Everton manager Frank Lampard has paid tribute to Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou for the job the Australian has done during his first twelve months in charge at the Hoops.

The Toffees face the Scottish champions in the Sydney Super Cup that takes place in November and, following the announcement of the fixture, former Chelsea player Lampard spoke out about his admiration for Postecoglou:

“I’ve got an awful lot of respect for what Ange did last season at Celtic. It isn’t easy to hit the ground running in a league you’ve not worked in before. He did that really well, winning the title with a very definite style of play – a really exciting brand of football. It is hard to explain the atmosphere of an Old Firm game. The rivalry in Glasgow is one of the fiercest in world football and Ange embraced that challenge. It was a big achievement for him last year and it was impressive to see the way he went about it.”

As Lampard says himself, Postecoglou has done a magnificent job in very testing circumstances. Arriving in Scotland, not knowing the league or the country, and having to rebuild a squad (pretty much from scratch) was difficult enough.

On top of that, though, he managed to get the team playing an attractive brand of football, which not only won games but trophies too. Securing a domestic double in his first season was a massive achievement for Postecoglou and he deserves all of the credit for the club’s swift turnaround over the past year.