Lubomir Moravcik hopes Celtic have uncovered more budget brilliance from Japan as he lauds Kyogo impact
NO matter what your budget may be, the quality is out there. Perhaps no other player has borne that theory out more in Celtic’s modern history than Lubomir Moravcik.
In the team that Moravcik played in latterly though, he – along with Henrik Larsson, of course – were rather the exceptions to the rule that big-time players come with big price-tags.
In those days, the budget brilliance of Moravcik and Larsson was supplemented by players such as John Hartson, Chris Sutton and Neil Lennon, players brought in from England of a quality that would be far out of the reach of Celtic these days.
So, Celtic manager Ange Postecolgou has been forced to be creative, and his knowledge of the J-League has already unearthed a gem in striker Kyogo, who looks a snip at the £4.6m Celtic parted with for his services.
Should the three further signings from Japan that opened the transfer window provide similar value for money in Reo Hatate, Yosuke Ideguchi and Daizen Maeda, then the excitement of the Celtic supporters at their arrivals will be more than justified.
Moravcik certainly hopes they can hit the ground running, and prove that although Celtic may occupy a different place in the footballing food chain than they did in his day, they can still find quality by thinking outside of the box. Even if Celtic may now be a staging post on their way to the big money on offer in England.
“Kyogo has done really well, and he has scored some very important goals so far,” Moravcik said.
“He is the top scorer in the country and he is one of the key players for this team.
“Celtic have a lot of good players. They have Callum McGregor who is the captain now, a very good player who has been there a long time now. He brings a lot of quality in the midfield.
“But players like Scott Brown who spend the majority of their careers at Celtic, it is now very unusual. Him and McGregor may be the last ones to do it.
“Football is competition, personally and between the teams. The possibilities of Scottish clubs and the possibilities of English clubs are very different now to what they were even 20 years ago.
“Scottish teams don’t have the TV money. How could Celtic now bring in players like they did 20 years ago? A Chris Sutton, a John Hartson, a Henrik Larsson? To bring in three players of that quality now would cost hundreds of millions of pounds, it would be impossible.
“All Celtic can do is do as well as they possibly can in the domestic competitions and hope to do as well as they can in Europe, but it is very hard for them to compete or even get into the Champions League these days.
“Celtic is a very good club, one of the best, but nowadays players are looking for the best contracts and to get to the best leagues. That will be the same for the players who have come to Celtic from abroad, and even Ange himself.
“That’s normal, but they have to do it at Celtic first before they get to the English league, for example.
“It’s very difficult for Celtic to keep a hold of their best players because the richest clubs will pick them up. Look at Odsonne Edouard, who got his move. That’s just football now.
“But they can still find players who can do well in Glasgow before moving on, and that will be the aim with their new signings.”
In terms of the destination of the title, Moravcik believes much will ride on the outcome of the next Old Firm encounter, and how their new signings handle the pressure of being thrown into the fixture at such an early stage of their Celtic careers.
The Slovakian handled it pretty well, mind you, famously scoring twice in a 5-1 win on what was just his third appearance for the club, so he is in a decent position to offer them a bit of advice; embrace the pressure, don’t wilt under it.
“The expectation at Celtic is very big, and that is logical, because Celtic is a very big club,” he said.
“The fans want to win every game, and it isn’t always easy for players to come to Celtic to be successful and be very good, because it’s a lot of pressure.
“It was normal for me though. You are a footballer, you are always under pressure, it is never-ending. Every weekend you have to prove your quality, and that is especially the case at a club like Celtic.
“It’s our job, we are paid for that, and I loved it.”
Moravcik is pleased to see that Postecoglou has managed to stabilise Celtic this season after the pain of last term, and he has been impressed by the way he has managed to mould a raft of new recruits into a competitive proposition in such short order.
He has warned though that they must not allow the six-point gap to increase before that Old Firm meeting with Rangers at Celtic Park, and certainly not following that match, if they are to have any hope of winning the title.
“Unfortunately, the competition in Scotland is always between the same two clubs, Celtic and Rangers,” he said.
“So, a small mistake will cost you dearly. Celtic and Rangers must now win all the time, particularly Celtic, because if they lose another game then they will more than likely be punished and the gap will increase.
“That is the problem with the Scottish league, because it isn’t a competition between 12 teams, it’s a competition between two teams.
“If you remember when Rangers were out of the league, Celtic were winning all the time without opposition, because it is about the money.
“I really hope they can keep the league interesting until the end of the season, because Celtic and Rangers will be very close to each other in my view.
“That will be the best possible outcome for the Scottish league.”
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