Ange Postecoglou welcomed the “exciting” certainty of Champions League football as he reflected on Celtic’s cinch Premiership title win.
The Hoops clinched their 10th crown in 11 years on Wednesday night with a 1-1 draw against Dundee United at Tannadice, meaning the Parkhead club go straight into the group stage of European football’s elite club competition, where a reported £30million to £40m can be earned.
It was a terrifically successful end to the former Australia boss’s first campaign as Celtic boss and he revealed some of the benefits of guaranteed Champions League group participation.
Ahead of the game against Motherwell at Parkhead at Saturday lunchtime, Postecoglou said: “It is brilliant.
“There were plenty of motivations to win the title this year, not least that we obviously didn’t win it last year.
“Knowing potentially that the extra carrot was there was a massive motivator.
“I felt it was a great way for us to accelerate our growth as a football club with us being involved at that level and getting exposed to that level: our players, our team, our football club, that is the level we want to be at every year.
“We all know the qualifying process is not straightforward.
“It affects your pre-season, it affects the time off players have, there are all these ramifications.
“It affects your recruiting because you just don’t know, are you recruiting for the Champions League or are you not?
“So all those kinds of things, we can now work with a lot more certainty this off-season and give the players a break, have a really good pre-season and identify the players we want knowing we are going to be playing in the Champions League.
“It is going to be exciting. Celtic Park, Champions League, brilliant.”
