Former Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell has revealed a rave review from son Mark convinced him Ange Postecoglou was a contender to become the club's boss.
Principal shareholder Dermot Desmond heralded the former Parkhead supremo for his role in securing the man who has landed Premiership title glory at the first time of asking.
The former Yokohama Marinos boss answered the call with the club on the deck after failing to secure 10 In A Row.
But Lawwell has been quick to praise son Mark - who will leave his role with Manchester City to work directly with Postecoglou as Celtic's recruitment chief.
The Australian has proved a mammoth success with his attacking brand of football securing Premier Sports Cup glory before wrestling the title away from Rangers.
And Lawwell admits the 56-year-old's passion for the beautiful game marked him out as a leading candidate in the wake of the failed pursuit of Eddie Howe.
Speaking to Australian outlet Keep Up, he said: “He first came to my attention via my son Mark, who said a guy called Ange Postecoglou is manager of Yokohama. This guy’s the real deal. That got my interest.
“I watched him carefully over that period. As CEO, I’ve always got a list of six names in top drawer – you never know what can happen with the manager.
“Ange was on the list for three years – just before he won the league (with Marinos in 2019). I watched him, liked him. He won the league and had great success.
“In my initial chats with Ange I got a really great impression. He was experienced, mature, had courage in his convictions. And having watched him over the years, he played football the right way.
“He was a football enthusiast, a football nut. He not only knows about Japanese, Australian and European football, he knew about Scottish football and Celtic, he knew the task that was (potentially) ahead of him. He knew Celtic.
“I’d spoken to Frank (Trimboli, Postecoglou’s agent) a couple of times in the process to gauge Ange’s availability and interest – we were looking (for a manager) from February onwards. Frank said he’d be interested, so we kept him in mind.”
