Why Celtic boss Postecoglou won't walk away - Tony Haggerty

"When people say ‘he’s going to go down the road or somewhere else with the first offer he gets’, it’s not how I’m wired, it’s not how I think. For me, what it’s about is just trying to leave a mark wherever I am.

"I have done that with every football club I have been at. I want to do that at this football club and that is all that consumes me. I don’t think about the next step or I need to go somewhere else or I need to do this or I need to consider other things.

"You don’t go through life oblivious to it. It is not healthy to put the blinkers up and not know what is going on because that tests your desire to keep doing what you’re doing. If people are talking about my future or are interested in my future I will sit there and listen.

"It doesn’t mean I am going to jump at anything that comes my way. I am really passionate about what I do and the people close to me know what is most important to me, what drives me and what keeps me sort of happy in my role. I couldn’t be happier.

"I am still here even though people have been getting me out the door. I am hoping that over the course of time as long as I’m here, and I think you will be surprised how long I am here, I am just consumed by what I do. That is to try to make this football club the best it can be and enjoy every minute of it.

"Mate, the world of management, I am too old to be kidded on by anybody. Things change very quickly. How many managers last three years in their roles these days? You have either got to have extraordinary success or in rare circumstances, a club sticks by you. Apart from that, everyone doesn’t last that long.

"I am going into my third-year next year and I am going to keep doing what I am doing and not really worry about what other people see. Because I’ll tell you what the first thing people will say is I am not ambitious enough because I am not moving on."

Postecoglou was speaking after he had lifted his second successive League Cup by defeating Rangers at Hampden Park. It handed the Aussie his third trophy out of four since he took over the managerial reins in the summer of 2021.

Words have always fascinated me.

The written word.

The spoken word.

More importantly, words and how they are used have always stirred my blood and got my creative juices flowing especially when it comes to the 'Beautiful Game'. It largely explains why I have dedicated 26 years of my 51 on this planet as a football journalist.

Nobody could pen words on football like one of my heroes Hugh McIlvanney.

The best sportswriter bar none.

As Matthew McConaughey famously said in his Oscar-winning speech after he'd won the Best Actor award: "There are three things that I need each day. One, I need something to look up to, another to look forward to, and another is someone to chase."

I chase McIlvanney every day of my waking life. I'm content with that.

I live for that moment when I nail it completely on the page like McIlvaney did.

I'm still chasing.

Despite jokingly being labelled a bit of a William Wordsmith.

I always retort back: "I wander lonely as a clown."

Anyway, I digress the point in all of this really is that Postecoglou's speech after the League Cup final win came flooding back this week when it emerged that the 57-year-old is one of the favourites to take over English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur.

READ MORE: Postecoglou Celtic ray of hope amid huge Fabrizio Romano Spurs update

Depending on which media you read - it's a done deal.

Is it? Is it really?

I'm in a small minority of Celtic-minded people but I actually think that Postecoglou will stay put. There, I've said it. It's almost cathartic.

I've even been told that I'm in the various stages of grief - denial, anger, bargaining, misery, acceptance - you know that kind of thing.

I've survived Kenny Dalglish leaving Celtic at the age of 5. I can survive anything.

The funny thing is that I'm being told the grief rubbish by those who have a vested interest in seeing Postecoglou off the premises.

A highly successful Celtic-winning manager is not high on their agenda and for some it is unpalatable. Why is that? Let's just say that the tint of shade in their spectacles is not aligned with my own.

It's been interesting to read all the various media outlets take on Postecoglou to Spurs.

As I write this: "Ange is not on his way to Wembley. His knees have not gone all trembly. Come on you Spurs, Come on you Spurs!"

Not yet anyway. Luis Enrique and Marco Silva may also have something to say about that in the coming weeks, of course.

I'm fascinated by the screeds that have been written thus far. I'd go as far as to say that in some cases it is the stuff of 'London cabbie driver rumours.'

Listen to the man. He's not wired that way. So wherever these leaks are coming from it is not Postecoglou. Trust me on that score.

Celtic are going for a world record eighth treble in the club's history at Hampden on Saturday against Inverness Caley Thistle in case that had escaped your attention.

Would it be scurrilous of me to then suggest that the bloodlust for Postecoglou to quit Celtic for the bright lights of London would be some underhand plot at destabilising the green and white camp ahead of such a hugely significant match?

No, I'm just paranoid, I guess.

Just because people jump up and down and shout a lot and scream and write words to the effect that Postecoglou to Tottenham is a done deal, doesn't make it factually correct or accurate does it?

The Aussie himself admitted that his sole focus has been on joining the likes of Jock Stein, Martin O'Neill, Brendan Rodgers and Neil Lennon by becoming a treble-winning Celtic manager.

READ MORE: Stein was immortal but Celtic's Postecoglou is irreplaceable

He is consumed by that amongst other things.

Postecoglou may not have been born a Celtic man.

He is now you know.

You only have to listen to him when he speaks. There in lieth the rub.

Too many people don't shut their mouths and open their ears when it comes to the Celtic manager's proclamations.

Why does he have to go south of the border to satisfy his footballing ambitions?

Can he not achieve what he wants in the game with Celtic?

Are Tottenham Hotspur a bigger club than Celtic?

No, and never will be.

Please spare me the age-old bigger league and heavier pay cheque and offer he cannot understand never mind refuse arguments.

I get all that. I genuinely do. Postecoglou is not working at Celtic for nothing you know.

Celtic is a club where his philosophy of football and ambition are fused and they are evenly matched.

No club in British football can offer Postecoglou what he has got going at Celtic.

He has total control of the football operations. Few get that power at a club like Celtic.

Think Stein. Think O'Neill. Think Rodgers.

In the space of two short seasons that is how significant a figure Postecoglou has become at a club like Celtic.

If Celtic were to counter any offer from Tottenham Hotspur - or any other suitor as we even had Marseille entering the frame at one stage this week - by making him the highest-paid manager in the club's history with the highest-ever budget that would be a wonderful bargaining position, would it not?

Postecoglou would then have manoeuvred Celtic and himself into a happy place.

He will not get anything like that level of commitment at a club like Spurs or anywhere else for that matter.

Nor will he get total buy-in from the board and the players but also the most important part of any club - the love from those that matter most, the supporters.

I've always tried to connect lines and join dots with the words of Postecoglou. I don't study body language.

He's old school for sure.

He's a communicator.

If you can be arsed listening then you'll pick up a thing or six along the way.

I'm all ears around Ange.

He's nobody's fool. "If people are talking about my future or are interested in my future I will sit there and listen."

He may well talk to Spurs and listen to what they have to say. Again there is an arrogance out there saying that once Tottenham make contact then that's it. He's gone.

He doesn't strike me as a man who is easily impressed or swayed by the promise of filthy lucre. It's not what drives him. If you think it does then you are clearly not listening.

He may well sit there and listen to Spurs assuming they make an approach. He might not necessarily buy what they're selling.

That's what those words tell me. It's back to those good old-fashioned words again isn't it?

Postecogou has unfinished business with Celtic.

The Champions League.

The beautiful house.

Legacy.

All three are important to him.

"For me, what it’s about is just trying to leave a mark wherever I am. I have done that with every football club I have been at. I want to do that at this football club and that is all that consumes me. I don’t think about the next step or I need to go somewhere else or I need to do this or I need to consider other things."

Yup, you're damn right Mr. Postecoglou.

He's been a manager for 25 years. Celtic were the first big European club to come calling for his services.

That's why when Postecoglou makes such statements. I take him at his word.

He's a man of substance. He's statesmanlike. He's got moral fibre. He is not the football manager of Celtic. He's a custodian of the club. He's got a fresh pair of eyes on everything. He sees through it all - media games included.

His football intelligence ranks up there with the likes of Stein, Sir Matt Busby, Bill Shankly, Brian Clough and Sir Alex Ferguson.

He has a board that trust him implicitly.

He has a fan base that adores him.

He has a playing squad that never stop telling you how joyous and harmonious the dressing room is and how magical it is to play this brand of rip-roaring, free-scoring, never-boring football. The Celtic Way some might say.

As his best friend and former South Melbourne teammate, Stevie Blair opined when he spoke exclusively to the Celtic Way earlier this week: "That's why I just don't see him building that rapport with the fans, with the club and everybody connected to Celtic worldwide and then all of a sudden just turning his back on them."

How hard would it be for Postecoglou to walk away from all of that?

Postecoglou loves a challenge, right?

One of the biggest challenges out there in European football is turning Celtic into a major and credible force in that arena once again.

Imagine if Postecoglou could create a beautiful moment in Europe with Celtic.

He lives for these moments in football as he told us last week after he was handed the Scottish Premiership trophy for the second consecutive season.

You may have missed that if you weren't listening.

Postecoglou is acutely aware that he won't get this kind of hero worship and adulation anywhere else on planet football.

The grass isn't always greener.

READ MORE: Postecoglou's pal on why he doesn't see him leaving Celtic for Spurs

Thankfully in Postecoglou, Celtic have a manager who knows his own mind 'Lock, stock and two smokin' barrels'.

Nobody will know what Postecoglou is thinking when it comes to Tottenham Hotspur. He has a small inner sanctum and circle of confidants that you could count on one hand. Beware of 'in the knows' bearing gifts about the Greek.

I'm willing to believe that Postecoglou is a loyal man as I have listened intently to his words for long enough.

He is a man whose word is his bond. If your word is your bond then that's good enough for yours truly.

It's for all of those reasons that I am convinced more than ever that Postecoglou will stay on at Celtic.

Think of it as Paradise Regained.

As for chasing McIlvanney, like McConaughey's hero in 10 years, "Not even close!"