Postecoglou – ‘We don’t need revenge to motivate us’

In response to reports of Giorgos Giakoumakis leaving, he said “from my perspective, there’s nothing that is happening”. The Australian said he is happy with the squad he has assembled, but added: “We’re still active; I still think there’s space for one more. If no-one exits this window that’s fine. We’ve got a big squad but with our schedule they can all contribute.”

Postecoglou said he would be “really, really disappointed” if his players needed to use revenge for defeat this season by St Mirren as motivation to beat them on Wednesday evening. He said: “If you need revenge as a motivator, well go and lose every second game and you’ll be great, but that’s not how it works. We’re very motivated because we’re representing this football club, we’re in a strong position in the league and we want to continue with our consistency of performance and results.”

He acknowledged the League Cup semi-final in wind and rain on a heavy Hampden pitch has taken its toll on the players. With that in mind, he promises “some changes” for the St Mirren match. Haksabanovic, Ralston, Welsh, McCarthy are all available, as is right-back Alistair Johnston, who missed Saturday’s game.

The Celtic boss claimed Johnston, Aaron Mooy, Daizen Maeda, Josip Juranovic and Cameron Carter-Vickers “all made strong contributions for their countries so that helped them all come back with even more belief and that has translated into their form with us because all those five have been really strong contributors since the World Cup”.

And he praised Japanese duo Maeda and Reo Hatate, saying “the beauty of both those guys is they are strong-willed and strong-minded about their football and continually look to improve and take on every challenge. The best is yet to come. They’ve got more levels in them, both those guys. I see every day how hard they work.”