Danny Murphy has proved he is clueless about the state of Celtic when Ange Postecoglou joined the club in 2021.
Neil Lennon was sacked earlier in the year after falling out of the Scottish Premiership title race with Rangers.
Under the management of Steven Gerrard, Rangers romped to the league crown by finishing 14 points clear of Celtic in second.
The COVID-19 impacted campaign meant no fans could attend a single game, but it was no excuse for how Celtic imploded that year.
John Kennedy led Celtic until the summer when Postecoglou was appointed, and it was clear the Aussie-Greek had a big job on his hands.
The Celtic squad was in no shape to compete for a title and Rangers were favourites to go on and win the Premiership again.
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Murphy gets it all wrong about Postecoglou and Celtic
But Murphy has today strangely argued on talkSPORT that Postecoglou inherited a Celtic team that was ‘more than capable’ of challenging for trophies.
Simon Jordan was initially comparing Postecoglou’s stint at Yokohama F. Marinos with his successor Kevin Muscat, who is currently the frontrunner for the vacant Rangers job.
Muscat was more successful with the Marinos than Postecoglou, which Jordan thinks justifies Rangers’ decision to target the Aussie. Then Murphy delivered his howler:
Jordan: “So if Celtic looked to Ange Postecoglou and the credentials, and obviously there was more work behind that, but his current employment was with the same side (Yokohama F. Marinos) that Muscat has recently managed more successfully with a bigger win record. If it was good enough for Celtic…”
Murphy: “I suppose you would argue that Ange was walking into a Celtic squad that was already more than capable.”
Postecoglou’s Celtic signings during summer 2021
Murphy clearly didn’t do his research because Postecoglou had to work his magic on the Celtic squad in 2021 to deliver success.
Yes, the Hoops had the likes of Odsonne Edouard, Ryan Christie and Callum McGregor in their ranks the season before.
But the former two would leave that summer, as did Kristoffer Ajer and legendary captain Scott Brown. Ange had to rebuild from the bottom up, signing these players:
- Kyogo Furuhashi – £4.5m
- Carl Starfelt – £4m
- Liel Abada – £3.5m
- Josip Juranovic – £2.5m
- Giorgos Giakoumakis – £2.5m
- Joe Hart – £1m
- Liam Scales – £500k
- Osaze Urhoghide – £150k
- Bosun Lawal – £120k
- Joey Dawson – undisclosed
- James McCarthy – free
- Jota – loan
- Cameron Carter-Vickers – loan
Kyogo, Jota and Carter-Vickers were unbelievable recruits, while the likes of Juranovic and Abada were eventually sold on for decent profits.
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