Celtic have turned their attention to bringing former Australia manager Ange Postecoglou to Parkhead, after talks with Eddie Howe broke down.

Former Bournemouth boss Howe had long been considered the front runner to replace Neil Lennon, who left at the end of February.

However, it is understood Celtic have now been forced to turn their focus elsewhere after the Englishman was unable to secure the backroom team he wanted to take with him to Parkhead.

Reports have emerged linking Postecoglou, 55, with the Celtic job. He is currently with Japanese club Yokohama F Marinos, having guided them to a first J League title in 15 years two seasons ago.

Postecoglou was in charge of the Australia national team between 2013 and 2017, leading the Socceroos at the 2014 World Cup before guiding them to Asian Cup success in 2015.

Here at Herald and Times Sport we take a look at the Celtic linked gaffer's top ten career bust-ups.

1. In a J-League match last year, Ange Postecoglou's translator was bizarrely booked on his behalf for translating his reaction to a disallowed goal.

It looked like Yokohama F. Marinos manager had scored a second goal against Tokushima Vortis, but it was chalked off, outraging Postecoglou, who immediately demanded his translator put his point across to the ref.

This resulted in the farcical scene of the man supplying the translation getting booked instead of the boss whose words he was relaying. Ultimately Marinos managed to hold on for a 1-0 win in Japan’s top flight.

2. Postecoglou guided Australia to the World Cup Finals after a play-off win against Honduras, but instead of celebrating, he took issue with the criticism he and his squad had received in the qualifying campaign after complaining he would always be an outsider in Australian football.

He said: "If people still think that I go around worrying about what other people are saying, trying to get some vindication, they've missed the last 20 years...I've been coaching for 20 years, mate.

"I won my first championship when I was 31 years old and, you know what? I could coach for another 20 years and I'll always be an outsider in Australian football.

"I don't have the glittering Socceroo career that you need. But that's fine. I wear that as a badge of honour. The more that comes my way, the more determined and resilient I am to just keep going down my own path.

"It's worked well for me. Some people don't like it. The people who don't get me have never got me and will never get me."

3. When Postecoglou then announced he would quit the Socceroos after sealing World Cup qualification, it baffled his own bosses.

FFA chief David Gallop said: "I'm really disappointed that he won't be coming to Russia. I'm disappointed and I guess still a bit puzzled, but I'm supportive of the notion that sometimes you reach a point where you just know that you need to do something new.

"It's my privilege, on behalf of everyone in Australian football, to thank Ange for the past four years. Of course, Ange's record speaks for itself."

Postecoglou said: "After a great deal of thought and soul-searching, I've decided that the journey for me ends as Socceroos coach. As I've said many times, it's been the biggest privilege of my life and probably not the ending I had envisaged when we started, but at the same time, knowing it's the right time for me and the right decision."

4. Ange Postecoglou's now-infamous car-crash interview with Australian TV pundit Craig Foster almost ended his career after the programme descended into a shouting match between the pair who clashed over Postecoglou's Under 20s failed to qualify for World Cups.

He later said: "I just didn’t feel it was necessary, didn’t feel it was productive. I knew that interview wasn’t going to go well because we just failed to qualify for both the World Cups, our first time in Asia and my reasoning for doing it was trying to explain to people what was coming.

"Being in Asia we weren’t going to be able to roll up to qualifying tournaments like we did in Oceania. The accountability already stood with me, but what it did do, it did make me unemployable. I couldn’t even get an assistant coaching role.

"It was the reason I went to Greece for a year because I wasn’t going to let Australian football stop me from my ambitions as a coach. It was disheartening because I just felt everything I had done with South Melbourne as a manager had been forgotten. As all things with life we take our knocks and move on, and it's safe to say it didn’t hold me back for too long."

5. Postecoglou launched an attack on 'poor European leagues' and 'snobbery' in 2016 when comparing the A-League to some of the competitions in Europe.
He said: "Watch some football from Europe. It’s hard to watch. It’s very poor in standard.

"I’m not just talking about the UK. I’ve just come back from Europe and I won’t mention the clubs but I saw a couple of first division games and I could have walked out at half-time.

"That’s not a knock on them, it’s paying credit to our competition.

"My message to the Eurosnobs here is if you want to watch high-qualify football, tune in to the A-League. We shouldn’t continually seek some sort of validation for our competition.

"If a player does well in our competition it means he’s got to be a good footballer."

6. Postecoglou lashed out at his own Australian FA after his squad boycotted team activities over a long-running pay dispute, just 48 hours before their World Cup qualifier with Bangladesh.

He fumed: "I should be talking about team selection, team tactics, growth, qualifying for the next World Cup, instead I've got this to contend with.

"Maybe there's a perception outside of camp that these games aren't going to be that tough, and we can afford to have arguments that don't impact us on the football field.

"I'm not happy it's getting played out in Socceroo camp. I don't have the players often and when I have them, that time's precious. I don't want any minute wasted.

"If we think it's OK during the World Cup qualifiers to play out this scenario then I'm out of whack with everyone else because I think while the camp is on...lay down your guns and pick them up as soon as it's over, and go as hard as you want.

"It's not good enough."

7. Postecoglou hit back at France manager Didier Deschamps who criticised him for his spell as Socceroos boss ahead of a World Cup game in 2018 because his tactics were too attacking when he was manager.

But the Socceroos boss pointed out: "Before the France game, Didier Deschamps remarked how Australia had a better balance between attack and defence.

"He referenced that during my reign we were too offensive and open. Some used it as further evidence of my failings.

"I saw it differently. We all try and find meaning, and I can think of no better five words to define my career than those...'His teams were too attacking.'"

8. The controversial coach has had plenty of bust-ups with the media over his career both at home and and abroad and he wasn't for allowing a Honduran slight on his nation to go unchecked ahead of the World Cup play-off game.

Postecoglou took exception to a local newspaper that dismissed his team as '11 kangaroos' in a headline and used the post-match news conference to berate the home media.

He pointed out: "Maybe you thought we were going to be easy. I saw in the newspaper you said it was 11 kangaroos out there, but kangaroos can play football, eh?

"People in Australia made comments about Honduras - they were wrong and we apologise for that but there were some comments made in Honduras about our team that were disrespectful as well.

"We had two players Aaron Mooy and Mat Ryan who play in the English Premier League, we've got players in the first divisions in Europe.

"All I heard was we have a simple game plan and no stars - that was our motivation. We did our talking when the game came."

9. Postecoglou led his side Yokohama F. Marinos to the J-League title in 2019 and that was particularly sweet for him because of the criticism he took from the Japanese media when results were poor after his initial arrival.

And he couldn't resist reminding them of that when he guided them to glory.

He said: "I enjoy when I am being criticised. I enjoy the bits when maybe there is a little bit of doubt and people do question the way I do things.

“When you go to the movies, you don’t mind a thriller as long as it’s a happy ending. I think all the times I’ve coached, especially at club level, it’s always a happy ending. And I think people have seen that.

"The club’s been very supportive – the supporters have been very supportive, even last year when things weren’t going well, and the players responded to every challenge I made. I’ve never worried if things don’t go well momentarily, because as I said, I know how it will end. It’s always ended this way.”

10. Famed for his love of attacking football, Postecoglou takes great exception at teams who attempt to employ stalling tactics against his sides and this was shown up in 2016 when Australia travelled to Jeddah to face Saudi Arabia, who went a goal up within five minutes.

Microphones caught him yelling 'you f***ing cheat' at Saudi defender Omar Ibrahim Othman and later had a pitchside bust-up with their No.2 Mark Van Bommel.

Postecoglou later explained: "Even after they scored in the first five minutes you've got people telling them to stay in the corner and try and soak up minutes. It's ridiculous.
"Then they're going down with cramp when they're leading one-nil. A game cannot stop because of cramp. It’s not a life-threatening situation."