They started clambering on board Big Ange’s bus from the moment the Aussie pulled into the car park at Parkhead. But it was when he delivered the first trophy of last season that Celtic’ s manager really felt his foot hitting the floor.
A 2-1 win over Hibs in December offered shiny, tangible proof that the Postecoglou plan was moving into overdrive. And it hasn’t stopped moving forward since. So much so that when this green and white juggernaut smashed nine goals past Dundee United at the weekend, it hardly even registered as a moderate surprise let alone a shock.
And that’s why Ross County will have to keep their wits about them tonight when Celtic’s roadshow rolls into the Highlands - with Postecoglou closing in on the very piece of silverware which got it all started in his stunning debut season. “It was really important to get that success so early on,” Postecoglou reflected as he prepared to take his men back on the road with the aim of returning back to base with a quarter final place secured.
“I think the fans were really supportive from day one and bought into what we were trying to do at the club - they have given us tremendous support - but in terms of the players, it always helps to be able to show them that what we are doing can translate to success. It put a real belief into the group about the direction we were heading in.
“We had found our way a couple of months in after a bit of a rocky start to the season, but for me, if we were going to achieve what we wanted to last year – and obviously the league was our big priority – we had to accelerate our development. The best way to do that was to get people to have real belief, and winning a trophy in the first few months helped to do that.
“People were well aware we were very much still at the beginning, building a team and playing our football, but the fact we could have success so quickly just accelerated a lot of things. It accelerated a lot of belief in what we were doing, the course we were on, the football we were playing and the players we had brought in.
“It gave other people belief in me too and what I was trying to do, and I think that helped move things on a lot quicker. At that time, we were shaping what January was going to look like in terms of transfer business, and having won that, we were able to put some strong plans in place.
“We could look at guys like Hatate, Maeda, Ideguchi and O’Riley because I think there was belief that we had started something here, so let’s really support it, because we’ve seen some of the fruits that have come our way.”
It’s worth remembering, at the time of Postecoglou’s appointment, Celtic had commissioned former boss Gordon Strachan to conduct a root and branch review of the club’s operations. That Strachan’s hard work has not seen the light of day, one year on, is indicative of the faith the board invested in their new manager to get the big calls right.
Securing the Premier Sports Cup at the first time of asking, then, merely added to the belief that they had landed themselves with a one man wonder from Down Under. Postecoglou went on: “It’s the nature of the club that we can’t stand still. I knew that I wouldn’t be afforded a year or two to bring success to this club.
“I felt like there was an urgent need to do that last year, we had our year without winning anything the season before I came, but it doesn’t mean that because you have had some success you can rest on that. We want to win every competition we are in, and we showed everyone with that League Cup win that we could bring that success to the club.”
Which is why the manager will not allow his focus to drift towards Saturday’s Old Firm showdown or next Tuesday’s mouthwatering visit from Real Madrid until he’s safely back home from Dingwall. He nodded: “Absolutely, absolutely. That was our message to the players at the weekend.
“The most important game is the next one. You don’t want to be thinking about games that are two or three ahead and going into a game without the best intentions of playing good football going into it and getting a good result.
“The most important game for us is this one. We want to perform at a good level and make sure that we get the job done against a difficult opponent.
“That will then give us the impetus to look at the next challenge, whatever that may be. In this case it’s against Rangers but if we look beyond Ross County and dismiss that game then we haven’t had the ideal preparation to meet the challenges ahead.”
There will be personnel changes tonight though as, at this early stage in the campaign, Postecoglou is already in the business of having to spin plates. The pedal might be pushed to the metal already but, with so much just around the corner, it’s the manager’s job to make sure his players are not burning out before the really big stuff has even begun.
He said: :”I will make some changes for the game, yeah. I haven’t settled on how many yet, but the important thing is that we put out a team that is still strong enough to win the game. Ross County is always a difficult place to go.
“That being said, we won’t get back until the early hours of the next morning, and we have to factor in what is ahead at the weekend and beyond too. But we have to put out a team that can reach the required level to win what is a very important game for us, and I’m confident we have the players to do that.”
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