Ange Postecoglou is adored by the Celtic support as some kind of Wizard of Oz who has transformed the club from trophyless to likely Treble-winners in the space of 20 success-soaked months.
But in the week that saw him dump Rangers for the third match running and in which his team can win the title at Tynecastle, the Australian is adamant he couldn’t have done it on his own. He might have arrived in this country without a No.2 or any of his own backroom team - although he added countryman Harry Kewell in the months that followed - but Postecoglou is insistent that without the backing of everyone at the club from boardroom to treatment room, a run that will bring his trophy haul to five out of six if Inverness are beaten in the Scottish Cup final, none of it would have been possible.
“Please don’t be mistaken: I am no one-man show,” he said. “I have fantastic people around me who provide the information that allows me to make the best decisions. That’s what I do, I make decisions and I don’t do that in isolation. I have fantastic people in every department: coaching, sports science, medical, scouting, analysis, media. My function is to make the decisions. I will take the responsibility but I’m not doing this on my own, this is far from a one-man show.”
Recruitment is one of his main responsibilities and Postecoglou cited the Board’s willingness to part with £12.5m to bring Cameron Carter-Vickers and Jota to the club permanently after successful loan stints as proof that everyone at Parkhead is pulling in the same direction.
He added: “Absolutely. When you look at that window it may seem like we didn’t do too much but those two signings were pretty critical. To be fair the club backed me on that one.
“They were significant outlays for a club our size. We tried before we bought! So we knew what we were getting. And more importantly for me, I knew that they would be better.
"What we saw of them last year I knew they would be better because they are at that age. It wasn’t just about spending the money to get players back who did well for us last year. I knew that they could be better this year and they have been tremendous assets for us.
“It’s not arm-twisting (to spend £12.5m) but it does require trust and faith on both sides. The club needs to sort of trust my judgement in that and I need to trust the club is going to make the right decision.
“It isn’t limitless in what we can spend. And I knew that those were going to be our two major acquisitions and we weren’t going to have a lot of money outside of that to spend.
“But I thought we were getting two very good footballers who would make us better than last year. Everyone was aligned with that.
“It’s not foolproof, we all make mistakes, but for the most part we have been very successful in identifying the right kind of people to our football club. For me that is all a manager can ask for, that support. And I’ve had that.”
With the Aussie taking such a hands-on approach to recruitment, the clamour for a director of football at the club has died down, mainly due to the fact that Postecoglou has got very few signings wrong.
“With that comes great responsibility,” he smiled. “It keeps me up at night! I don’t want to get things wrong because when you take that responsibility on to yourself you need to make sure you are always doing the right thing by the football club. That is what I have tried to do.
“We have made enormous progress in the last 20-odd months, it is incredible to see where we have come from and where we are now.
“We haven’t done the job yet but we have an opportunity in the next month to do something special. When people reflect on what has happened in the last two years they will truly understand what a fantastic and enormous effort it has been from everyone.”
The recruitment process for the summer transfer window has already begun, he admitted, and the goal is the same as it always is - to emerge from it with a stronger squad than he went into it with.
“It has to be,” he stressed. “We try to come out of every window stronger than when we went into it and I think we have done that from the first window I had, to last January, to last summer, to this January.
“Every window you can see we are making strides and we will do the same in the next window to make sure we come out of it stronger than we were when we went in.
“To me that is the only way you can measure what you are doing, by progress. Twelve months after last year’s semi-final are we a better side than we were last year? Absolutely.
“And we need to be a better side in 12 months time if we want to be in this kind of position to challenge for honours. If we stay where we are right now there is every chance that someone might overtake us.
“We constantly have to be looking to improve. And to do that you can’t settle where you are.”
While he is happy to share the plaudits with his staff, Postecoglou knows the playing squad are the ones who are getting the job done week in, week out.
“I keep saying don’t waste a minute of it, “ he said. “Why waste a minute of it? We are doing what we love, we are passionate about our football, we are playing for a special club. Why would you want to waste a game or waste a minute of that thinking about something else? Or thinking that maybe this isn’t what you want?
“The memories that these guys will have through their time here, the memories they have created at this football club, you don’t want to waste a minute of it. And this group doesn’t.
“Every day they come into training and train like they play. And you wouldn’t know it because we are coming to the end of the season and you might think some might be protecting themselves but we have to pull back training at times because that’s how hard at it they are.
“They just embrace that that’s who they want to be.”
