As speculation linking Ange Postecoglou to the vacancy at Brighton runs rampant, the message is clear from a trio of former Celtic stars: don’t settle for the smaller club.
The Seagulls are searching for a new manager after Chelsea poached Graham Potter and his entire backroom staff.
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Postecoglou is one of several managers who have been listed as favourites with UK bookmakers, although Bodo/Glimt boss Kjetil Knutsen and Roberto De Zerbi remain the frontrunners for the Brighton gig.
The Postecoglou links to the Amex Stadium were inevitable given the remarkable turnaround he has led at Celtic.
Having finished a whopping 25 points behind Rangers in the 2020/21 season, Postecoglou’s arrival changed Celtic’s fortunes as he steered the Hoops to a league title and Scottish League Cup triumph in the following campaign.
The league title also secured safe passage into the Champions League group stages and although Celtic lost their opening match to Real Madrid 3-0, the manner in which they took the game to Los Blancos earned plenty of admirers across the footballing landscape.
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Given the significant upturn in results and mood since Postecoglou’s appointment, former Celtic star Tom Boyd knows it’s inevitable the Australian will make the move down south to the Premier League at some stage.
“We do not want any clubs coming in for Ange but it will happen,” Boyd said.
“We know it will happen, especially if the team continues playing the way it has been.
“It’s difficult to surmise how content Ange is here. All you can say is he looks very happy, but somebody (Brendan Rodgers) said that before when they were here and they didn’t turn out to be! With Ange, it will come, we know it will come.
“If he’s successful, as with any player, if the price is right, that time will come. But hopefully he’s here for a few years yet and there can be a line of succession in place to develop things.”
Although the time to take his managerial talents to the Premier League will come one day, the speculation linking Postecoglou and Brighton could mean it happens much sooner than anyone associated with Celtic wants it to.
But former Hoops star Kris Boyd questioned if a move to Sussex was the right one to trigger Postecoglou’s departure, especially because it’s still so early into their European campaign.
“When you’ve been involved in football for so long, there aren’t many things which come as a surprise,” Boyd wrote in his column for the Scottish Daily Mail.
“You learn to expect the unexpected. But I would be absolutely astonished if Postecoglou left Celtic to join Brighton. There’s no way I can see it happening.
“He’s better than that and is capable of managing at a far higher level than Brighton. I just don’t see it as a job that will get his juices flowing.
“He’s currently managing in the Champions League and has just had 60,000 fans chanting his name after a ding-dong battle with Carlo Ancelotti and the latest band of Galacticos.
“If he were to move to Brighton, he’d be playing in front of home crowds roughly half that size, with the Amex Stadium housing a little more than 30,000.
“The reality is that Celtic are a far bigger and better club than Brighton. Given what he’s built at Celtic, it would be absolute madness to give it up now.”
For all of the talk of Postecoglou moving to the Premier League at some stage, there’s a question that seems to be slipping everyone’s mind: would he want to leave Celtic?
It’s something former Celtic midfielder Paul Lambert believes is an important factor for Postecoglou to weigh up should Brighton officially come calling.
“If he keeps doing well here then it will be up to him to make a decision if teams in England or in Europe come for him,” Lambert told The Scottish Times.
“But if he manages to maintain the success he’s had here he might not want to leave. It’s better to be linked with jobs than having fans calling for your head. You’d rather be told you are doing great than folk saying there’s a car waiting for you out the front!
“I think he loves it here. You can go to another club and all of a sudden things don’t work and you are back to square one. At the moment he’s got everything rocking here.
“Keeping it going is easier said than done.”
Postecoglou and Celtic’s relationship can’t last forever.
But as long as the former Socceroos boss continues to deliver the good times to the green and white half of Glasgow, the chants for his name will grow louder.
So too will the phone calls enquiring about his services from south of the border.
