Postecoglou brushes off Spurs speculation ahead of Scottish Cup final

Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou says his only focus is on Saturday’s Scottish Cup final amid intense speculation that he is set to depart Parkhead and take up the vacant manager’s position at Tottenham Hotspur.

Media reports on Thursday suggest Postecoglou could be appointed Spurs manager as early as next week.

But the Parkhead boss reiterated his sole focus is defeating Inverness Caledonian Thistle at Hampden, which would secure a domestic treble.

“You’re making it sound as if this is the first time it’s happened to me,” Postecoglou told reporters on Thursday.

“We’ve done this dance a few times this year, so I think the players are well aware of where my thoughts lie. Whatever it is, the players obviously have been really good before at just focusing on what’s important – and what’s important is getting ready for a big game on Saturday.

“I get all the interest and why people love to speculate on these things but we’ve worked really, really hard to get ourselves into this position and, for me, to let my mind wander to anything else other than getting our team prepared for a big day on Saturday is just not who I am.

“I’ve handled it (speculation) before so I’ll handle it the say way. It doesn’t enter my sphere of thinking because my role is to make sure the team is absolutely prepared for whatever the next challenge is, and far be it for me to say if a cup final isn’t enough to draw all my attention to that, then nothing will be.

Responding to a question about whether he expected to have a sit down with Celtic officials about his future after the cup final, Postecoglou said: “No, because again that would mean me planning, organising, thinking, about things other than Saturday.

“I understand it, and I understand that it’s your job to ask these questions because that’s the role you’re in, but you’re not invested in this football club like I am, like the players are, like our supporters are, and, like I said, I woke up this morning thinking about one thing – the same thing I’ve been thinking about for the last five days – which is I really want to make sure we play well in this cup final and make it a truly special season.”

Meanwhile, striker Kyogo Furuhashi is “bullish” about his chances of making the cup final after going off with a leg knock during last Saturday’s win over Aberdeen.

Postecoglou said: “Kyogo is progressing. He hasn’t trained yet. The plan is to get him out there tomorrow (Friday) and see how he goes. He is doing some individual stuff this afternoon.

“He always is, but he is still pretty bullish about playing so we will just see how he goes.

“(Alistair) Johnston is fine, he has trained all week and (Sead) Haksabanovic is back in so he is available as well. The only real absence is Aaron Mooy.”

Postecoglou has now claimed four of five domestic trophies available since arriving from Japan in the summer of 2021 and he can follow in the footsteps of Jock Stein, Martin O’Neill, Brendan Rodgers and Neil Lennon by clinching the treble with Scottish Cup victory over Inverness on Saturday.