ANGE POSTECOGLOU is looking to get his transfer business done early in the summer in order to make Celtic competitive in next season’s Champions League, saying that the competition represents the level he wants the club to be operating at.
Postecoglou was faced with a massive rebuilding job when he first arrived at Celtic last June, but has managed to knit together a squad who will officially confirm themselves as Scottish Premiership champions should they get at least a point from their trip to face Dundee United at Tannadice tonight.
The Celtic manager doesn’t expect anywhere near the same level of churn this time around, but wants to get the signings he desires over the line as quickly as possible so that his squad can take the next step in its development by being competitive in Europe’s premier competition.
“Yeah, most definitely,” Postecoglou said. “The work has already started, we’re already planning and I’ve already had conversations with the club about the kind of players we want to identify and bring into the club.
“Our priority is to try to get that done early so that come pre-season, with us hopefully winning the Premiership and getting straight into the group stage, we know we’ve got a really good opportunity in pre-season to work with the group of players without the pressure of competition.
“It would be great if we could have all the new players in by that time. Sometimes these things are taken out of your hands a little bit, but our intent is to try to get our business done early.
“We know what we need, we’ve already identified the areas we need to improve, so we’ve already started work on that.”
Postecoglou hopes that the experiences of going up against the likes of Real Betis and Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League this season will stand his men in good stead for what they will face in the Champions League.
“Well mate, it’s where we want the club to be,” he said. “We want the club to be at that level on a consistent basis, that’s our overall goal.
“If you’re in that rarefied air often enough then you gain the experience to also make an impact.
“That’s our challenge. It’s going to be exciting, it’s going to be very challenging, but what an opportunity for us as a football club to expose our players and our team against the very best in Europe.
“Hopefully the experience gives us the incentive to keep being at that level, and as I said, if we can stay consistently at that level then we will increase our chances of making an impact.”
