Charlie Nicholas reckons Ange Postecoglou is the closest thing modern football has to a Sir Alex Ferguson figure - and pointed to two big reasons why.
Postecoglou has turned Celtic around in rapid-fire time, picking up the pieces left behind by Neil Lennon to restore them as Scottish football's top dogs. The Australian won a league and League Cup double last season and stands on course for a Treble this term if they can win their two remaining Scottish Cup clashes - starting with a semi-final against Rangers - and see out their ten remaining Premiership fixtures without an unthinkable collapse.
Central to the turnaround has been Postecoglou's globetrotting transfer approach that has seen them look to markets like Asia, South Korea and the MLS as well as a host of European shopping trips to put together a winning team. But he's also been ruthless with the likes of Josip Juranovic and Giorgos Giakoumakis, who were allowed to leave at the first sign of running their contracts down.
And Nicholas, writing in the Scottish Daily Express, sees a bit of Sir Alex in that. He said: "Ange Postecoglou is similar to Sir Alex Ferguson in so many ways. Like the legendary former Manchester United and Aberdeen manager, Postecoglou is a relentless winner and possesses incredible motivational qualities.
"Another similar characteristic is that the Aussie doesn't care if any of his players want to leave. We saw how unconcerned he was when Josip Juranovic and Giorgos Giakoumakis made it clear they weren't happy with their situations at Celtic. At the first signs of discontent, Postecoglou immediately set the wheels in motion to sign their replacements - Alistair Johnston and Oh Hyeon-gyu - and it was goodbye Juranovic and Giakoumakis.
"You never really hear the Parkhead manager overpraise his players. He just gets on with the job and looks ahead to the next challenge. That attitude reminds me of Ferguson, whose hard-to-please reputation was summed up by his comments live on TV moments after his Aberdeen side had secured Scottish Cup glory in 1983 with a 1-0 win against Rangers.
"'We're the luckiest team in the world,' he fumed. 'We were a disgrace of a performance. (Willie) Miller and (Alex) McLeish won the cup for Aberdeen. Our standards have been set long ago and we're not going to accept that from any Aberdeen team. No way should we take any glory from that.'
"Postecoglou is a modern-day version of Ferguson. He treats them mean to keep them keen. We already know he doesn't speak to his Celtic players a lot. He talks to them individually on the training pitch, not really off it."
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