Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou: I want to take time to enjoy the feeling of winning the Scottish Cup

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou insisted he wants to enjoy the feeling of winning the Treble rather than discuss his future with the Scottish Cup winners.

The Australian saw his Celtic team defeat Inverness 3-1 in the final at Hampden, adding the Scottish Cup trophy to the League Cup and Premiership triumphs from earlier in the season.

The win came courtesy of goals from Kyogo Furuhashi, Liel Abada and Jota, and means Postecoglou becomes the fifth Celtic manager to win the Treble, following Jock Stein, Martin O’Neill, Brendan Rodgers and Neil Lennon.

Since arriving in the summer of 2021, the former Yokohama F Marinos boss has won five out of six trophies available in Scotland, and taken the club into the Champions League. That success has caught the eye of Tottenham Hotspur, who are reportedly keen to make him their next manager.

Postecoglou had dismissed questions about his future in the run up to the final and after the final whistle he said that he just wanted to take time to savour what his side had achieved.

“What I said to the players was: ‘Let’s enjoy this’,” he said. “You know, I deserve to enjoy this.

“The people around me deserve to enjoy this. You know, whatever other people want to focus on and talk about.

“I’m not going to miss enjoying this moment with, you know, this group of people, but also with my family, my friends, all those people closest to me.

“Everyone works hard, makes sacrifices to enjoy these moments. And I understand that other people who aren’t invested in it want to ask these questions. But for me right now, the most important thing is that, we reflect and and just be in the moment of creating something special.

“Again, I deserve to enjoy this. You know, I deserve to enjoy this moment because irrespective of what happens in the future, why would you not want to enjoy this moment just for what it is, something historic?”

Asked if he anticipated still being Celtic manager next season, when the club will have three trophies to defend, Postecoglou preferred not to give a direct answer.

He said: “I anticipate enjoying this moment for the next 24, 48 hours, as long as I can before somebody drags me away and takes my attention away from enjoying something that’s been hard-earned.

“The reality of it is there’s probably players in the dressing who might be here next year. Yeah, that’s the nature of football, but I want them to enjoy it.

“I’m going to enjoy it and that’s all I’m going to focus on for what I said, until somebody grabs me by the collar and tells me that I have to answer some questions.”

Reflecting on the cup triumph and Treble success, he said “I’m very proud of the whole group and it becomes very surreal when you think about what we’ve achieved.

“I’ve said before that coming off the back of last year when we had, probably unexpected, success in terms of the double, the gap was the Scottish Cup.

“The challenge this year was to come back bigger and better and try to improve. It’s easy for me to say that but the lads have just embraced every challenge along the way. For us to do that we needed to fill that gap that we had last year.

“Winning the Scottish Cup is such a great occasion anyway. This football club has got an unbelievable history of success and for this group, they’ve got their bit of history now that is there forever, which I couldn’t be prouder of.”