For those of us who have had to learn to live with the daily inconveniences of dyslexia, this was an appointment designed to make the heart sink.
Ange Poste-what-now? Celtic manager.
With his arrival in Glasgow’s east end came the realisation it was going to take a couple of weeks just to perfect pronouncing the name, never mind spelling it.
The only crumb of comfort, a sense of inevitability that he would probably be someone else’s problem in just a few months’ time. I mean, this was never going to work out. How could it?
Hands up, there are many of us who owe this gruff, straight talking Australian a huge apology for ever doubting him in the first place.
And that’s not restricted only to the pundits and media ‘experts’ who suspected he was biting off more than he could possibly chew.
There were plenty of Celtic fans out there too who were whipping themselves up into a state of high anxiety at the thought of a relative unknown being shoehorned into what had become a full-blown crisis situation.
Suffice to say, on Wednesday night on Tayside, Postecoglou earned himself a far more manageable moniker.
From now on let’s just refer to him as the Wizard of Oz because what he has achieved in these past 11 months has been some kind of sorcery – turning the seemingly impossible into silver-lined reality and unifying a club which appeared to be fractured beyond repair.
His impact on Celtic has been a real life magic trick but it’s been no sleight of hand. What we have witnessed here is not some cheap illusion. This is the multi-million pound manifestation of a manager with an iron will, a contemporary philosophy and the courage of his own convictions.
Put it this way, the day after Eddie Howe finally headed for the hills after leading Celtic on a merry dance for what seemed like an eternity, I had a conversation with outgoing chief executive Peter Lawwell.
Without breaking any confidences, the phone call ended with one resounding message. ‘This guy has balls,’ is how Lawwell put it, having spent the previous 24 hours thrashing out the terms of the contract to bring him in on an SOS from the other side of the planet.
In real terms, having been waiting for Howe to make his mind up for so long, it took no time at all for Lawwell to convince Postecoglou to come to Celtic’s rescue. On the contrary, the big man was packing his suitcase while Lawwell was still on the other end of the line.
While men of lesser substance might have been scared rigid by the scale of the task awaiting him in Glasgow, Postecoglou rushed towards it. This was not something for him to fear. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for him to prove that ‘his football’ works in any language and on any continent.
That he did not even bother to argue the toss about the make-up of his backroom team perhaps made him look a little too eager. In retrospect – and with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight – that was patently not the case at all.
On the contrary, Postecoglou needed to bring nothing more to the job than a head full of big ideas and unshakable self belief.
And he thoroughly deserves every bit of gushing credit that’s been coming his way over these past few weeks as well as the manager of the year awards which are a tangible confirmation of the levels of respect he has garnered in such a short space of time.
In fact, perhaps his biggest trick of all, has been making it so easy to forget just what a horrendous state Celtic had got themselves into in the aborted pursuit of 10 successive league titles.
With fans locked out of the stadium during a global pandemic, they took to the car park instead to vent their fury at those inside.
Amidst this unfolding chaos, skipper Scott Brown chose to bow out and Odsonne Edouard and Kristoffer Ajer were tripping up over themselves to follow him out of the door. Even Lawwell himself decided that his time had come and gone.
No trophies, no chief executive, no captain, no top scorer and no central defenders? No worries mate.
Postecoglou had the balls to take it all on and, in a very short space of time, he had Celtic playing in a high intensity, attacking style which confounded all of those who questioned what on earth he was going here in the first place.
Yes, there were teething issues in those first few weeks. How could there not be?
But as a raft of new signings – including stand outs such as Cameron Carter-Vickers, Kyogo Furuhasi, Joe Hart and Jota – settled and his messaging began to sink in on the training pitch at Lennoxtown, so his Celtic side began to take shape.
It very quickly became clear Postecoglou was a different prospect entirely from some of the other head-in-the-cloud dreamers who have washed up on these shores, full of philosophical gobbledygook and powerpoint presentations.
Postecoglou’s down to earth, straight talking approach allowed him to connect with his players and perhaps help simplify a complex style of play. They got him right from the start.
Anthony Ralston opened up the season unrecognisable from the fringe man who had been loaned out to Queen’s Park, Dundee United and St Johnstone. Almost overnight he was transformed from surplus to requirements to a Scotland international.
And Callum McGregor was also allowed to flourish and grow into Brown’s armband. That the captain was crowned player of the year by his own peers is fitting recognition of his personal blossoming under Postecoglou.
But it is also proof positive Postecoglou was smart enough to identify McGregor’s immense value back in those early days when he was conducting a hurried on-the-spot assessment of the manpower at his disposal.
A shrewd start to what has been an almost faultless first season at the helm even if some dunts were taken along the way on his travels across the continent.
But with access to the Champions League already secured, that will be Postecoglou’s next trick.
And if nothing else these past 11 months have taught us that, where the Wizard of Oz is concerned, nothing should be ruled out.
