The ex-Celtic boss irked Michele Beale’s lieutenant over a comment after their Viaplay Cup final win.
Former Rangers assistant Neil Banfield has revealed the reasons for digging out Ange Postecoglou over a press conference comment was designed to try and give the Light Blues players fuel to beat Celtic.
The Englishman had many scratching their heads when he said the Aussie said something that left a “little taste in the mouth” following Celtic’s Viaplay Cup final win over Michael Beale’s Rangers early last year, adding “he said one or two things that make you want to say, ‘Okay, right, we’re coming’.”
Rangers never did catch Postecoglou’s Celtic with the Aussie going on to beat Beale’s men again in the league and Scottish Cup semi-final before losing a dead rubber at Ibrox in the final league clash of last season before he left for Tottenham Hotspur. Experienced Banfield, who worked with Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, has now explained in an interview with Football Scotland what was behind his comments. He said: “Ange had made a comment and being another coach it was, ‘Okay, we’re gonna make sure that next time you don’t dominate the game’. Which is fair, he’s the manager of Celtic!
“You look for any little thing to help drive your team on, you say, ‘Look, this is what their manager said, we don’t want that to happen again’. Maybe I didn’t use the right words to say we’re coming for him the next game, but I probably wouldn’t use that language again, I’d word it a different way. It was only meant as a spur to spur us on in the next game to try and win and have a go to win it and not be dominated.
“The whole context of the conversation was how well he’d done and how good a job he’d done and then we spoke about him saying a little thing, and when you’re competing against someone you try and use that to your own gain. To drive your team on, that was the part of us not wanting him to think that again. I wouldn’t change it too much because if a manager says one thing I’m definitely gonna use it for my team in the next game, it was about making sure it didn’t happen again!”
Banfield also spoke of another comment aimed at Postecoglou from Beale himself when he described the Aussie as being a “lucky” manager.
“The then Rangers boss was referring to the funds he had available but it was against the Londoner, now at Sunderland, and the Aussie even referred to it in his Premiership victory speech last season.
But Banfield said: “He’s just being honest and saying he’s got that ability to go in a better financial situation than Rangers at the time. ‘Lucky’ is the word Michael used but I think it was taken out of context, I think it was meant to say if you’ve got that ability you can go again and again, you have the chance to do it. I don’t think it was meant as anything more than anything, it was taken out of context.
“But it did grow arms and legs and that’s through living in that goldfish bowl. But that was a great thing as well, there were some lovely times being in that goldfish bowl when you’re winning but you’ve got to take it the same if you lose.”
