CalcioMercato claim that the Japan National Team will look to raid Celtic and bring in manager Ange Postecoglou after the World Cup – if current Japan manager Hajime Moriyasu fails to deliver at the upcoming World Cup in Qatar.
Moriyasu, 54, has been in charge of the Japan side since 2018 – winning an impressive 39 of 57 games. This will be his first World Cup, having taken over after the previous tournament. They have a tough group ahead of them.
Germany, Spain and Costa Rica are their rivals. You would expect Japan to beat Costa Rica, and then hope to get a shock result in one of their other two matches to give them a chance. The odds are stacked against Moriyasu’s men.
Now it appears that the Japan FA are planning for life even after Moriyasu, in case things go horribly wrong. They want to bring in Postecoglou from Celtic, who continues to take Celtic forward. A second League title looks very likely.
Celtic fans are loving their Australian gaffer – but Japan’s interest might not be of much surprise. Postecoglou has international experience after four years as his country’s boss – and has obviously worked in Japan before Celtic.
Japan will look to raid Celtic and bring in Postecoglou
Not only has Postecoglou starred in Japan as a manager – winning both the J-League and J-Cup – he also manages a number of Japanese players. Daizen Maeda is in the current World Cup squad, Reo Hatate and Kyogo missing out.
Yosuke Ideguchi is also on Celtic’s books, though he has struggled to make a real impression as of yet. So, from Japan’s point of view, Postecoglou knows Japanese football and has international experience. He would be the perfect fit.
But there is no chance that Japan could convince him to leave a club like Celtic when he is performing so well. He is being backed, and the progression for his career is likely to be England for a man Martin O’Neill descibed as “terrific”.
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