Ange Postecoglou’s focus has never been distracted by anything outwith his control so far in his time at Celtic; not refereeing decisions, not ticket allocations and not injury problems that have seemed to be a perennial over the last six months.
Not even some of the comments around Japanese playmaker Kyogo Furuhashi and allegations ‘of cheating’ were sufficient to hook him this week.
The Greek-Australian’s self-containment appears to be part of his temperament rather than anything manufactured although he has maintained that the requirement to be single-minded and unaffected by any of the sideshows – and there tends to be plenty in Scottish football – was something he worked out early in his career.
“I have never seen myself as an epidemiologist or archaeologist are any kind of oligist,” he said.
“I’m a pretty simple guy in terms of knowing what I need to know and at the same time I understand I am a spokesman for the football club in as much as what I say not just in the media but when I am out and about meeting people in public.
“Every time I open my mouth I am representing this football club and I want make sure that what I say and my actions reflect the values of the club I’m at and my own values.
“Sometimes that means I don’t answer questions about things that I believe are answered by other people with more expertise than me. I’m comfortable with that. I’m not insecure with the fact my expertise lies in certain areas and happy to absolve the responsibility for other matters to other people.
“From my perspective, I cottoned on very early in my managerial career that there are certain things that, as you said, were in my control and what I wanted to do.
“For the most part I didn’t get diverted or distracted from that because that is my ultimate responsibility. I represent a football club, I represent the players, the staff and everyone associated with it in terms of the fans, and I want to make sure what I present stays as close to the values and the intent that I believe will make us successful.
“In any walk of life, if you get distracted or taken away from that focus and try and control things you know that ultimately you are never going to have an effect on, I think you absolve yourself of you responsibility.
“I’ve seen it often as I’ve been managing for a very long time. I’ve seen people who take a different approach and really get riled up about refereeing decisions or things outwith their control and I just think ultimately my responsibility rests on what happens between the white lines on the turf.”
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