Celtic’s interest in Aaron Mooy faces a number of obstacles including family tragedy.
The one time St Mirren player is currently contracted to Shanghai Port but his family remain in the UK while last week his brother Alex died in Australia.
At the age of 30 Mooy still has great footballing years ahead of him but clearly has a number of domestic issues to reconcile before he would be in the mindset to get started at a new club.
Providing some interesting detail about Ange Postecoglou’s initial thoughts on Celtic, Australian website FTBL reports:
The 30-year-old Australian is earning four-times more at Shanghai Port than Celtic’s best-paid player, but hasn’t played for the club since the one-time tragic recent death of his brother.
Mooy’s young family also live in the UK, and he has rarely seen them since joining Shanghai due to travel and quarantine restrictions.
There have also been reports out of the UK that Postecoglou has expressed privately the amount of foreigners Celtic have previously signed has ruined the cohesion and dressing room mentality at the club.
The insight into wages and the make up of the Celtic squad illustrates the size of the task that Postecoglou has taken on.
In one respect it shouldn’t take too much effort and time to put together a squad capable of regularly beating teams like St Mirren and Ross County who both won at Celtic Park under Neil Lennon.
Getting the side into shape to move forward in Europe and compete with the club from Ibrox will take greater effort with Mooy unlikely to be part of that bid, at least in the early stages.