Brian Marwood insists he’s proud of the Celtic job being done by Ange Postecoglou.
The City Football Group’s managing director of global football gave a glowing commendation of the Aussie’s work in 12 months at Parkhead.
Postecoglou’s connection with the CFG led to his appointment at Yokohama Marinos before he headed to Glasgow to overhaul Celtic and win back the Premiership title and bag the Premier Sports Cup.
Speaking to KEEPUP, Marwood said: “We have a great relationship with Celtic. We were happy to endorse Ange when they spoke to us about potentially appointing him as head coach.
“Again, you look at the work he has done there, after having a very difficult start.
"He went late in the summer, it was very difficult for him to bring players in and he was very resolute in terms of his thinking, what his objectives were and how he needed to create those and deliver them.
“You look at where the team got to at the end of the season, playing fantastic football and winning the title. In his first season, he has walked away with two trophies.
“I am immensely proud of what he has done there. I know his family have settled well, he has really enjoyed being in an institution that is Celtic Football Club and really up for the challenge of taking that club on a journey that everybody can be proud of.
“The success he has had there doesn’t surprise me, particularly after such a difficult start, but I think he will be working hard in the summer to make sure that they improve on what they have done this year.”
Marwood first encountered Postecoglou during his time as the manager of the Australian national team.
The manager won an Asian Cup and also led the nation into two World Cup Finals, although he resigned before Russia 2018.
Marwood said: “The story of Ange, I first met him when he was Australian national team manager.
“He came over to Europe to do a bit of a trip watching players and games. He got introduced to me when he came up to Manchester.
“He was somebody that straightaway we connected really well. Up to this day we are very, very good friends.
“At that time, he was somebody that you could sit and talk to and we just chatted football and we just connected really well.
“We stayed in contact and I was obviously following what he was doing with the Australian national team whose performances were very good and the way they were playing football was very good.
“We were looking for a coach at F.Marinos and he was somebody that we put forward to F.Marinos for what we believed would be the right choice in terms of the connection between what F.Marinos were trying to achieve and really what Ange was looking for in the next stage of his career.
“We introduced him to the people at F.Marinos, they really liked him, he was really keen to coach in the J-League and the rest is history.
“He went there, developed a wonderful style of play which got great plaudits and also won the title, which was their first title in many, many years.
“The way he is as a person, he won a lot of friends and admirers. It was great to see how that grew in terms of him as a person but also his Yokohama team, to the point where he got the opportunity to come to Europe.”
