As Usual, The Media Is Deliberately Misconstruing The Celtic Manager’s Words.

Ange Postecoglou was asked a number of questions at his press conference today that I’ll go into a little bit later, but one of the important questions was about the alleged issues with Giorgios Giakoumakis and I thought that his answer was very instructive.

First, Ange did not deny the stories.

That confirms my suspicion that Celtic has someone leaking stuff to the media and that person has to be found because they are putting themselves before the rest of this club and that cannot stand.

But as I suspected, the breakdown of contract talks does not automatically mean that Giakoumakis is headed for the exit door.

If there had been some debate or dispute between the player and the boss – which is what the media was openly inferring – there was no sign of that today and Ange has reiterated his stance on these issues; it only matters to him if a player is not doing it at training, or making problems where none need to be.

Ange said that if such issues arise he would deal with those matters then.

This was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a warning to the player.

Why would it be? Ange worked with three players who were in their final year at Celtic. Only one of them – Kris Ajer – clearly wasn’t getting with the program and Ange didn’t select him at all.

The others, he played in the team right up to the day of their departures with no problems at all. Contract issues are not his concern, although they might start to be if they are allowed to pile up and more and more players are unsatisfied with their situation.

But even then, if he sees players out on the training pitch giving their all then he doesn’t really care what’s going on in the background.

The Record’s suggestion that he levelled some kind of threat to Giakoumakis at that presser today isn’t just wrong, it’s deliberately provocative and completely misleading.

That was not the man’s tone or his intent.

These people, this paper, are the ones someone at Parkhead is talking to out of school.

That person may believe that they are working for Celtic, but they are actually working against the common good of this club. That newspaper does not wish us well, and so anyone helping them destabilise us is, in a very real sense, doing the Devils work.