Former Celtic striker Brian McClair has claimed he was "always confident" that Ange Postecoglou would be a success at Celtic.

The Parkhead boss faced scrutiny when he first arrived in Glasgow due to him not being well known on this side of the world.

But McClair insists he was well aware of the Australian's ability after doing his own research into the 57-year-old

Speaking to the Scottish Sun, he said: "Postecoglou has done really well, but I was always quite confident he’d be successful.

“I'd done my research and he was working in Japan for a team owned by the same people as Manchester City.

"Now, they seem to know what they’re playing at in terms of recruitment of coaches.

"They must have thought he was good, so I was confident he’d be the one to do what they needed to do at the club.

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"The difficult part for him was there was so much dilly-dangling over Eddie Howe, his team missed a lot of pre-season, which was important to get his message across.

"He started off playing catch-up in terms of recruitment, and his early results reflected in that.

"But you could see what he was trying. That first season Celtic had a load of hamstring injuries, which are fatigue injuries really.

"He had the players working so hard and he wasn’t changing it because he knew it would be successful.

"After then you can see how the situation has improved and he’s got a team playing how he wants them to play.

"It’s been very entertaining to watch, and it’s no surprise to me that his players all work hard."

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