Who could blame Lewis Morgan, really, if he watched Celtic strut their stuff under Ange Postecoglou with an expression as green as their striped shirt?
The former St Mirren star, with his breakneck speed and boundless energy reserves, could have been a man reborn under the former Australia boss at Parkhead; a la Greg Taylor or Anthony Ralston. Instead, he was sold to Inter Miami without ever being given a chance to prove his worth with a sustained run of starts in a Hoops kit.
“The manager has come and done brilliantly,” Morgan told Glasgow Live a couple of months ago, after Postecoglou guided a swashbuckling Celtic back to the summit of Scottish football.
“The team is playing a really good, attractive style of football. I have self-belief and think I could have been a success.
“Quite a lot of my time (at Celtic) was maybe filling in at different positions. I am sure all the forward players at Celtic now love playing under Postecoglou, with his style of play. I am sure if I was there, and had a sustained run, then I could have made a success of it.”
Former Celtic man Lewis Morgan can’t stop scoring in the USA
Morgan’s outstanding run of goalscoring form across the pond at New York Red Bulls certainly adds some meat to the bones of his argument. In 35 games, the Scotland international has 17 goals and three assists to his name since moving to the Big Apple. More than across the entirety of his last five seasons – at Celtic, Sunderland and Inter Miami – combined.
And while his versatility remains a strength, it’s no real surprise that Morgan is finding the target with a hitherto unprecedented regularity with Red Bulls coach Gerard Struber freeing him from the defensive duties he was expected to perform under Phil Neville in Miami.
“Lewis Morgan, today, he played very successful,” former Barnsley boss Struber said of his free-scoring Scot; Morgan having scored hat-trick against Toronto FC while striking up a fearsome partnership with another one-time Celtic misfit in Patryk Klimala.
“We can see and everyone can see his technical abilities.”
Unfortunately for Morgan, those ‘abilities’ went under the radar for far too long at Celtic.
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