Ange’s Terrifying Update On “Standards” Is Bad News For Celtic’s Rivals.

In the aftermath of today’s game, Ange gave his verdict on the performance.

He wasn’t particularly happy with the first half, and most of us would have agreed with him wholeheartedly because there is piss and there is poor and that display was both.

He did not hold back. For the first time since he took over, we saw the critical side of Ange. Even during the match, the commentary team said he was laying into the players for the display. His analysis was spot on. We didn’t work hard enough. There was no movement off the ball. We didn’t pass it quickly, or well, enough.

So far, nothing terribly dramatic, right? Nothing to write home about.

Just a manager giving the team a bit of verbal for a disappointing opening 45 minutes. But then the journalist asked him if he was pleased, overall, with what the team has produced and the standards they’ve set since he came in.

“Are they living up to your expectations?” she asked.

And he said no! Ange Postecoglou actually said that not only are they not meeting his standards yet but they are nowhere near them! This guy, who has taken this team to the top of the league and the first trophy of the campaign thinks there is more to come … much, much more to come. And that should thrill every Celtic fan … and terrify our rivals.

All the time, he refers to this as “a work in progress.”

It reminds me, whenever I hear it, of a question I asked my mate Jonny Garner a few months ago, a question he answered in a lengthy article for this site.

But on the day he said that the team has already surpassed what he thought it might this season … and he had no doubts whatsoever about us winning the league title in the next campaign, regardless of what Ibrox manages to do.

That thought has stuck with me, because it’s obvious that this team is just going to get better and better and better the longer the manager has with the players and the longer he has to get his ideas across.

The man has worked a near miracle already … but there is definitely a sense that the best is yet to come, and that’s borne out by the men who are missing; Turnbull, Jullien (back today and how glad I am, I’ll cover that tomorrow) and Kyogo.

Not only has he raised the games of so many players at the club, but he has made brilliant signings and knitted them all together; it’s obvious that although it looks seamless that there will still be all sorts of minor niggles behind the scenes are people try to integrate and fit in … as that happens and this team starts to properly gel we will see even better from them.

There’s also the tendency for the team to take its foot off the gas at times; Ange clearly wants that to stop, because he really is a high-tempo for ninety minutes’ guy and he’s not really had that as often as he’d have liked. So there are obvious places where you could see this team improving, even accounting for how well they have played so far.

I love listening to this guy talk. Even the hacks enjoy it.

But I bet some of them didn’t enjoy it quite so much today, and I know nobody at Ibrox did.