As we moved into August, Ange Postecoglou continued the daunting task of trying to rebuild Celtic after the disaster of the previous season under Neil Lennon and was now looking at the market for experienced players he could integrate into his squad.
On 3 August Celtic announced the signing of James McCarthy (alongside Joe Hart who I will look at in my next article). The Ireland internationalist, who has been capped 43 times for his country, began his career at Hamilton Accies, making his first-team debut for the club at the age of just 15 back in 2006. After three years there, he moved to Wigan Athletic where he helped them to win the FA Cup in 2013 before he moved on to Everton. And after six years at Goodison, the 30-year-old joined Crystal Palace in 2019.
In one of his first interviews at Celtic, speaking to the official celticfc website, McCarthy said regarding signing for his hometown club:
“I want to make sure I give everything. I know what it means myself, and growing up supporting Celtic, watching Celtic, I know what I means to the fans. The main thing I want to do is do well – for the club, my teammates and the fans
“I want to make sure we win games. I know the pressure that comes with that, and we need to make sure we win, week in, week out.”
Celtic manager, also speaking to the official club website said about the signing of McCarthy and fellow new recruit Joe Hart:
“I’m delighted that we have signed two top-class players in Joe and James. Both of them have a wealth of experience at both club and international level, and that is something which can only benefit the squad, and I’m looking forward to working with both of them.
“I know our supporters will be well aware of both players, and I’m sure they’ll welcome them to the club and look forward to seeing both of them play for Celtic in the seasons ahead.”
From the outset many Celtic fans questioned the signing of McCarthy. Many fans including myself rated him in the past and I personally felt we missed a trick back in 2009 by not signing him from Hamilton, where Wigan picked him up in a bargain deal reportedly paying just over £1m for his services.
When we eventually signed him 12 years later we all knew we were getting a Celtic man through and through but many of us looked at his injury record over the past few years and felt bringing him in was a bit of a gamble. Yes we got him on a free transfer, but with the player at the tail end of his career and no transfer fee involved we undoubtedly handed him a more than decent wage to sign up. Many fans including myself also felt McCarthy’s game wouldn’t be suited to Ange Postecoglou’s high energy style.
Shortly into his Celtic career, respected football website theathletic confirmed some of our fans fears by claiming sources within the dressing room “have spoken of how James McCarthy has struggled in training with the pace and intensity of Postecoglou’s sessions and the demands of his midfielders,” before adding “neither Postecoglou nor the scouting department had meaningful input into signing McCarthy.”
McCarthy so far has managed to stay relatively injury free which was a big concern of mine, but his game time has been limited. He has made 14 appearances in total, with 6 of those being starts. His first game in the starting line up was against Livingston in September, a game Celtic lost and McCarthy came in for criticism for a underwhelming performance.
Since then he has improved slightly but with competition for places fierce in Celtic’s midfield he has struggled to nail down a place, even with Celtic previously having many injuries in that area. Nir Bitton, a rival for McCarthy’s preferred defensive midfield position, has been excellent at times during the season leaving the Irish international even further away from the starting eleven.
With Ange Postecoglou bringing in Yosuke Ideguchi and Reo Hatate during the January transfer window, it does look like the manager doesn’t rate McCarthy too much. With Hatate stating in the number 8 role last night, it looks like Ange prefers Callum McGregor in the defensive midfield role, pushing McCarthy yet further down the pecking order. Truth be told he is currently fourth of fifth choice in that position, with McGregor, Bitton, Ideguchi and possibly even Ismaila Soro in front of him.
From the very start I have been sceptical about the signing of McCarthy and who actually wanted him at the club. I feared it looked like having Dermot Desmond written all over it and as time has passed I’m even more convinced Ange Postecoglou had no part in this signing. Handing a four year contract with decent wages to a player the manager didn’t really want in the first place looked like a bad idea back in the summer and to be honest it looks even worse now.
With two new midfield recruits the manager rates highly coming in from Japan this month, and after seeing what they can offer last night, it’s impossible to see a way McCarthy breaks into the starting eleven going forward, barring an unforeseen injury crisis.
I really don’t know how this will eventually pan out as he’s not a young player who will look at a loan move away from the club to try and prove to the manager he is good enough. I doubt we will see much more of the player this season and come the summer it will be up to both the player and the club to re-evaluate the situation and find the best solution going forward.
Conall McGinty
Another stupid signing by someone at CELTIC, probably the same person who brought us Barkas, Ajeti, Duffy, kenny and several others, it’s about time someone was held responsible and sacked or never allowed to get involved in transfers.
Nonsense! Critics of the signing of McCarthy show themselves up as sheep without knowledge of the game.
While I suspect there is a fitness issue with McCarthy, there is no reason to doubt the experience and quality he brings to the club.
Instead of being sheep and repeating what other negative idiots like yourselves say, watch what he brings with an open mind then you may just learn something about the game!