Celtic may rue selling Scottish star who was compared to Moravcik

Weeks do not come much bigger than this for Celtic.

On Tuesday night, the Hoops went in search of three more precious Champions League points when they took on GNK Dinamo Zagreb in the Croatian capital, having lost all three previous visits to Stadion Maksimir, beaten 2-1 in 1963, 3-0 in 1998 and, most recently, 4-3 almost exactly a decade ago to the day. This time, however, they came away with a 0-0 to show for their efforts.

Next up on Sunday, Brendan Rodgers’ side are massive favourites to beat fierce rivals Rangers in the League Cup Final at Hampden, aiming to hoist aloft a 20th piece of major silverware, out of a possible 25, since Rodgers first arrived in Glasgow.

Celtic’s success throughout the decades, including in modern times, has been built upon a bedrock of home-grown Scottish talents.

Captain Callum McGregor has been sensational this season, scoring six Premiership goals already, each of which has come from outside the box, and made his 486th appearance for the club in Zagreb, on course to become just the 14th man to feature 500+ times for the Hoops.

One player who’s already reached that milestone is James Forrest, last Saturday’s half time introduction against Hibernian was the 516th occasion the winger has represented the Bhoys, with the 33-year-old an increasingly uncommon one-club-man.

Left-back Greg Taylor too is an important cog in the Celtic machine, but the Scottish champions don’t always get it right when it comes to hoovering up the best domestic talent.

Mixed results for Celtic’s domestic signings

Throughout their history, Celtic have been able to cherry-pick the best young Scottish talents from other Premiership clubs.

Simply looking at the last decade, after Dundee United made a strong start to the season in 2014/15, the Hoops paid a combined £2.25m for the Tangerines’ two best players, Stuart Armstrong and Gary Mackay-Steven, quelling any title talk that was beginning 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 buying up the best young Scottish talents, paying fees their domestic rivals simply cannot turn down, the latter arriving as recently as late-August.

So why do this? Well, there’s of course the Bayern Munich-esque aspect to it of asserting your domestic dominance by weakening your rivals. But, more tangibly, Celtic require both “club-trained” and “association-trained” players for their UEFA competition squad, required to have at least eight domestic players, hence why the likes of Scott Bain, Anthony Ralston and Stephen Welsh are still in the squad, despite ever featured very often.

The list of Scottish players above outlines a pretty mixed bag, and there is one player on that list who didn’t achieve much at Parkhead but has gone on to star across the pond.

Lewis Morgan’s post-Celtic career

Lewis Morgan arrived from St Mirren in July 2018, but made little impact at Celtic, scoring just two goals in 31 appearances, these coming against AIK in a Europa League qualifier in Stockholm and during a dead-rubber group stage victory over Stade Rennais.

When he arrived, Morgan discussed how he prided himself on his ambidexterity, saying that he idolised club-legend Ľubomír Moravčík, but fair to say he did not earn the same cult-hero status as was bestowed upon the Czechoslovakian midfielder.

Morgan actually spent the second half of his debut campaign on loan at Sunderland, before being sold to MLS expansion club Inter Miami in January 2020 for just £400k.

His two seasons in Fort Lauderdale were chaotic and largely disrupted by Covid-19, scoring just seven times in 58 outings for the Herons, but he must’ve caught the eye of some impressed onlookers in New Jersey because, in January 2023, Morgan joined New York Red Bulls, who paid a not insubstantial $1.2m in General Allocation Money for his services.

The Scotsman has certainly found a home in the Big Apple, scoring 31 goals in 79 matches for RBNY, named MLS Comeback Player of the Year in 2024, the award given to the player “who showed impressive improvement after overcoming a serious injury… or after a previous slump in their career”.

Morgan was a key figure as New York reached the MLS Cup for only the second time in franchise history, their sole previous appearance coming in 2008, narrowly beaten 2-1 by LA Galaxy at Dignity Health Sports Park on Saturday.

Remarkably, rhe former Celtic winger was one of the best-performing attackers across all of Major League Soccer.

To achieve this for a generally mediocre Red Bulls team, who finished seventh in the Eastern Conference, becoming the lowest-seeded side to ever reach the MLS Cup, is not bad going for a player who showed very few glimpses of his full potential during his brief time at Celtic.

Morgan has even worked his way back into Steve Clarke’s Scotland plans this year, including in the Euro 2024 squad, earning his first caps for six years, also featuring off the bench during three UEFA Nations League A fixtures in the autumn. Perhaps the Hoops may rue letting him leave all those years ago?