Today Agne Postecoglou arrived in Glasgow, and with one Hell of a job in front of him.
Celtic’s pre-season training has begun; their first game is in a matter of weeks.
We have made no significant signings for the first team. He will analyse what he has right now, but nobody is holding out much hope that we can achieve much with the current side.
He will take pre-season training for the first time tomorrow; this will give him his first chance to see how the Lennoxtown operation works. I very much doubt that he will have much time for the current coaching staff as time goes by; this guy needs his own people badly.
“It’s great to be here,” he said. “It’s been a tough three weeks to get here but I’m super happy to be here now. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind and I knew it wouldn’t sink in that I’m the new Celtic manager until I got here. Now I can get cracking and start working.”
One of the critical tasks which will be waiting for him is an analysis of our transfer targets; he really does need to get cracking on some signings right away, as well as deciding which of the current first team squad he thinks can do a job and which can’t.
He needs to decide on his tactics. He needs to pick a captain.
These are just some of the items on the man’s to-do list, as he faces a challenge that in my view is greater than that faced by any Celtic boss of the modern age, and perhaps all time.
No Celtic boss in my living memory has faced such a daunting beginning, and this is entirely the fault of the people around Agne, who have thrown him in at the deep end and incredibly – some would say scandalously – unprepared.
He must be a brave man to take this on. Or a mad one.