Celtic may rue selling Scottish star who was compared to Moravcik

Weeks don’t come a lot greater than this for Celtic.

On Tuesday night time, the Hoops went in quest of three extra treasured Champions League factors after they took on GNK Dinamo Zagreb within the Croatian capital, having misplaced all three earlier visits to Stadion Maksimir, crushed 2-1 in 1963, 3-0 in 1998 and, most not too long ago, 4-3 nearly precisely a decade in the past to the day. This time, nonetheless, they got here away with a 0-0 to point out for his or her efforts.

Subsequent up on Sunday, Brendan Rodgers‘ facet are huge favourites to beat fierce rivals Rangers within the League Cup Closing at Hampden, aiming to hoist aloft a twentieth piece of main silverware, out of a potential 25, since Rodgers first arrived in Glasgow.

Celtic’s success all through the a long time, together with in fashionable instances, has been constructed upon a bedrock of home-grown Scottish skills.

Captain Callum McGregor has been sensational this season, scoring six Premiership objectives already, every of which has come from exterior the field, and made his 486th look for the membership in Zagreb, on target to become just the 14th man to characteristic 500+ instances for the Hoops.

One participant who’s already reached that milestone is James Forrest, final Saturday’s half time introduction towards Hibernian was the 516th event the winger has represented the Bhoys, with the 33-year-old an more and more unusual one-club-man.

Left-back Greg Taylor too is a vital cog within the Celtic machine, however the Scottish champions do not all the time get it proper with regards to hoovering up the very best home expertise.

Combined outcomes for Celtic’s home signings

All through their historical past, Celtic have been capable of cherry-pick the very best younger Scottish skills from different Premiership golf equipment.

Merely wanting on the final decade, after Dundee United made a powerful begin to the season in 2014/15, the Hoops paid a combined £2.25m for the Tangerines’ two greatest gamers, Stuart Armstrong and Gary Mackay-Steven, quelling any title speak that was starting to brew at Tannadice.

Ryan Christie (Inverness Caley Thistle; £500,000), Scott Allan (Hibs; £250,000), Jack Hendry (Dundee; £1.2m), Lewis Morgan (St Mirren; £300,000), Greg Taylor (Kilmarnock; £2m), David Turnbull (Motherwell; £3.25m), and Luke McCowan (Dundee; £1m) are all subsequent examples of Celtic shopping for up the very best younger Scottish skills, paying charges their home rivals merely can not flip down, the latter arriving as not too long ago as late-August.

So why do that? Properly, there’s after all the Bayern Munich-esque side to it of asserting your home dominance by weakening your rivals. However, extra tangibly, Celtic require each “club-trained” and “association-trained” gamers for his or her UEFA competitors squad, required to have at the very least eight home gamers, therefore why the likes of Scott Bain, Anthony Ralston and Stephen Welsh are nonetheless within the squad, regardless of ever featured fairly often.

The checklist of Scottish gamers above outlines a fairly blended bag, and there may be one participant on that checklist who did not obtain a lot at Parkhead however has gone on to star throughout the pond.

Lewis Morgan’s post-Celtic profession

Lewis Morgan arrived from St Mirren in July 2018, however made little affect at Celtic, scoring simply two goals in 31 appearances, these coming towards AIK in a Europa League qualifier in Stockholm and through a dead-rubber group stage victory over Stade Rennais.

When he arrived, Morgan mentioned how he prided himself on his ambidexterity, saying that he idolised club-legend Ľubomír Moravčík, however honest to say he didn’t earn the identical cult-hero standing as was bestowed upon the Czechoslovakian midfielder.

Morgan truly spent the second half of his debut marketing campaign on mortgage at Sunderland, before being sold to MLS expansion membership Inter Miami in January 2020 for simply £400k.

His two seasons in Fort Lauderdale had been chaotic and largely disrupted by Covid-19, scoring simply seven instances in 58 outings for the Herons, however he should’ve caught the attention of some impressed onlookers in New Jersey as a result of, in January 2023, Morgan joined New York Pink Bulls, who paid a not insubstantial $1.2m in General Allocation Money for his companies.

The Scotsman has definitely discovered a house within the Massive Apple, scoring 31 objectives in 79 matches for RBNY, named MLS Comeback Player of the Year in 2024, the award given to the participant “who confirmed spectacular enchancment after overcoming a severe damage… or after a earlier droop of their profession”.

Morgan was a key determine as New York reached the MLS Cup for under the second time in franchise historical past, their sole earlier look coming in 2008, narrowly crushed 2-1 by LA Galaxy at Dignity Well being Sports activities Park on Saturday.

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Where Are They Now

Your star participant or greatest flop has left the membership however what are they doing within the current day? This text is a part of Soccer FanCast’s The place Are They Now collection.

Remarkably, rhe former Celtic winger was one of many best-performing attackers throughout all of Main League Soccer.

To attain this for a usually mediocre Pink Bulls crew, who completed seventh within the Jap Convention, becoming the lowest-seeded side to ever reach the MLS Cup, isn’t unhealthy going for a participant who confirmed only a few glimpses of his full potential throughout his transient time at Celtic.

Morgan has even labored his means again into Steve Clarke’s Scotland plans this 12 months, together with within the Euro 2024 squad, incomes his first caps for six years, additionally that includes off the bench throughout three UEFA Nations League A fixtures within the autumn. Maybe the Hoops could rue letting him go away all these years in the past?

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