A STOCKY Greek-Australian, bearded and still hanging on to the thick woollen jumper in the May Glasgow sunshine may have cut a strange looking messiah at Celtic Park.
A year ago he arrived to an indifferent reception; no hordes of supporters outside, no barriers to hold off an adoring public desperate for a first glimpse. Spool forward to this afternoon amid the ticker tape and the fireworks and Ange Postecoglou could barely get a word in edgeways as the home support chanted his name over and over. When he did speak, his first word predictably brought the house down: “Champions.”
It was just his warm-up act. By the time Postecoglou signed off for the trophy presentation he had 60,000 supporters hanging on to every word as he promised that his side would be back after the summer “bigger, better because we never stop.”
In between times there was the cracking of a voice as he thanked the support for the welcome he and his family received, the cracking of a joke as he took a pop at his sense of style and the cracking of more than a few champagne corks.
His team delivered on an emotional stage yesterday. Tom Rogic, so distant at times as to appear aloof, left the pitch in tears after his final game in a Celtic shirt. Each one of his team-mates, including goalkeeper Joe Hart, made it to the centre of the pitch to offer their congratulations before he headed into an embrace with the waiting Postecoglou.
Nir Bitton came off the bench for the final minutes to bring down the curtain on his time at the club to a similarly warm reception from the home support and the home team. It was not an afternoon, however, that was about endings with the sense that the Celtic manager is just getting started. It will be intriguing to see just who comes in over the summer to strengthen this side.
“It’s hard to put into words but I’ll try,” said an emotional Postecoglou after the trophy presentation. “Everyone knows the story. We’ve worked so hard and we had a real narrow focus about what we were trying to achieve this year.
“It’s great when you have that tunnel vision and finally get there. We won it on Wednesday night but the players and staff didn’t feel like the job was done.
“We wanted to finish it off in the right way today. Every week I challenge them. I say to them: “Let’s make today our best game of the year’. It doesn’t always happen but you go in with that intent.
“The players are human beings, not robots. When I think about how this group produced a performance like that - when for all intents and purposes, they didn’t have to - it makes me very proud. I look around and see the joy it brings people, the players, the fans, people who work for this club.
“I take enormous pride out of that.”
As of the evisceration of Motherwell, this was Postecoglou’s philosophy in microcosm.
There was no danger of the Fir Park side raining on Celtic’s day, notable even in the opening exchanges of this encounter as the hosts started with the aggression and purpose that the Greek Australian first spoke of on that press day unveiling all the way back in June.
Back then when he talked of the football education he received at his immigrant father’s side on a couch in Australia watching some of Europe’s greats, he offered an immediate endearment to the values that Celtic and their support have traditionally embraced.
Where he truly won them however, was the players he has brought to the club – 16 since his arrival – and the style of football that, from middle to front, has been easy on the eye with its full focus on going for the jugular. Yesterday’s performance reaped six goals against a sorry Motherwell side who would have felt like they were walking into the lion’s den such was the thirst for a rampant performance. There could have been more but the result brings forth the highest points tally since Brendan Rodgers’
Invincibles season while the 92 goals that Celtic have scored along the way is equal to the amount Rangers scored last term on their way to halting the Parkhead side’s quest for a fabled tenth successive title.
There were echoes of that hurt in how Celtic celebrated yesterday afternoon. If there is a sense that winning ten titles in 11 years may make a Championship party routine, there was nothing tired about either the celebration or the performance.
Such was the display that it was difficult to single out a man of the match. Jota was instrumental, David Turnbull impressive, Kyogo Furuhashi typically intelligent with his movement so nightmarish to police for defenders and officials while Anthony Ralston’s perfectly weighted ball for Furuhashi’s second and Celtic’s third encapsulated his own renaissance this season.
Motherwell gave Celtic a guard of honour before kick-off, a gracious gesture that did not make the home side any less willing to go easy on them. The only real surprise was that it took 21 minutes for the opening goal to come.
Furuhashi started it all off with a rifled finish into Liam Kelly’s near post before Turnbull shimmied past Ricki Lamie before drilling his effort into the bottom left-hand corner.
Furuhashi claimed the third as he volleyed Ralston’s ball over the top before Jota chipped in with the fourth. Motherwell appealed for offside but it wasn’t a day when anything looked like going in their favour.
Giorgos Giakoumakis’ fifth was an overhead kick after he outmuscled Stephen O’Donnell before he rounded off his season with Celtic’s sixth and his second. The Greek forward, who missed a chunk of the campaign because of injury, is now the joint top league scorer this season with Ross County Regan Charles-Cook.
Getting Furuhashi and Giakoumakis into the same starting XI next season may well offer another element to Celtic and their voracious forward line. It is a conversation for another day, however, with Postecoglou and his side keen to make the most of their day in the sun.
