FORMER Rangers defender Alan Hutton has recalled the occasion when he was lauded by a Celtic manager – after the entire Ibrox first team had blanked him.
Hutton first encountered Ange Postecoglou when he was working as a television pundit at the League Cup final between the Glasgow clubs at Hampden back in the 2022/23 season and the Greek-Australian was in charge at Parkhead.
He was amazed when Postecoglou made a beeline for him before kick-off in the showpiece match and introduced himself - as the members of his old side walked past him without saying a word.
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The SFA Hall of Fame member was interested to know what kind of player new Celtic right-back Alistair Johnston was as he had never seen the Canadian internationalist, who had only arrived in Scotland the previous month, in action.
Hutton was also astonished when the one-time Australia manager compared his January signing to him and admitted he has been a fan of the charismatic coach - who is currently preparing for his second season in charge of another of his old clubs, Spurs – ever since.
Even though he found it difficult to watch all of the success which Postecoglou enjoyed during his time in the East End.
“Before the League Cup final a couple of seasons ago, he came out with his team he was obviously concentrating on his team. But he came straight over to me and said, ‘Alan, how are you doing? Nice to meet you’.
“By the way, I had never spoken to him before this. I thought, ‘Alright!’ The Rangers team just walked by me and never said anything."
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Hutton continued: “I started speaking to him about Alistair Johnston, who had just come to the club to replace Josip Juranovic.
“I said to him, ‘What is he like?’ He said, ‘Alan, he’s just like you. He likes to get up and down, he’s aggressive’. I thought, ‘How on earth does this guy know me?’.
“He took that time out of his day, which was such a big occasion, to come over and talk to me at that moment. I thought, ‘I love this guy, but I should really hate him at this moment in time’. When he left and joined Tottenham I thought, ‘It’s alright, I can like him now!’.”
