REMEMBER Riley McGree?
Some of you may recall the Australian midfielder who was on Ange Postecoglou’s shopping list during the January 2022 transfer window.
Reo Hatate, Daizen Maeda and Yosuke Ideguchi had already arrived following a triple raid on the J-League and the Greek/Aussie gaffer, just seven months into the job, had his eyes on a player he had introduced to international football during his four years as Socceroos chief.
McGree was a new name to a fair percentage of the Celtic support. But if Big Ange thought the lad could do a job for his rejevenated Hoops team that was good enough for the fans.
ON THE BALL…Riley McGree in action.
The midfielder, then 23, had just completed a 14-month loan spell at Birmingham City from MLS club FC Charlotte – where Liel Abada now struts his stuff – and was in the manager’s sights. A fee of £3million had been mentioned and that wasn’t going to be a stumbling block.
All indications were that McGree was on his way to the east end of Glasgow to join the Ange Revolution. Unexpectedly, though, the player performed a U-turn, rejected the move and, instead, signed for English second-tier outfit Middlesbrough.
Upon hearing the news, Postecoglou said: “It’s an indication for me that this isn’t the right place for him. It works both ways as I only want players who want to be here.
“I won’t try and convince any player to come and sign for this football club. I won’t.
“If they can’t see the opportunities that exist here then that’s part of the deal for me. The ones we have signed all wanted to come here.
“It’s an easy decision. Everyone has their own freewill to decide what’s best for them. But I’m not going to sell this club to anyone on its virtues.
“If they can’t understand that in the first place they’re probably not worth talking to from my perspective.”
ROARING SUCCESS…former Celtic fans’ favourite Matt O’Riley lets rip.
Asked if McGree’s decision had been purely down to cash incentives, Postecoglou answered: “I don’t know, mate. To be honest, I don’t care.
“It’s no big issue for me. There are plenty of footballers who would love to come to this club.
“They are the ones I’m looking for.”
A week after that revelation, Postecoglou signed a virtual unknown from the English third-tier and didn’t hesitate in catapulting the youngster into his first team.
Matt O’Riley was the midfielder brought into the Ange jigsaw and the £1.5million recruit from MK Dons had two and a half excellent years in the green-and-white hoops that saw his value rocket to the £25million-plus bracket – the fee that lured him to Brighton last summer.
McGree? The unfortunate Aussie has just endured two years of injury hell and Boro are still stuck in the Championship where they have resided for 15 of the past 16 seasons.
Manager Michael Carrick paid the price for failure by being sacked a week ago after less than three years in the post.
* TOMORROW: Don’t miss the adventures of another former Celt in CQN’s EXCLUSIVE series.
