Sport Report: Celtic Face Substantial Asking Price for Pacey Postecoglou Target After Weeks of Rumours

Why Ange Postecoglou can't take years to build Celtic team as he talks transfer situation and AGM

For Celtic , however, it might be the perfect time to back manager Ange Postecoglou . Last season was, to put it bluntly, a dumpster fire, and nobody expected much from this year, but new manager Ange Postecoglou has revitalized the team and got them firing in a high-pressing, high passing system. It appears to have full buy-in from the players despite many of them being tested to their absolute limits to play it: several figures that Celtic fans never thought they would see again, like defender Anthony Ralston and midfielder Nir Bitton, are regular first-teamers.

Celtic . Canny believe I’m saying this but for once in my life I’m actually in the know on an obscure target . Got family in Australia so I watch a lot of Aussie football and he tries to play good football but isn’t an overly spectacular coach. Not sure he’s got that winning mentality to win us back the title, and although his brand of football is ok I think we could be in for a bit of a Rocky season with his tactics. For talk regarding Scottish football. SPFL, domestic cups, the national team and more. Gossip, rumours , news and scores.

The lowdown

The Hoops are looking to build upon the success of J-League import Kyogo Furuhashi, who is the joint-top scorer in the Premiership as it stands.

Maeda has enjoyed a prolific campaign himself, netting 22 goals in 35 league appearances to help his team to finish second in the table, and his links with Celtic now date back more than a month.

Journalist Stuart Hodge has described him as ‘a good player with bags of ability [and] bags of pace’, while Ange Postecoglou managed Marinos before he was appointed at Celtic, so he is certainly familiar with Maeda, who has played 50 times under the Australian.

The latest

The Daily Record‘s Scott Burns reported that Celtic are ‘keen’ on Maeda.

However, he added that the Hoops would need to shell out £3m or more to reunite him with Postecoglou in Glasgow, a sum the report described as ‘substantial’.

The verdict

To put that fee into context, Celtic spent just over £20m in the summer and went above the £3m mark for three players – Furuhashi, Carl Starfelt and Liel Abada. That would suggest that Yokohama F Marinos’ demands are not insignificant, but they should be manageable for the Hoops.

Postecoglou may view Maeda as a more reliable alternative to Giorgos Giakoumakis, who has been limited to just two Premiership starts since his arrival in the summer amid injury concerns.

The manager’s argument might be that it is crucial to have dependable depth in forward areas, with Celtic potentially competing in the Europa Conference League as well as the Premiership and domestic cup competitions.

In other news, Kieran Devlin responds to yet another J-League rumour involving Celtic

Similar from the Web

For Celtic , however, it might be the perfect time to back manager Ange Postecoglou . Last season was, to put it bluntly, a dumpster fire, and nobody expected much from this year, but new manager Ange Postecoglou has revitalized the team and got them firing in a high-pressing, high passing system. It appears to have full buy-in from the players despite many of them being tested to their absolute limits to play it: several figures that Celtic fans never thought they would see again, like defender Anthony Ralston and midfielder Nir Bitton, are regular first-teamers. www.forbes.com

Celtic . Canny believe I’m saying this but for once in my life I’m actually in the know on an obscure target . Got family in Australia so I watch a lot of Aussie football and he tries to play good football but isn’t an overly spectacular coach. Not sure he’s got that winning mentality to win us back the title, and although his brand of football is ok I think we could be in for a bit of a Rocky season with his tactics. For talk regarding Scottish football. SPFL, domestic cups, the national team and more. Gossip, rumours , news and scores. www.reddit.com

Football Insider had previously reported last week that Postecoglou officially requested to leave City Football Group backed Yokohama after Celtic submitted an offer for his services. Celtic are reportedly set to announce the former Socceroos coach as their new manager this week , which would become by far the biggest announcement in Australian coaching history. Reports of Postecoglou 's imminent arrival at Parkhead have been met with a considerable negative response from Hoops fans, with the club's fan association meeting in protest, and many refusing to buy season tickets as a result.

Postecoglou tries to implement a structure of passing and pressing that maximizes the team, very much a system-first approach that could not be starker in difference to the Lennon appraoch. Those inclined towards analytics in football like to characterize this as ‘variance’, the ability to minimize hiccups and maximize strengths. Ange Postecoglou is no stranger to this kind of thinking: it pervades both rugby league and Australian rules football, the major football codes in Australia, and he will doubtless have come across it during his periods in charge of Brisbane Roar and Melbourne Victory.

Celtic will continue their pursuits of Carl Starfelt and Brandon Soppy ahead of the European Qualifier against FC Midtjylland on Tuesday 20th. According to The Daily Record’s Michael Gannon, Ange Postecoglou is pressing ahead with the plans to recruit after a slow start on the transfer front. The 23-year-old is actively seeking a transfer from the club but so far approaches from Bayer Leverkusen, Norwich and Brentford have all been rebuffed as Celtic look to have their price met for the Norwegian Internationalist.

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