Ange Postecoglou shrugs off Spurs link and Robbie Neilson comments

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou dismissed talk of him being a potential candidate to manage Tottenham Hotspur, saying that speculation about other jobs doesn’t affect him.

Antonio Conte’s comments about his future at Spurs have prompted discussion of possible replacements and achievements at Celtic have seen the former Australia manager mentioned in reports in England.

Asked for his thoughts on the link, Postecoglou said he paid no attention to “gossip”.

“I don’t look at it at all, it’s just not of interest to me,” the manager said. “I don’t wake up and get a daily briefing on the latest gossip, whether that’s football or non-football related.

“I get up every morning and come to work and deal with what’s in front of me.

“The rest of it doesn’t mean anything to me, doesn’t affect me, doesn’t affect the people around me.

“Like most things, people want to have something to talk about and they pick things that are fairly obscure and you can run with without worrying too much whether there is actually any evidence behind it.”

Postecoglou marked 100 games in charge of Celtic with a Premiership win over Hearts on Wednesday night and joked at the time that some people in Scotland wouldn’t have bet on him reaching that milestone.

Ahead of facing the Tynecastle side in the Scottish Cup on Saturday, he was asked about the possibility of doubling that number of games and said: “I’m not a betting man so I’ll leave the odds to others. I was remarking on the fact that others didn’t think I would last that long.

“I would hazard a guess that not many would think I would be around for 100 more, for a number of reasons.

“All I’m worried about is the 101. Let’s make sure that one’s a good one.”

The Celtic boss, who revealed that attacker Daizen Maeda is “50/50” to be fit to play against Hearts, expects another tough game against Robbie Neilson’s side after coming from behind to win 3-1 in midweek.

In the aftermath of that game. Neilson had expressed his disbelief at a refereeing decision, remarking that his side would need “a decapitation” for a Celtic player to get red carded at Parkhead.

Postecoglou wouldn’t respond to the comment but defended any manager’s right to give their honest thoughts on a game.

“What other managers say or think is of no interest to me,” he said. “I don’t know why I would take into account another person’s view of what I have seen. It doesn’t register with me and never has.

“Every manager has the right to analyse and summarise a game they want to, I have no issue with that.

“But does that mean I go away and say ‘Oh my God, look what the other bloke said or look at what some person said about our game, what the hell am I doing here?’”