Ange Postecoglou was joking on Australian radio this week his toughest decision right now is whether to go to the beach or the pool.
He’s on a well earned break after a remarkable season but there’s an easy decision to be made by the Celtic board while he’s away.
There should be a new contract on the table for when he gets back.
Look, there’s a lot made about these rolling one year deals and they can make fans a bit nervous.
But it was good enough for Neil Lennon and Brendan Rodgers and it’s a pretty common way of working across football.
I just think it would make sense for Celtic to get Postecoglou nailed down on something more long term as he is now as big an asset at the club as any player.
You saw it with Rodgers. When he completed the invincible Treble in his first season, Peter Lawwell tied him down on a four year deal.
We all know what happened about 18 months later but at least Celtic landed about £9m in compensation.
That’s what we are talking about here. I can’t claim to know how Postecoglou thinks but he doesn’t come across to me as someone who is particularly money motivated.
He seems totally relaxed about contract stuff and he rightly pointed out that management is a precarious business.
These guys are three bad results away from the sack at times, and he knows that as well.
I don’t get the feeling he’ll be banging down any doors to demand more dosh as any time he has moved on from jobs it’s been about ambition rather than his bank account.
He’s chased trophies and prestige over pay cheques and he seems to have found a home in Scotland.
I know fine well Glasgow can be a tough environment to live when you are at Celtic or Rangers. It’s not exactly a peaceful existence.
I don’t know what it was like for Postecoglou in his homeland as I am sure he would have been recognised by a lot of people if he was out for a stroll down the high street.
But it will be nothing like it is in Glasgow. It will have come as a shock to him but you get the feeling he’s embraced it. He wanted to be part of a football daft culture and that’s what he’s got here.
At the moment his ambitions can be fulfilled at Celtic, with the challenge of competing for silverware, as well as the proposition of the Champions League.
Postecoglou sounds content in his surroundings but that doesn’t mean others won’t take notice.
Clubs are already starting to take notice. All of a sudden his success at Celtic has been added to his achievements with clubs and country and it’s looking a serious body of work.
In this day and age, managers come and go in the blink of an eye – but that means more opportunities come up.
Celtic need to be ready and a long term deal at least would mean it would cost a pretty packet if the worse case scenario unfolds.
It’s not a huge concern right now as there are other things to be worried about.
Carl Starfelt getting stretchered off for Sweden the other night, for starters.
Postecoglou must have spat out his pina colada when he heard the news. After a season of rotten luck on the injury front, his centre back suffering a bad on one international duty was another dose of serious misfortune.
At least it’s June and the season is still almost two months away. But it would still be a major blow if the Swede was to miss the big kick-off and it might force Celtic to think about the transfer market.
I’ve got a lot of admiration for Starfelt for the way he overcame adversity in Scotland.
It was a really tough start and he took a lot of flak for some early howlers, with a lot of supporters writing him off completely.
That was always unfair. He arrived fairly late was pitched straight in to a new look side and a defence that was trying to find its feet.
It took him time to settle but he grew stronger as the campaign wore on. By the end of the season no one could say he wasn’t a huge part of the title winning side.
Starfelt won over the doubters and I’ll bet most of those same fans who were dismissing him last August are now hugely worried if his injury turns out to be long term.
If he is ruled out for a sizeable chunk of time then Postecoglou might have to consider his options.
The Cameron Carter-Vickers deal has to get nudged over the line. The noises all sound positive but the longer these things drag on the more people start to get twitchy.
They start wondering, why hasn’t it been announced? Jota is in the same boat and the hope is both are already tied down.
But Celtic still might need reinforcements at the back, even more so with the Starfelt uncertainty.
The curious case of Christopher Jullien might come to the fore, with the Frenchman seemingly heading for an exit.
He might get another chance, while Stephen Welsh is also there competing for a place and Postecoglou has previously said he’s a fan of the youngster.
There’s time to work it all out but the plotting and planning will already be underway for the title defence and crack at Europe.
Postecoglou might be on his holidays but he knows by now, life’s far from a beach when you are in charge of Celtic.
