There was no need for Ange Postecoglou to dust down one of his now famous responses from earlier this season when he was asked about the cash up for grabs in Europe.
I’m not an accountant, mate, the Celtic manager quickly replied last time it came up, and he’s not been doing a night school class on bean counting in the weeks since.
Real Betis boss Manuel Pellegrini admitted this week he did have dosh on his mind coming to Glasgow, with around £550,000 up for grabs for three points in tonight’s Europa League final encounter even if the group places had already been decided.
Postecoglou will leave his rival to count the pennies as he’s banking on something that doesn’t have a price tag.
The Aussie has no doubt the Celtic board wouldn’t mind another half mill in the coffers but as far as he is concerned this evening’s clash is priceless for his players.
Postecoglou will shuffle his side to protect some top assets and give time on the the pitch for others.
And he’s convinced the move will pay dividends with Celtic going in to the business end of the year with the Premier Sports Cup and vital league games on the horizon.
Postecoglou said: “I don’t have that (prize money) at the forefront of my mind to be fair. Perhaps the financial controllers at the club might be thinking the other way, but it’s not something I’m thinking about.
“It’s about freshening up as we have some big games coming up between now and the break that are very important for our season – including the Cup Final.
“I don’t know mate, you’ll need to do the sums. What is financially more important to the club, is it tomorrow night or what’s ahead of us?
“It won’t be meaningless tomorrow. The players who we put out are all Celtic players. They train with us every day and they represent this football club.
“We expect them to uphold our standards and play the football we want. It’s an important game.
“We’ve already had a couple of injuries and we have these games coming up – I need guys to be ready. You saw Liam Scales. He hasn’t played much but he came on for 15 minutes on Sunday and made a real impact.
“We need other guys to do that and this game is an opportunity to show they are ready.”
Postecoglou has warned his entire squad to be on stand by as he’s not the kind of gaffer to pull players to the side and tip them off to have their game faces on.
He wants his side to be on a battle footing all of the time.
The former Soccceroos boss said: They have to be ready every day, mate. I’m not telling them when they are playing or not playing.
“There have been plenty of times in my coaching career when I’ve seen someone is not right on the morning of a game.
“I can't start approaching players when they are potentially getting an opportunity.
“They have to train every day like they are involved at the weekend or midweek, irrespective if they are in my plans or not.
“It makes no difference to me, whether they have been playing or now.
“You train today like you’re playing tomorrow, and that’s whether you are Callum McGregor or one of the young guys.
“The expectations are the same. No one is promised anything apart from, if they train hard and do the right things then they can come back to training the next day.”
Celtic have already banked a spot in the new look Europa Conference knockout stages but tonight’s clash will be another chance to take stock.
It’s been a topsy turvy campaign for the Hoops. Ferencvaros were dealt with home and away and the top seeds Bayer Leverkusen and Betis were given games on continental soil.
Leverkusen’s win in Glasgow was the only real crash and even that night was a strange game that could have swung wildly at times.
Postecoglou’s men have been learning on the hoof but the gaffer believes the performance graph is going in the right direction.
He said: “Look, I think we have made progress in European competition, obviously, domestically as well. From where we started a while ago in Denmark, the team has obviously evolved and every game we’ve kinda got a little bit more self belief in our football, against really good opposition.
“We’ve had it pretty tough in our group, You are talking about Leverkusen, who are in third spot in the Bundesliga, Betis third spot in La Liga and Ferencvaros top of their league.
“It’s been a really good test for us with pretty much a new team and I think we’ve made progress in every game we’ve played.
“In the start of the last game I thought we played really well and then after there were parts we got punished, and then we emerged from that.
“As each game has gone on I think we’ve sort of made a little more progress in terms of the team we want to be.
“It’s an endless road, mate, so it’s hard for me to tell you now where we are at because I don’t know where we are going to end up.
“My hope is we’re going to have success at this football club. What that success looks like I’m not going to put a limit on it, a cap on it."
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