Ange Is Entitled To Crow About His Success, But It’s Just Not The Celtic Boss’s Style.

If I were Ange Postecoglou I might think that I was entitled to gloat a little with the way this season is going at the moment. Even if it were over, though, I don’t believe for one minute that he would.

The man has too much class for that, too much by far.

I remember hearing about Dick Advocaat going up to get his manager of the year award from the hacks, who were slobbering about his greatness. He took that literally, and if he wasn’t arrogant enough before he arrived at Ibrox he certainly was by the time their sycophancy reached its height that night when he got up in front of them to get his gong.

He gave a speech which was as preening and arrogant as one could imagine. He closed the speech by telling the hacks “see you all next year.” On the way to Holland for a brief family holiday he stopped to taunt a young Celtic fan in the airport.

That’s a true story, that actually happened.

You cannot even imagine, stretching every sinew of your brain, Ange ever doing something so crass or egotistical. The man is the epitome of class.

I watched his latest interview with the media back in Australia today.

He was fantastic. The best moment came when he was played a clip of Alan Brazil and Ally McCoist laughing at his work permit situation when he had just been appointed.

I had looked into that matter myself and I thought we might be in big trouble.

It was during that early spell when I thought the appointment might be a disaster.

I was delighted to see how he responded to that early mockery … Brazil was so blithe and arrogant about it that he hadn’t even bothered to learn how to pronounce his name.

What a mug he looks now, and he’s not the only one.

And no-one is laughing anymore of course.

No-one except Ange. But his was the laughter of someone who was genuinely amused by it all.

He is not in the least bit big-headed about any of it.

Last weekend was his 50th game in charge of our club.

The one little indulgence he allowed himself was to joke to the hacks that many of them didn’t expect him to reach that milestone, and of course some of them must have squirmed in their seats because he was right and there were a couple of them – at least a couple – in the room with him.

But this man is the complete opposite of arrogant, and he will not be gloating even if he secures the domestic grand slam. Look at what he did when he won the manager of the month award; he shared it with his backroom team for the second time this season.

That is a man who understands that success is a team effort.

He will never be a Rodgers, hogging the limelight.

He will never be a Lennon, passing the buck.

He embraces his role as a leader and knows that a leader does so first by example, and he is clearly an outstanding mentor and role model. Our players, especially our young players, are going to learn a lot from him.

So could many of us.

Not for the first time, tonight I am struck by just how lucky we are to have such a genuinely good man at the helm.