Ange Postecoglou insisted links with Brighton are irrelevant as he concentrates on grabbing big opportunities with Celtic.
The Aussie leads his team into the Champions League showdown against Shakhtar Donetsk in Warsaw looking to secure a cherished success at Europe’s top level. Postecoglou’s outstanding work at Parkhead in winning the Scottish Premiership title while building a vibrant young side in the process has seen his stock in the game rise across the continent. The 57-year-old’s name has been touted in the direction of Brighton since the Amex Stadium departure of Graham Potter to Chelsea.
However, Postecoglou isn’t interested in such outside chat and said: “It’s not really relevant in my world or in my space. I have done that my whole career, I have just focused on being as successful as I can for the club I represent. If I do that, everything else takes care of itself because things change pretty quickly in football.
“If I’m not successful here, it won’t be other options that open up for me, it’ll be this one that closes.”
Asked if it still feels early in his Celtic journey, Postecoglou continued: “It is what it is. We’ve tried to sort of build the team as quickly as we possibly can. We did that last year knowing that we needed to bring success to the football club. We are in the Champions League now, so our role now is to be the best we can be in that and try to make an impact this year.
“Where that takes us, or how far that takes us, we’ll see at the end. I have always been mindful of making sure that every opportunity we get we try to grab. Whether it’s come too early or come at the right time, we do know that Champions League football is here for us and we want to take that opportunity.”
Celtic are looking to get off the mark in Group F against Shakhtar having lost their opening fixture against Real Madrid. Postecoglou will be without Swedish centre-back Carl Starfelt for the clash against the Ukrainians, but Japanese striker Kyogo Furuhashi is ready to go and new Danish signing Oliver Abilgaard could also be involved.
The boss said: “We’ll see. Oli is working his way through his fitness, so he’ll be in the squad, but he’s still got a bit of work to do, it’s fair to say as he missed all of pre-season and has been training by himself.
“We’ve just got to be careful with him, but he’s in the squad. Kyogo is fine. He’s trained. He probably could have played the last game if we’d had a game.
"Carl will probably not be back before the international break. We hope because of that he won’t miss too many games, but he will still be missing for the next two or three weeks.”
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