Ange Postecoglou has admitted some big names could be on their way out of Celtic in the summer – but vowed to work more magic in the market to replace them.
The Hoops boss – who this week picked up his second PFA Scotland manager of the year award – has admitted top stars could leave Parkhead if the club receives tasty bids. But Postecoglou is not concerned as he is determined to keep building a squad to dominate in Scotland and make a mark in the Champions League.
Sources in Hungary have linked Celts with 6ft 4ins striker Eduvie Ikoba after the American rattled 14 goals this season for Zalaegerszegi. Volendam defender Xavier Mbuyamba has also been touted on the continent after the 21-year-old impressed in the Eredivise this year. Postecoglou’s incomings will depend on potential departures, with interest expected in key men such as Liel Abada, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Reo Hatate.
But the Aussie is adamant he can do the wheeling and dealing to make sure his Treble chasing squad will be even stronger next season.
Postecoglou said: “I think it’s fair to say we are in the second year and things are embedded, that includes the core playing group. But that also gives you the opportunity to grow as a team. Part of that challenge will be the more success you have the more likely it will be that some of your players will move on.
"They get the attention of other clubs. We have to be ready to fill those gaps with players who have the ability to take us to another level altogether. So there is always those challenges there.
“Another year you get to the point where there is any great certainty about the team we are finishing with and the team we will be starting the new season with.
“You always go into any window that there is going to be some uncertainty. “Well, I think we are going really well. In every window we have had so far since I have been here we have come out stronger in terms of that squad depth or just having a better quality of player than we had going in and that is what we will try and do.”
Postecoglou has proved to be a master in the transfer market with an incredible strike rate with singings.
The Hoops gaffer had to replace major players such as Scott Brown, Odsonne Edouard, Kris Ajer and Ryan Christie in his first season – but arrivals such as Kyogo, Hatate, Carter-Vickers, Jota, Daizen Maeda, Aaron Mooy and Matt O’Riley have all become huge heroes for Parkhead punters.
Postecoglou will have a hands on role agains this summer and said: “Look, it’s an important part of my role. I’ve always felt it was an important part of my role, particularly with the nature of the task I had. It wasn’t like I was picking up an established or core group of players. It was a team that needed rebuilding.
“I knew our best chance of being successful with that would be if I had a massive influence over who came into the club, both players and staff. I knew what I wanted, I knew what we needed to look like.
“The club were really good in trusting me with that process. We obviously had success fairly early in terms of our recruiting and I think I gained the trust of people at the club through that.
“Since then, it has worked really well. They have faith the players I identify and bring in are going to enhance our football club.
“I have always found that every year, and I have obviously been doing this for quite a while, there is always a different challenge.
“Last year was about building a team, building some belief, building some trust and faith in me and what we were doing and trying within that context to try and have some success after a year where the football club I was representing went trophyless.
“I knew that I couldn’t do another season like that. We had to have success. “That was a different mindset. This year was more about, well, we have had that success now, people maybe saw it as an unexpected success, but how are the players going to come back, how was I going to push them on to another level I knew we had to go.
“I really felt we couldn’t stand still in terms of our football.”
Meanwhile Celtic have seen off competition from Newcastle, Leeds and Rangers to land Portobello CFA Thistle teenage sensation Filip Skorb. The highly-rated 15-year-old will hook up with the Hoops Academy set up.
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