Why Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou takes the Brian Clough stance on miracles

It was the evening that Clough had been sacked as manager by Leeds United after a disastrous and ill-fated 44-day reign at Elland Road.

However, the football genius that was Clough still came away with a nugget of gold when he turned to Revie - the man he had replaced at Leeds United and despised - and said: "I wanted to win the league but I want to win it better." 

Revie's Leeds had been First Division champions the previous season in 1973-74, losing just four matches in the process. Clough stated that he wanted to win the First Division title losing just three games.

In the course of the interview, Clough also told Revie of his lofty ambitions to win the European Cup. Years later, many football people still haven't grasped what Clough meant by any of those statements.

They all came flooding back to yours truly this week when Ange Postecoglou spoke about his aims for Celtic as his side got set to embark on the 2022-23 campaign.

With more than a nodding reference, Postecoglou appeared to be channelling his inner Clough when he said: "I keep saying we’ve just got to be better than we were last year.

"We’re not going to be better if we stand still and don’t push these guys even further. The ones who were here last year too.

"It’s not just about the guys coming in, it’s about the guys from last year going up a level. That’s what we’re going to do, we’re going to push them and that’s what this pre-season is all about.

"We’ve been on the road a fair bit which I think is important for us because of Europe. We know that’s going to happen and we want to be able to do that midweek and weekend game with Europe in between."

Those quotes alone could have come straight out of Clough's football manual.

Postecoglou knows his football history all right. The Aussie will be well aware of the scale of Nottingham Forest's achievements under Clough.

He took over the managerial reigns of a rag-tag-and-bobtail middle-of-the-road Second Division Forest side in 1975.

In 1978, they were crowned First Division champions. By 1980, Forest had won back-to-back European Cups.

Clough had fulfilled his destiny and satisfied his obsession. The man they called Ol' Big 'Ead had won the cup with big ears not once, but twice.

Clough's team swashbuckled their way to success domestically and then bestrode Europe by playing a superb brand of attacking football.

In the period from 1978-1980 when Forest were absolutely imperious in Europe, Clough favoured a system whereby his team would get the ball out wide to players who would put it in the box for strikers to score.

Scotsman John Robertson was the mercurial and creative wide man on the left wing whose talented feet fed strikers Garry Birtles, Tony Woodcock and Trevor Francis.

It's no surprise then that two of those four players (Roberston and Francis) bagged European Cup-winning goals.

In a Celtic style and philosophical sense, that all sounds pretty familiar doesn't it?

For Robertson read Jota and Liel Abada. For Francis, Woodcock and Birtles read Kyogo Furuhashi, Giorgos Guakoumakis and Daizen Maeda.

Postecoglou also likes the European Cup... or the Champions League if you prefer new money.

When he was asked last season about Rangers run to the Europa League final, the Aussie was quick to point out: "If you want evidence of how well Scottish clubs can do in Europe, there's a trophy I can show you just down the road here, mate."

That was a reference of course to Celtic's 1967 European Cup triumph in Lisbon against Inter Milan under the legendary Jock Stein.

Postecoglou is well aware that Stein's Lions are the standard bearers for every team and manager who follows in their footsteps. It will always be the same with Clough's Forest.

But, like Clough, Postecoglou certainly wants to do it better this season. He can start by making his mark in the Champions League group stages.

The clubs' recent European record has been pretty abysmal of late. That is something that Postecoglou is desperate to address.

Like Clough, he inherited a team that was at low ebb and turned them into champions in jig time.

There is something quite poignant about the fact that, as we embark on season 2022-23, English football will welcome Forest back into their own big time.

Under Postecoglou, the Hoops are dreaming of two-in-row and are back among European football's elite for the first time since 2017.

Both Celtic and Forest supporters have something else in common. The fans of both clubs dream of a return to the heady days when their respective clubs ruled Europe.

The hopeless romantic in the Celtic support will always cling to 1967 and all that - it's largely why, like Nottingham Forest, they continue to believe in miracles.

Football is for the eternal dreamers after all - and the start of every new season is the time for every football supporter to dream... and dream big.

Now Postecoglou may never scale the dizzy heights of winning the European Cup just as Stein and Clough did before him but he'll never stop striving in his quest to always do it better.

This piece is an extract from today’s Celtic Digest newsletter, which is emailed out at 4pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from The Celtic Way team.

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