Rangers assistant boss Neil Banfield has left many scratching their heads after his bizarre swipe at Ange Postecoglou that he says has helped fuel the Ibrox side in their bid to catch Celtic.
The veteran coach, who worked alongside Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, was irked by something the Aussie said following their Viaplay Cup Final win at Hampden. But exactly what that unspecified comment was is something of a mystery with Banfield saying in an interview he will keep it to himself.
Banfied said: “He said one or two things that I have remembered and I will remember and make you want to say, 'Okay, right, we're coming’. He is a good football guy and he works for Celtic but he has said things that leave a little taste in the mouth. I'll keep that to myself but he made a quote after the final and it landed on me. And you think, 'Yeah, okay I'll take that’. Next time we'll turn that round.”
But just what was it Postecoglou said? The Hoops boss spoke to the media twice at Hampden immediately after the game. The first was on the gantry at Hampden with the Viaplay team of host Emma Dodds, Rangers legends Ally McCoist and Brian Laudrup and Hoops greats Gordon Strachan and Chris Sutton.
Postecoglou then spoke to the press in the auditorium deep in the bowels of Hampden. Record Sport listened back to both – each lasting around seven minutes – and Rangers were only ever mentioned on three occasions. Here is what he said…
On the game itself
“We had to earn it. We played some fantastic football but just couldn’t put them away. You know RANGERS are going to come at you but when we had to defend I thought we defended well and we just need a third game to kill them off.”
Chris Sutton then referenced Michael Beale’s “lucky” jibe directed at Postecoglou and the Celtic boss replied: “Of course, mate,” to that claim of him being a “lucky” manager. Sutton then asked him going more direct in the game and asked if it was because of the pitch of the fact Rangers were pressing higher.
Postecoglou said: “(It was) a little bit of both. It’s not our ideal because we’re not a team that’s set up that way so when you go long it kind of goes away from what we’re good at. I’ve got to leave those decisions to the players. They’ve got the best feel out there on the ground. I let them take that responsibility. We probably went a bit longer than we needed to but I thought we finished strongly, RANGERS had to open up and we got some good chances.”
McCoist then made a point about Daizen Maeda’s incredible stamina and joked “what are you feeing him?”
Postecoglou said: “He was up against a very good player in James Tavernier. There were a couple of times he tried to get past him and couldn’t.”
And then in his official post match press conference he said on the game: “Credit to RANGERS, they stuck in it and went a bit more direct. We had to defend a lot and when they got the goal they obviously got a bit more encouragement from that. This team is not just one-dimensional.”
Could it have been the fact he said Rangers went direct in their play? It would seem like a stretch.
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