CHARLIE NICHOLAS has called out former Celtic target Riley McGree as "greedy" after the midfielder turned down a move to Ange Postecoglou’s side.
The Australian was close to joining the Parkhead side but instead signed for Middlesbrough.
The 23-year-old already has a relationship with the Celtic manager who handed him his first Australia call-up.
Speaking to the Daily Express, Nicholas said: “A lot of people are asking why Riley McGree would pick Middlesbrough over Celtic.
"It looks like the player got greedy. Money is simply more important to him at this stage in his career.
“The bottom line is that Celtic could have signed McGree and, 12 or 18 months down the line, he could well have been agitating for another move.
“Celtic wouldn’t have found out the lad’s character had they not been involved in this transfer saga, so maybe it has worked out in their favour.
“Ange Postecoglou has won over the Celtic players and the last thing he needs is to have a player causing friction behind the scenes.
“People are buying into what the manager is doing, he has already won the first piece of silverware up for grabs and this Celtic squad is only going to get stronger.
“I liked the way Postecoglou dealt with the McGree transfer setback.
“He came out and made it clear that he is only interested in dealing with players who want to be at Parkhead.
“It was a thinly-veiled dig at his young compatriot. It wasn’t quite on the scale of the infamous Maurice Johnston transfer but there was certainly a bit of intrigue about it.
“Postecoglou said he had spoken to McGree himself and it looked like he had got assurances from the lad that he was coming.
“The only question I was asking was why Postecoglou felt he needed another midfielder.
“David Turnbull will be back from injury soon and they already have a lot of options in that area.
“Postecoglou said last week that he has nothing else in the pipeline but I think he will do more business before the transfer window closes, especially if he offloads some fringe players.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel