Martin O'Neill deserves a ton of credit for the job that he has done over his two interim stints at Celtic this season. This latest one has seen him guide the Hoops to eight wins and two draws in ten games so far. Next up, he will be looking to achieve something that he already did more than a couple of decades back, that is, beat VfB Stuttgart at Parkhead in European competition.

In the long run, O'Neill is not the answer for Celtic though. He is 73 years of age and will only stay in the job until the end of the season before moving on for good.

Celtic will need to find a new manager next summer. And one man that most fans would like to see back in the Parkhead hot seat is Ange Postecoglou.

Postecoglou is an immensely popular figure at Celtic Park. He arrived in the summer of 2021, when the club was at its lowest point in recent memory, rebuilt the squad faster than anybody could have expected and then guided them to five trophies in two seasons.

Also, Postecoglou is without a job at the moment. On paper, a return to Celtic makes all the sense in the world after successive sackings from Nottingham Forest and Tottenham Hotspur. Unfortunately, though, it does not look like the idea of a return appeals to the Australian despite the great time he had in Scotland.

As reported by The Celtic Way, Postecoglou said on The Overlap's Stick To Football podcast: "I loved Celtic; it is a wonderful football club. If I were younger, I would have stayed there longer, perhaps three or four years.

"I could have made progress with them in Europe. However, it had taken me a long time to get to this space, and the opportunity to join Tottenham was too good. In terms of going back, I do not go back. That has not been my career.

"Whatever the next step is, it will be something new, something I can make an impact in, and somewhere I can win things. This does not diminish the affection I have. It was a great experience for two years to be within a community that is so passionate about their football club. I was fortunate that we had success, so it was a positive experience.

"I loved every minute and look back on it fondly. It is important with all these things that I made a great decision when I joined Tottenham, but I will not go back.

"That is not how my career has played out."

It is not hard to understand why Postecoglou might be reluctant to make a return to Celtic. He is 60 years old. It took him until 2021 to finally get his big chance in Europe with the Hoops, 27 years into his managerial career.

So, it is natural for Postecoglou to think he has little time left to gain as many different experiences as possible in top-level management in European football.

It is hard to imagine that he will get another chance with a Premier League top-six contender after how badly things went for him at Nottingham Forest. And his style simply does not suit teams that are just trying to avoid relegation.

If Postecoglou wants to be competing for trophies in Europe, there are only a select number of clubs that might be willing to hand him a chance at this point, with Celtic being one of them. Unfortunately, it looks like he has now publicly closed the door on the idea of a return. We can only wish him the best of luck in his next step, whatever that turns out to be.

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