season was one to forget for Celtic fans as they finished well behind bitter rivals Rangers in the Scottish title race. Neil Lennon left the club during a season which saw the end of their nine-year title dominance and 12 successive domestic trophies.

It took the club 106 days to appoint a new manager and Ange Postecoglou has been given the job of taking Celtic back to the top all Scottish football.

The former Australia national team manager is only one part of the changes at Celtic Park. Dominic McKay has replaced Peter Lawwell as chief executive following his 17 years at the club and there will be a new technical director appointed following the departure of head of football operations, Nick Hammond.

Interestingly, Postecoglou was not the first choice and Celtic attempted to appoint former Bournemouth manager, Eddie Howe. However, following a long and drawn out pursuit of the Englishman, the deal collapsed and the Glasgow based giants moved for Postecoglou.

The Greek-born Australian has plenty of work to do and will begin by taking a look at his squad of players. Scott Brown has already left the club to join Aberdeen and Postecoglou will be looking at the futures of Odsonne Edouard, Kristoffer Ajer and Ryan Christie.

With Brown having left, Celtic will be looking for a new club captain and it is believed Callum McGregor is the man most likely to be nominated for the role.

All three of the key players highlighted above are in the final twelve months of their contract and would have little trouble in attracting interest from elsewhere.

Edouard has plenty of European admirers and there has been reported interest from the English Premier League. Norwegian defender, Ajer, has already announced his intention to leave Celtic this summer Newcastle United have been strongly linked with a bid.

Christie will have the opportunity to show what he is capable of at the European Championship and could be a steal.

Shane Duffy, Jonjoe Kenny, Diego Laxalt, and Mohamed Elyounoussi all played for Celtic throughout last season but were on loan. The four players have since returned to their parent clubs but there has been some players returning to Celtic following loan spells.

Of the players returning to the club, midfielder Olivier Ntcham, full-back Boli Bolingoli, and Scotland centre-back Jack Hendry have the best chance of forcing their way back into the Celtic team next season.

Player recruitment is going to play a major role in the success of Celtic next season. There is money available to spend but with the European Championship taking place it is going to be difficult to bring in players until the tournament has ended in July.

Celtic's season begins with the second round of Champions League qualifying and there is little time to waste but Postecoglou may be forced to use what he already has at his disposal, for the time being at least.