Ange Postecoglou reckons rival bosses are deliberately using words such as “easy” and “lucky” to take some shine from Celtic’s achievements.
The boss has hit back at notions success is simple for the Parkhead outfit and insists he and his team graft hard for what they get. Hibs boss Lee Johnson this week suggested Postecoglou might get to a point where it feels too easy in the Premiership. Previously, Rangers manager Michael Beale used the word lucky when discussing Celtic’s spending capacity in the transfer market.
Postecoglou has taken clear note and retorted: “Every manager is allowed to use their platform in any way they want and say what they want. I don’t think it’s accidental that the words lucky and easy are used. They aren’t words I would use to describe any manager. If you are in this job, irrespective of anything, the one thing you know is that it’s not easy. If people think I come in here at midday, spend a couple of hours, have a cappuccino and then go home to the family, then they are kidding themselves on.
“I think they know that, but the use of those words is probably deliberate. That’s fine. If that is what people believe, they are allowed to do that. What I know is that within this building, nothing comes easy for us.
“We need to work hard and there are a lot of expectations on the players and the staff every day. That’s what we do. Whether that impresses others or doesn’t, the only thing we care about is our supporters. And they are pretty happy with how we are going.
“It’s pretty much known that we are playing under huge pressure every week. If other people think that’s easy in some way, then that’s their opinion.”
Celtic have won 27 of their last 28 domestic games heading to face Ross County in Dingwall tomorrow, but Postecoglou expects nothing easy.
He said: “They [teams] all have something to play for, but we are also extremely motivated. In certain games, there can be desperation around everything, but you just need to be ready for that. We have been up to Dingwall a few times now and it’s always a good challenge.
“They set up well defensively, they have physicality and there will be threats we need to deal with. But if we impose our own football on the game, we know we are hard to stop. We knew we had that mid-section of the season from the end of the World Cup up to the international break.
“We really felt we could take our football to another level and put ourselves in a good position going into the final stretch. We did that. Our results were outstanding but so was our football and we scored a lot of goals. Now it’s about the final push.
“There are significant games to play in the league and we also have the cup semi-final. There is plenty to look forward to and the players just want to finish the season strongly and see where it takes us.”
Postecoglou will be without Liel Abada, James Forrest and Anthony Ralston, while there are also fitness concerns over Reo Hatate and Aaron Mooy.
The boss said: “James Forrest will be out for a little while, Liel and Anthony Ralston will probably be out for a couple of weeks.
“Reo and Aaron are progressing. We will see how training goes on Saturday, but they should be okay for next weekend. They are not long term. Daizen Maeda is fine. He has trained and Japan were being cautious with him. Greg [Taylor] and Cameron [Carter-Vickers] are fine.”
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