LAFC technical director Neil McGuinness believes that Celtic would be wise to target players from the MLS given Wilfried Nancy has just been appointed…
The ex-Hoops scout who now heads the top position at LAFC in the MLS was Nancy’s recruitment guru at Columbus Crew. Now, McGuinness feels the new Celtic boss will cast his eye back to North America in search of fresh talent.
McGuinness – who previously unearthed Virgil van Dijk and a number of other standouts for Celtic during Neil Lennon’s first spell in charge of the club – believes that market could deliver again for the Scottish champions.
Speaking via Daily Record, McGuinness said: “Absolutely. I strongly believe it’s a market Celtic should be looking at. You just have to see the success of Alistair Johnston at Celtic.
“But you look beyond that, there are more and more players who are going to Europe from the MLS and excelling. You look at Aidan Morris who went to Middlesbrough has done very well, Almiron when he went to Newcastle and was excellent.”
McGuinness added: “We had Cucho Hernandez at Columbus, who went to Real Betis and is producing the goods in La Liga. There are many, many more. The MLS is a very good standard and it’s improving every year. There are quality players coming through and they are playing alongside some really top stars. At LAFC we brought in Son Heung-min from Spurs and players can learn from these guys too.
“Regardless of the league players are in, if they are showing the attributes and mentality to play at a higher level, there is always opportunity to find them,” he continued.
“Celtic have done well in exploring markets outside Europe, with the likes of the Japanese players making huge impressions. But America is definitely another environment they should be looking at.”
Wilfried Nancy has just concluded a short 15 minute pre-match media conference at Lennoxtown which should have featured The Celtic Star and Celts Are Here. However with under two hours notice the two leading Celtic news sites received a short email from the club advising that access today had been denied and that the club was now reviewing their fan media policy.
Given the short time the new Celtic manager has to meet the players and prepare for Sunday’s top of the table match against Hearts at Celtic Park, it’s understandable that there’s not been a formal media conference to unveil Nancy as the the new Celtic manager. However it looks like that will not happen and instead the manager answering questions from three of four carefully selected mainstream media journalists is as far as Celtic are prepared to go.
Conor Spence
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