Charlie Mulgrew spent six fruitful years in the colours of Celtic.
After coming through at Celtic, without making an appearance, Mulgrew returned home in 2010 and proceeded to lift trophy after trophy.
Most of that success came under Neil Lennon, with a sprinkle of Ronny Deila, but he didn’t feature under Brendan Rodgers’ trophy-laden and Treble-dominant period.
That was in Rodgers’ first spell as manager, starting in 2016, and it’s during the summer Mulgrew left, but just before he could go, he got a taste of what the Irishman was cooking inside the Lennoxtown building.
Charlie Mulgrew on facing Moussa Dembele in Celtic training
During the summer of 2016, Mulgrew’s Celtic contract had expired, Rodgers had just walked through the door, and he wanted the centre-back to extend his stay in Glasgow.
The former Scotland international added on Open Goal that he said ‘no’ to the first contract offered, and ‘didn’t hear anything’ after that, before the weeks passed and he needed somewhere to train.
That’s when he knocked on Rodgers’ door to train at Lennoxtown to get fit, and he proceeded to come up against Celtic’s new boy Moussa Dembele.
It’s fair to say that Dembele made life very difficult for Mulgrew in training, and he explained how he was just ‘so strong’, leaving him in awe.
“One of my first days, though,” said Mulgrew on going back to train at Celtic.
“Bear in mind, I haven’t done a pre-season, so I am coming in and Dembele, it’s like a one-v-one drill he (Rodgers) does.
“It’s a finishing drill for strikers. But it’s also for defenders. Just say there are two big goals. You come out, and you go back-to-back with Dembele, and they roll it up to the striker, and you are a defender against Dembele.
“Like, wow, so strong. I just remember lunging about, trying to stop his shots and that, and I couldn’t obviously outpower him. He was so strong.
“After that, I did train well. He took me in to speak to me, but Kolo Toure had signed by that point. This is the good thing about Brendan Rodgers, he doesn’t wait about, he needs to move on because they are trying to qualify for the Champions League, so they signed Kolo Toure, and the budget was done.
“He allowed me to train there until I signed for Blackburn.”
Dembele’s record at Celtic
Funnily enough, with Celtic looking for a striker this summer, they could do with someone like Dembele right now.
At the age of 29, he is still at the peak of his powers, but unfortunately, post-Celtic, life hasn’t panned out the way he would have liked because he is now playing in the Saudi Pro League for Al-Ettifaq.
It probably shows that the grass isn’t greener when you leave a club like Celtic, but it still doesn’t hide the fact that he will be remembered for some iconic moments.
- Games: 94
- Goals: 51
- Assists: 18
- Goals and assists in derby matches: 11
- Trophies: 8
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
