Celtic won't sell prize asset Aiden McGeady in January

Published on Friday 11 December 2009 22:08

EVERY player may have a market value but Tony Mowbray believes the sale of Aiden McGeady next month simply would not add up for Celtic.

• Aiden McGeady has been linked with a 7m move to Alex McLeish's Birmingham City ahead of the transfer window Picture: SNS

The Republic of Ireland winger is regarded by many as his club's most valuable asset and has inevitably been the subject of speculation ahead of the January transfer window. Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish has been linked with a 7 million move for McGeady while Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp has publicly expressed his admiration of the 23-year-old.

Mowbray, however, is confident Celtic will reject any offers for a player he views as pivotal to his hopes of securing silverware for the club. The Celtic manager is also dismissive of the notion McGeady's transfer would be beneficial if it provided him with added funds to strengthen his team in other departments.

"When you are trying to build something, you don't lose one of the most important parts of it," said Mowbray. "At this club, you need individual talent to break opposition defences down and Aiden produces that element. If you lost Aiden McGeady, you would have to go and find someone else in a similar mould.

"Am I confident we could resist any bids for him in January? Yes. I don't see a scenario with Aiden at the moment where it even becomes an issue. I think the boy is happy in his football here. Contractually, there are no issues. I can understand that January is coming and stories will be written about players. Well, I don't think Aiden McGeady is a story. He is content and we have no desire to bring in the money which might be on offer for him. So while Aiden is happy, I'm happy. The team are benefiting from his talent, so let's keep it going.

"There is an understanding that we can still add to our squad without having to sell footballers at the moment. We are only trying to add to help the existing squad of players. By natural process, one or two will go the other way. Footballers want to play and there are scenarios where one or two might leave. But to allay the fears of our supporters, they won't be players who are contributing to the first team every week.

"I said when I first came to the club that Aiden and Shaun Maloney are crucial to the way I like to set my teams up. We are without Shaun because of injury at the moment, but Aiden continues to be the player I have seen from day one.

"I made comments back in August about Aiden being a special talent and they stand true today. I don't want to put him on any sort of pedestal, other than to say he is an important and integral part of our team. Particularly at home when we play a lot of teams who put a lot of men behind the ball. He has the talent to go past defenders which allows us to get into goalscoring areas.

"Sometimes you can't pass through defences, you need someone to actually beat a man and create some space. Aiden allows us to do that. He has a great work ethic, a desire to try and please and to do what you want him to do."

McGeady has been integral to Celtic's recent improvement of fortunes, a three-match winning run which has helped them back to the top of the SPL and which they will try to extend against Motherwell at Fir Park today.

But while defender Gary Caldwell this week expressed his "amazement" at the change of mood in the Celtic dressing room, Mowbray remains just as understated in his appraisal of his team's progress.

"At this club, everything is poles apart," observed Mowbray. "It's either very high or very low, because of the expectation in every game and the effects the media have on the result.

"What needs to happen in the dressing room, and I try to make sure it does happen, is that players realise it is never quite as good or bad as anyone says.

"So if we win three games on the bounce, we have to work very hard to keep doing what we are doing. If you lose a few games, it's never quite as bad and you have to keep doing what you believe in to make things turn around. That's the philosophy of it.

"Naturally, there is more happiness about the place because we have won a few games.

"That's human nature. If you lose a game, it's that bit quieter because you have to focus more on getting back to work."

With seven goals between them in the three recent victories, strikers Georgios Samaras and Scott McDonald may feel they are establishing themselves as Mowbray's first choice frontline pairing.

But the manager believes Marc-Antoine Fortune, his 3.8 million capture from Nancy who has so far scored just twice in 12 injury interrupted appearances for Celtic, has been influential in the duo's form.

"Georgios and Scott have both started scoring goals on a regular basis in the last few games," he added. "That might be down to the fact the other centre-forward is now fit and sitting behind them ready to come in, pressurising them for a place. They are working extremely hard off the ball, in addition to scoring goals. I don't necessarily judge them as a partnership, I judge them on how hard they work for the team and how much of a goal threat they are."

Mowbray is bracing himself for an exacting 90 minutes at Fir Park against opponents whose relative success under Jim Gannon's stewardship has not come as any surprise to him.

"I attended half a dozen League Managers Association meetings with Jim in England and he comes across as a very intelligent and articulate guy," said Mowbray. "I watched his Stockport County teams, as did a lot of other managers, because of the way he set them up and the way they played. He isolates the individual talent of the players. He's not a coach who keeps everyone compact.

"Jim had very tough financial restraints at Stockport but built a very good team. At Motherwell, they don't have the greatest budget in the world but he is producing a football team which is nice to watch and has achieved some good results this season.

"We know we face a huge task on Saturday. Motherwell can give any team problems with the way they set up and the way they play."