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Ange has had stepping stones before but I think he is more than happy at Celtic

POSTECOGLOU’S IN PARADISE AND NOT TEMPTED TO MOVE, SAYS SCHWARZER

by Stephen McGowan Chief Football Writer in Doha

GOALKEEPER turned broadcaster, the reverence shown by Australian media colleagues towards Mark Schwarzer is hard to miss.

At press conferences in Qatar’s National Convention Centre, he lobs questions at the podium and the room falls quiet.

When Graham Arnold answers, he calls him ‘Schwarz’. One of Australian football’s Golden Generation of 2006, the iconic keeper has been there, seen it, done it and worn the jersey. When he opens his mouth, people listen.

‘Following the Socceroos around and covering press conferences is something that’s very new to me,’ he tells Sportsmail over a bottle of FIFA-licensed still water.

‘I’ve been in a press conference before, but never been actively involved on the journalistic side.

‘If I had a choice I wouldn’t be doing it very often. It’s okay but I prefer to do the whole sitdown interviews and try to find out people’s background stories a bit more.

‘One to one interviews, as opposed to this sort of stuff, is more my bag.’

A talent for grilling the great and the good of the game shone through in March of this year when the most-capped Australian international of all time packed a bag and flew to Glasgow.

As a player for over two decades with Middlesbrough, Fulham, Chelsea and Leicester, his day job was clutching cross balls.

These days he holds a microphone for a living and, when he left Celtic’s Lennoxtown training ground after an audience with Ange Postecoglou, he felt he’d spoken to a manager likely to be targeted by clubs in England’s Premier League. Targeted, if not tempted.

‘Yeah, definitely,’ nods Schwarzer. ‘Ange has had stepping stones now and I say that with the greatest respect to all concerned.

‘He went from managing in the A-League to managing the national team, got an opportunity to go to Japan. He did very well at Yokohama, winning their first title in a number of years and changing the whole ethos of the club.

‘What Ange has done everywhere he has gone, every job he has been at, is leave the club in a better place. So he is one of those people who lays the foundations, accomplishes a lot with a club. And if an opportunity comes up — and it all works for everyone — then who knows?

‘I actually think he is very happy where he is. When I spoke to him he had an unbelievable respect for Celtic and the opportunity they have given him to manage at the level they are at. So I don’t think he is actively looking to move on at all. I think he is more than happy.’

At the age of 43, Schwarzer ended his career after a spell with Leicester. Picking the right time to leave a football club is never an exact science and he thinks Brendan Rodgers picked a lousy time to walk out on Celtic. If or when temptation falls into the path of Postecoglou, he expects his countryman to sugar-coat the bitter pill a little better.

‘I think the anger with Rodgers was more about the timing and the way it was done,’ says Schwarzer. ‘That’s everything and it’s key. In saying that, do you always get to pick the right time? Sometimes it’s now or never. And if, down the line, there are opportunities? Well, then, you have to make tough decisions.

‘But everywhere Ange has left he has done it on good terms. He has always done it the right way. I can’t see it being any different when he goes from Celtic.’

Surprisingly, the two men never actually worked together. Schwarzer brought his Socceroos career to an end after 109 caps in 2013. He had played at two World Cups, reaching the second stage for the first time ever in 2006.

He had done the hard miles, throwing his body around the EPL for two decades and, at the age of 41, was struggling to get a game for Chelsea. When Postecoglou replaced Holger Osiek as Socceroos boss, he’d done his stint.

‘It all kind of aligned,’ he recalls. ‘The manager was sacked, it was very well known how Ange would want to play football.

‘I knew things would change and it wouldn’t necessarily suit how I played. It felt like the right decision to retire from the national team.’

Had he been a younger man, Schwarzer might have taken a different decision.

Nine months into his first season in Glasgow, Postecoglou threw open the gates of Lennoxtown to talk him through the methods which would deliver a first Scottish Premiership title inside two months.

Unconvinced by the merits of Angeball nine years ago, the Socceroos icon left Glasgow a convert to the cause.

‘I think what Ange has done at Celtic is remarkable,’ observes Schwarzer. ‘On day one people were lambasting him, calling his appointment comical and farcical.

‘But what I think is even more impressive — and, in my opinion, it’s not really appreciated — is that Ange went in there and didn’t bring a single coach with him.

‘He walked into a country and a club he barely knew and worked with the same people who were there the previous season when they were 25 points behind Rangers.

‘Let’s be honest, Celtic fans were desperate for him to get rid of the guys who were there before after the previous season.

‘What he told me was that (John Kennedy and Gavin Strachan) knew Glasgow and he could use them as much as they used him. So long as they wanted to go on his journey, so long as they were open to learning and change, he was more than happy to take them on the journey.’

Postecoglou’s ‘never-stop’ mantra has become a merchandiser’s dream. Nine points clear in the Scottish Premiership, Celtic’s relentlessness makes them favourites to retain their title despite the arrival of Michael Beale as manager of Rangers.

The bump in the road came in the Champions League. Watching from Down Under, Schwarzer always feared that would be the case. Harder to predict was how supporters would react.

‘Ange won’t change. He just won’t,’ notes Schwarzer. ‘That was always going to be the question for me. How would the Celtic fans react to that? The Champions League was always going to be a pivotal moment. Do people realise where they are in the grand scheme of things?

‘Celtic and Rangers are very unique, they are two global, massive clubs. And there is a sense of “We are Celtic, we are Rangers, we should be winning everything”.

‘With some fans, that attitude is very strong. So my litmus test for Ange was always to see if they got to the Champions League and continued to play like they’re playing, how will that affect perceptions? How will the fans react to it?

‘My general understanding is that most of the fans still love the way they play football. Yes, they have lost games. They lost to Real Madrid by a quite a lot of goals, but they can see what they are trying to do. Entertainment probably outweighs the actual results at the moment.’

Swapping football for broadcasting when he hung up his gloves, Schwarzer has learned the value of entertainment.

With money in the bank, the daily pressures of coaching held no appeal. Keen to stay in football, media work offered free time and enough profile to stay relevant.

‘I’m not a news journalist,’ he says. ‘They know I’m not after a sensational headline.

‘In actual fact I’ve had examples where a player will respond to a question I’ve asked and I will stop the interview to say: “Are you happy with what you just said?”.’

The thought occurs that if he’d interviewed Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal’s main man might still be playing for Manchester United. Schwarzer prefers to understand than undermine.

‘It’s just an element of trying something, experiencing it, adding a few extra strings to your bow,’ he concludes. ‘If you always do the same thing life gets boring. And who wants that?’

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2022-12-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-12-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

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