Ange Postecoglou will not allow Celtic to become sidetracked by any developments across the city at Rangers.
The Parkhead manager sidestepped questions about reports Steven Gerrard could depart Ibrox to Aston Villa and what effect it may have on the Hoops’ title prospects.
Instead Postecoglou insisted everyone inside Celtic Park must focus solely on ensuring momentum is maintained in the east end of Glasgow.
When asked about the uncertainty over Gerrard’s future, the Australian said: “They’re the kind of distractions I avoid, to be honest. I’ve been really laser-focused on here, and I’ll continue to be.
“I’m just making everyone really aware that we can’t get distracted by anything or anyone else. We’re trying to build something here, and when you’re trying to build something, and be successful, you can’t afford to be looking over your fence at what other people are doing.
“We’ve got to build our house, make it nice and beautiful and then see how it stacks up against the rest of the neighbourhood.”
Celtic have won seven of their last eight games in all competitions since the start of October and Postecoglou has been named cinch Premiership manager of the month.
Postecoglou said: “It’s been a good little period for us. We’d been a bit unsettled in the previous month and results and performances were up and down so we had to get some consistency and momentum. The whole group’s been outstanding through this last period, both domestically and in Europe.
“The award is great but it’s a reflection of how well the group is developing. It’s really important people don’t think this is on the back of something magical I’m doing. It’s the whole group – staff and players – that’s working really hard.”
Postecoglou and his staff are continuing to work on their recruitment plans to ensure a smooth January transfer window.
The manager said: “I like to work pretty methodically. I don’t like to rush into things, whether that’s decisions about current affairs or future affairs. That’s why the summer transfer window, for me, was way too chaotic, but understandably so because of the situation I was put into.
“I don’t want that to happen in January and I don’t want that to happen in future. That won’t happen if we start working methodically from now. That doesn’t mean we ramp things up or do things at a faster pace, it just means we do things in a systematic way that allows us to make the best decision without feeling the pressure of time.
“It won’t be as busy as the summer but there will be some activity. There are some areas I feel we should strengthen but, while we’re not in any rush, a lot of that will be dictated by how the ones we’ve got here develop over the next period of time because we’ve had some players who have shown some fantastic acceleration in their development over the last period. As we go along, we’ll see what gaps need to be filled.”
