If anyone should get the vagaries of club versus country rows then it's surely Ange Postecoglou.

After all, the Celtic boss has been in Steve Clarke's shoes as he has managed the Socceroos.

However, there still seems to be an attempt to paint Postecoglou as some sort of villain of the piece here after the Aussie refused to release any of his Celtic players for international duty for Scotland's friendly against Turkey.

Instead, the Celts who would have represented Scotland - Greg Taylor, Anthony Ralston, David Turnbull and potentially James Forrest - will all travel to Australia and take part in the Sydney Cup as part of Postecoglou's homecoming. Carl Starfelt has similarly been prevented from a Sweden call-up for the same reason.

Thing is, there is no club versus country row here. Postecoglou has simply put Celtic first. Furthermore, he has every right to do so.

Celtic's Scots contingent would not be better served travelling with the national squad for a match in which they may or may not see any game-time.

On top of that, the meeting with Turkey is the very definition of a meaningless friendly. It is the very reason that the UEFA Nations League competition was invented: to prevent this sort of thing from occurring. It was, remember, only arranged last month.

On the flip side, the Sydney Super Cup has been pencilled into the calendar since the summer. Celtic haven't just all of a sudden sprung this trip on an unsuspecting public.

Not many people are aware that no club is obliged to release players for international fixtures outside of designated FIFA windows. It is not a matter of prestige but protocol - again, something Postecoglou knows that only too well.

Interestingly, his rebuttal of Clarke's feeling of disappointment that the Celtic players were not being released was as cool, calm and collected as it gets.

"Steve's got every right to be disappointed, he's the national team manager," Postecoglou said. "I've been there and I've been disappointed. As club managers sometimes we're disappointed when players go away with national teams and get injured or don't play. We all get over our disappointment pretty quickly.

"I've no issue with Steve. I wish him all the best but, for us, this has been in our planning for quite a while. We've got guys away going to the World Cup as well so it's not just Scotland that we've kept the guys from. We think this tour is important for us, important for our supporters, it's important for our club and that's why we've taken the decision.

"Steve's done a fantastic job as national team manager and we're always supportive. We're one of the clubs that have provided quite a few players for the national team and we always have been.

Celtic Way:

"But, as he said, this is not our issue this is FIFA's issue. They're the ones who didn't designate an international window which gives us the right to keep our players."

You best believe that World Cup-bound players - Cameron Carter-Vickers (USA), Aaron Mooy (Australia), Josip Juranovic (Croatia) and Daizen Maeda (Japan) - apart Postecoglou will be taking the strongest Hoops team he possibly can to let the Australian supporters watch the very best Celtic team.

However, as the Hoops ground out a 2-1 win over Motherwell at Fir Park on Wednesday night to retain their seven-point lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership table, Postecoglou addressed the situation in a different light to simply Scotland call-ups or Sydney.

He clearly feels his players will be best served travelling to Australia because they will be taking part in a mid-season pre-season, if you like, rather than trekking off to Turkey for a game that means nothing and was hastily arranged.

The nature of the performance against Motherwell and his reaction to it suggests Postecoglou has plenty he still wants to work on with this group in the coming weeks.

Sure, they could get injured in Australia with Celtic just as easily as in Turkey with Scotland or in Spain with Sweden but they would be under Postecoglou's supervision.

While it is the ultimate accolade and honour for some footballers to represent their country at any level, deep down if you canvassed the Celtic players they'd probably tell you that in this instance they would prefer to go to Australia.

Everywhere we go, watching Glasgow Celtic putting on a show...

That is one of the more popular ditties to emanate from the Celtic supporters of late.

The Australian contingent of the Celtic faithful are no different and they will certainly want to see the best and strongest Hoops team doing what they do best.

So, yes, the Sydney Super Cup will be a fantastic experience for everybody involved, not least of all the manager and his players. But it's more than that.

Crucially, Postecoglou will also be able to keep them ticking over with the benefit of two games that on the face of it will be friendlies on paper but, in reality, will take on an entirely broader importance once Celtic reach Down Under.

On the day Ange Postecoglou was unveiled as Celtic boss he uttered these words: "I will always, always protect the interest of this football club, always against anybody... my interests lie here so I will protect it with everything I can."

If the Sydney trip was not happening, Postecoglou would likely have released his players.

It is happening, though, and he has therefore chosen to put Celtic's interests first. It really is as simple as that.

READ MORE:

. Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou's Steve Clarke Scotland rebuttal in full

. Celtic's Cameron Carter-Vickers selected for USA World Cup squad