Brighton assistant manager Brian Reid has defended former Celtic loanee Shane Duffy after his poor spell with the Hoops last season.
So far this campaign, the Irishman has made an excellent start to the season for his parent side in the English Premier League, which has, of course, surprised several Celtic fans after his performances last campaign.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Reid has defended Duffy, insisting he wasn’t the only issue in a poor season under Neil Lennon.
“When Shane went to Celtic, I thought he’d be a huge success.
“‘So much went against him. He went there as a Celtic fan and never played in front of the supporters, which is incredible.
“Everything just went wrong. He was in lockdown and all of that. He had a real hard time.
“But we knew the character of Shane coming back here. We knew the player.
“He talked of hitting the reset button and changing everything and you could see this was a different Shane Duffy to the two years when we first came in.
“I felt he was criticised far too much last season. There was a lot more than Shane Duffy wrong at Celtic.
“But he seemed to be the main guy getting the brunt of it, because he seemed to be the messiah coming up as the Ireland captain and so on.
‘I think there was a lot of pressure on him. He’s left that behind and everybody at the club is delighted with how things have turned out for him.”
Reid, who was also formerly manager of Hamilton Accies, brought through new Celtic midfielder James McCarthy and has backed the former Crystal Palace man to become a success with the Hoops.
“It’s good at this point for him to go back up to Scotland.
“We’re just hoping James stays injury-free and gets a run of games to bed himself in. When he gets up to 100 per cent, I’m sure he will be a huge success with Celtic.”
Last campaign was very disappointing for all involved. With the expectations that Duffy came with, it all unfortunately ended in disaster.
When McCarthy joined in the summer window, some fans made the same comparison as to whether the midfielder might be in a similar mould to his fellow countryman.
It is too early to be making those sorts of judgements and only time will tell as to whether McCarthy will be a success with Celtic.
When it comes to Duffy, though, it just goes to show that some players just don’t suit clubs, as we seen during the 2020/21 season.
