The Riley McGree story was one that dominated the headlines for the best part of a week last week.
The ongoing saga of whether the Parkhead club had actually signed McGree was concluded last Thursday when Middlesbrough confirmed a £5m deal to take the Aussie to Teesside.
Many reports circulated that McGree had agreed a deal to sign for Celtic but these proved to be premature.
But what have Celtic missed out on?
One that doesn’t know what he wants according to his former clubs Sporting Director Zoran Krneta.
Speaking to The Athletic, Krneta gave a fascinating insight into the midfielders attitude and it seems Ange Postecoglou was 100% correct in his assertions to back out of the deal ,“From day one, myself and the rest of the leadership of this club have been saying that we want players who want to be here.
“We want hungry players who want to be here, who want to be a part of this incredible journey that we’re starting.
“Riley McGree has become a better player and then decided that he doesn’t really want to come back to us unless he has to.
“And that wasn’t good enough for us. We didn’t like that. We didn’t like the player who is coming because we are persuading him to come.
“We want the player to really come here and play for this club and be part of this history.
“And the moment it was clear that he had doubts, I started looking into options.”
I have said many times on this blog that it is a players right to try and seek a good deal for themselves as this is a short career they are in, but looking at the comments from Krneta, it does seem that Ange has avoided a potential dressing room issue by shunning McGree.
It will be fascinating to monitor his career in England to see if any patterns develop.
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Back out of the deal he knocked you back stop talking utter nonsense it makes you look bitter and pathetic”
Thanks for reading mate. Much appreciated. We’ll see how this pans out this season
Ange shunned mcgree this is media gold I very much doubt your gonna post my tweets once your moderators have looked at them lol
What tweets? lol
the McGree to Boro deal is not worth 5m. Boro have been after McGree for a while, they were negotiating with his previous club before Celtic (and Ange) entered negotiations.
Boro had initially offered 2m upfront, Celtic offered 2.5m and so Boro matched it.
McGree has always said he wants to stay in English Football, as the OVERALL quality of the EFL Championship and level of competition is better than the Scottish Premiership. Also, it’s a direct route to the EPL, either with Boro (play-offs) or because EPL clubs can see more of him in the Championship.
From a wage perspective, unless Celtic were offering him peanuts, his wages as a Squad player (back up to Marcus Tavernier) will not be that different, and it’s not going to be anywhere the reported guestimate of 20k a week.
It basically came down to which league the player wanted to play in. It wasn’t the Scottish Premiership, so, if you think about it – Everyone wins, Celtic didn’t buy someone who would prefer to be in a different league, Boro got a talented young player at a reasonable price who is hungry to play for them (long history of Aussie players) and in the Championship.
Fair comments mate. The £5m figure is the one that is being touted around up here. Where I do disagree is the money part. He chose money over ambition. Simple
The £5m is way off for starters. The rest basically sounds like a player who had options and chose Boro. So the hierarchy are trying to deflect from the fact he chose to go elsewhere.
Sour grapes I reckon.
Sour grapes? I would rather listen to two guys that know the player and form my opinion from there. He chose the money. Not Middlesbrough
Dressing room unrest? He must be a real bad boy to want to play for a club challenging for promotion to the premier league over a newly formed club in the MLS…. What a crock of nonsense.
Face it, Celtic, historically speaking only, are a massive club operating in one of the worst leagues in Europe. Stop deluding yourself that any foreign player is picking you over a crack at promotion to the premier league. And take it with good grace when this happens.
Celtic and Rangers is a place where good players go to die and those that aren’t quite good enough for the championship go to thrive.
I see you basically missed the whole point of the article. Well done mate!
Be dignified this sounds like very sour grapes
Not really. Less than two weeks ago we had never heard of McGree. Now we are supposed to believe he is the best thing since sliced bread? Behave yourself
When Ange came to these shores he inherited a group of players who had given up on the then manager and with just one or two excellent signings has turned us around to a team challenging once more and good to watch.