Kieran Devlin of the Athletic and Cynic podcast took questions at the weekend from Celtic fans who subscribe to the online publication.

Kieran is a Celtic fan and on the face of it has decent contacts when it comes to getting information behind the scenes at Celtic.

Speaking about James McCarthy this weekend and his lack of game time, Devlin pointed out again this was not an Ange Postecoglou signing. James wasn’t even a scouting team signing – he was brought in by the board.

Answering a fan question on the Irish international, Devlin told the Athletic.

“I believe the board’s thinking on McCarthy is that on paper he offered the experience and cultural affinity to replace the leadership/Celtic connection gap left by Brown’s farewell, even if it hasn’t panned out like that so far.”

“But this is where having executives make crucial football operations decisions is a potential issue, rather than someone with expertise and experience in that role like a sporting director or head of recruitment, who can step in and say ‘is this a rational sporting decision’?”

This also chimes with what sources have told CeltsAreHere. If you’re sceptical about this, you just have to see how Ange has used, or more to the point, hasn’t used James.

The midfielder would have probably been first choice in a Neil Lennon type set up, however, the hectic nature of Ange’s Celtic team puts the former Palace man at a disadvantage.

Even when fit over the last few weeks, James hasn’t got into the match day squad. He made the bench for the Livingston game after Rogic got injured but didn’t see action.

We believe Ange is tryimg his best to get the player up to par and will give him a shot before the season is out. It’s up to James to take it when he gets the nod.

CeltsAreHere have been told by sources, Joe Hart was another player who was brought in by suits, and that’s worked out well. Ange has spoken to every player before coming into the club, the hectic summer window and lack of depth would likely have seen Ange say yes to James before realising he had a lot of work to do, to get him up to speed.

1 COMMENT

  1. He does not even look right when on pitch he looks lost and a yards slower than 21 other players on the pitch could be he may never get in the team again free to get him in but lost money on wages…

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