Didier Agathe was part of the Martin O’Neill masterplan that delivered Celtic the Treble inside the manager’s first year at the helm.
And having looked at Ange Postecoglou’s work in the past nine months, the Frenchman believes exactly the same thing is going to happen.
Agathe has been blown away by the outstanding job the Australian has done as his new-look outfit look to sweep the domestic board.
With a Premier Sports Cup already in the bag, Celtic go into Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final against Rangers with a six-point Premiership lead over their Glasgow rivals ahead of the post-split programme of five games.
Agathe was recruited by O’Neill to fit into a system and an ideology, the winger slotting into the Irishman’s freshly built set-up in August 2000 to collect the Treble the following May.
He’s watched Postecoglou do his own smart recruitment work. At the same time, the Celtic boss has taken the supporters along with him for the ride as they have lapped up his team’s performances on top of his sharp narrative since his appointment.
Agathe said: “From the outside, it seems he loves the club, he loves football and, most importantly, he loves the people.
“When he first came, I felt a little bit sorry for him because he didn’t come with his own staff. But he adapted.
“Now I look at it and think it was very good for him to do that because of the way he has adapted to the club with the people there.
“Now he is in a situation about to win the Treble and to do that in that situation shows he is a great manager. He has come into Celtic, he has had his plans in his mind and he has worked to bring the players to fit into that idea. It has worked.
“He had his vision – and I learned from this in terms of me trying to become a coach or a manager myself – and that is to have your system or your idea and then get the players to fit into it and make it work for the best way.
“The best example of this is Martin. When he came to Celtic, the decision was made about the formation being a 3-5-2. To do this, he brought the players to fit the system and the formation.
“Martin needed defenders for it, so he got Bobo (Balde), Joos (Valgaeren), Stan Varga – players to head the ball who are very strong and big enough to protect the box. Then he went to Paul Lambert and Neil Lennon, who were there to protect the back three.
“Then the guys on the side, like myself, who were there to take people on, get crosses into the box but also to put pressure on the ball.
“Then you have good strikers like Henrik Larsson, players like Stiliyan Petrov, Chris Sutton and Lubo Moravcik who could make space and chances.
“Martin had his idea of how he wanted to play, found the players to put into it and it worked. He won a treble in his first season and Ange can do the same because he has taken his own way and found the players to make it work.” Daizen Maeda represents much of Postecoglou’s ethic.
Fast, sharp, willing and relentless, the Japanese striker is a poster boy for the formula.
Agathe said: “Speed is such a big asset. You need it in the modern game, especially on the wing to go past people and put pressure on them when you don’t have the ball.”
Agathe, like all Celtic fans, was deeply disappointed last term when Lennon couldn’t create 10-in-a-row history.
And he added: “Neil is one of my friends and I felt so sorry it did not happen.
“It is the future that matters. And the new team are doing things to make people forget what happened.”
