Ange Postecoglou is eyeing up more quickfire moves in the January market – and the Celtic boss is adamant he’ll keep scouring the globe to find gems. The Australian takes his team to Motherwell looking to book a place in the semi-finals of the Premier Sports Cup.
But, while immediate attention is on Fir Park, the manager and his staff are also long down the road of plotting for the next window. Postecoglou made rapid moves last winter with Japanese trio Reo Hatate, Daizen Maeda and Yosuke Ideguchi all signed and in place by January 1.
The gaffer and his recruitment unit are working on a potential repeat and he said: “It was really beneficial for us last year to do our business early in January. That helped us in the back half of the season. We’re going to have to do something similar this January. We are well underway with our planning.
"Our strategy is already in place and, hopefully, it all comes together. We’re looking everywhere in terms of our recruitment.
“Mark Lawwell is in the building now and the reason I brought him in is that he knows what I am looking for. The brief is to scour the world for that.
"The Japanese and Asian market is one I’m really familiar with and I still think there is value there for players, and I know how they would fit into what we do. We signed Alexandro Bernabei from Argentina, so South America is also an area we are looking at.
"With Mark now working and knowing how we do things, we know exactly what we’re looking for. There are some parameters financially we have to work with, but the key criteria is the kind of characters they are and how they conduct themselves. Whether they are from Europe, Asia, South America or Africa, we factor that into any player we bring in.”
Although January is being assessed in terms of additions, Postecoglou heads to Lanarkshire with his usual full concentration knowing his current group face a severe test. Celtic are the holders and the manager expects there to be a real thrust to tonight’s last-eight tie.
Postecoglou said: “Every cup game at an away venue is tough. It’s a challenge, but also exciting as we are only one step away from a semi-final. Motherwell will make it a good contest and it will have an edge to it but our job is to make sure we play the football we have shown so far, and if we do that we will be hard to stop.”
Postecoglou will make decisions on his line-up with Callum McGregor, Jota, Carl Starfelt and David Turnbull all still absent. He said: “The squad is pretty much as is from the weekend. The ones who were out, are still out.
“We will see how Jota goes. He and David are the closest but won’t make the Motherwell game.”
Postecoglou also faces a call on the goalkeeping position. Benjamin Siegrist was handed a start in the last-16 win over Ross County but Joe Hart has been picked since. The gaffer said: “Benji has been training well, but Joe is playing well and Scott Bain and young Tobi Oluwayemi are also doing well and working hard.”
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