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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
David Irvine

'Come on mate' - Ange Postecoglou in razor-sharp response to Celtic squad poser

Ange Postecoglou defended his Celtic squad as he delivered a razor-sharp response to a question on whether he had to strengthen in the summer.

Celtic slumped to a 4-2 defeat against Hibs to go three games without a win after sealing the Scottish Premiership title.

However, Postecoglou was less than impressed when asked if he would have to strengthen ahead of next season as he bristled: "Come on, mate. Do you want us to win the league by 20 points next year? Is that the thing?

"I get it and I understand the questioning but if you want to measure us on the last three games, then you probably need a different manager as well.

"This squad has handled Champions League. It is in the final of a cup competition and won a cup competition and won the league.

"The squad is fine and we will strengthen as we always do. Like I said, this is on me and I am making a lot of changes this evening and playing a lot of guys who have not played and that is why we are getting the results.

"I just think in this crazy world of Scottish football that if you can't see past what the obvious is then... I said it during the week that if people want to make assumptions that we won't be a strong next year, then that is great. I think that is probably in our favour."

Asked for an update on Sead Haksabanovic who limped off injured, Postecoglou said: "Again, that is a legacy of him not playing that much.

"It has been a weird second half of the year for us. You talk about squad but the reality is we have had a squad that we can't make use of as we have not had any midweek games, whereas at the start of the year we were rotating quite often and players were playing regularly.

"While now guys are not playing for long stretches but unfortunately for Haksabanovic, he looks to have picked up an injury."

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