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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Steven Mair

Ange Postecoglou quips Celtic doubter Alan Brazil 'has to live with' infamous radio reaction

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou reckons Alan Brazil was perfectly entitled to his initial reaction to his appointment.

But he quipped the radio host "has to live with it" now the Aussie has delivered a trophy and is fighting for the Premiership title.

TalkSPORT host Brazil's infamous remarks on learning Postecoglou needed UEFA clearance - when he insisted the appointment had to be a "wind-up" - were then played to the man himself on a recent Australian TV interview.

And asked if his on-air reaction was the first time he'd heard the Brazil's thoughts on his appointment, Postecoglou told Open Goal : "Yeah. I remember Alan Brazil as a player.

"It one of those, I just kind of leave it at that level and he's obviously doing a different role there.

"He's got an opinion and that's fine, that's no problem to me. He's obviously trying to make a bit of a statement.

"He made a statement and he's got to live with that now."

Postecoglou revealed he's also got a strong friendship with former Celtic striker and fellow Aussie Mark Viduka.

Their paths rarely crossed when he became a manager in his own right, with Viduka retiring before the Greek-born gaffer became Australia boss.

But when the big frontman was coming through in Australia he gave it tight when Postecoglou was South Melbourne's assistant.

Some ill-advised comments from No.1 Frank Arok came back to bite as he recalled: "Oh, I love Dukes.

(Daily Record)

"He's an all-time great of Australian football but what a guy. What a man.

"He's probably the most laid-back individual but super funny. If you ever come across him now he'll be sitting at his coffee shop making coffees and you can sit there all day and talk about anything.

"When he was in Australia, when he first broke in he was 17 years old. And I was an assistant coach, it was my first coaching gig.

"Assistant coach at the club I played for, just before I got the senior gig, and we were playing his team in the semi-final of the cup.

"He was 17 years old, absolute beast at the time. He was a man mountain, scoring goals. The manager I had at the time was Frank Arok, he's recently passed away but he managed Australia, a really famous coach in Australia.

"But he was really outspoken, and in the week leading up he was going, 'I'm going to have a go at this kid, I'm going to tell him he's overrated', went in the press and said 'this kid's overrated, you're making a big deal out of him'.

"And I'm going, 'I don't think this is a good move'. Anyway, Dukes scored a hat-trick and every time he scored he did a slide right to the bench, right in front of me and I'm going 'aww no'.

"He was an unbelievable player and an even better person."

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