Expensive lesson for football

The success rate of Celtic’s player recruitment strategy in recent years has been exceptional; pound-for–pound better than any period in our history.  Forster, Mulgrew, Lustig, Matthews, Izaguirre, Wilson, Ledley, Wanyama, Commons, Kayal and Hooper have arrived for limited outlay and have propelled the club into the latter stages of the Champions League.

By contrast, Mo Bangura failed to impress on any occasion tested.  At another time it would be easy to write him off but it seems unusual that the current system for scouting and assessing footballers has led to a striker who only yesterday recorded his first goal for the club.

In all honesty I suspect Mo will not get a chance to turn things around at Celtic, there are several strikers ahead of him in the squad and our scouts will forever be working on fresh recruits, but this doesn’t mean he is a bad player.  It’s more likely that his induction into Scottish life missed a crucial step.

Did you see the story and photograph about Michael Johnson yesterday?  The 24-year-old was paid-off by Manchester City near the end of his £40k per week contract.  He was unfortunate with injuries but there is a lesson for football to learn in his demise.

The day anyone, young or old, clever or stupid, signs a £10m contract life can become one long party.  ‘You don’t like my attitude/weight/blood test/friends?  I’m on a multi-million pound contract, deal with it.’ How can football deal with this issue?

For the record, there is absolutely no connection between Mo, whose attitude has been first class, and Michael Johnson’s demise.
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