Celtic’s amazing head coach of recent times, Ange Postecoglou, achieved great success during his two years at Parkhead before a move to England.
The Australian boss, who won the domestic treble in his final campaign at Celtic, won the Scottish Premiership title in both of his seasons with the club.
Underpinning his success at Paradise was the excellent work done in the recruitment department, signing the likes of Jota, Kyogo Furuhashi, Joe Hart, and Cameron Carter-Vickers among others.
Jota was, arguably, the greatest signing of Postecoglou’s tenure as he joined the Hoops for a reported fee of £6.5m, after thriving on loan in his first season at the club, as shown in the graphic below.
After his exceptional form in the 2022/23 campaign, Saudi Arabian side Al Ittihad swooped in to sign the winger for a reported fee of £25m, representing a huge profit for the club, and the winger has since returned on a permanent deal from Rennes in January for £8m.
Not all of Postecoglou’s signings at Celtic paid off, though, and one of the most infamous, for lack of a better word, moves was the addition of James McCarthy in the summer of 2021.
The curious case of James McCarthy
Ahead of the 2021/22 campaign, the Scottish giants confirmed the double signing of Joe Hart on a permanent deal from Tottenham Hotspur and McCarthy on a free transfer from Crystal Palace.
At the time of that double deal, Postecoglou said: “I’m delighted that we have signed two top-class players in Joe and James. Both of them have a wealth of experience at both club and international level, and that is something which can only benefit the squad, and I’m looking forward to working with both of them.”
Hart went on to live up to that “top-class” tag with 64 clean sheets and only 145 goals conceded in 153 matches – less than a goal conceded per game – in three years at the club.
McCarthy, however, has not had the best of times at Parkhead so far and only played 22 times, racking up 739 minutes of action, in the 2021/22 campaign.
He followed that up with just 62 minutes on the pitch in five appearances in all competitions in the 2022/23 term, missing significant time through an injury picked up midway through the season – per The Scottish Sun.
Since the 2022/23 campaign, McCarthy has not made a single appearance for the first-team – playing two times for the B team in the Lowland League last season – and his current status is incredibly unclear.
24/25
0
£728k
23/24
0
£728k
22/23
5
£728k
21/22
22
£728k
As per The Scottish Sun earlier this year, there is a mystery surrounding the Irish midfielder because he has been removed from the club website, was not in the team picture in pre-season, and has not made a senior appearance since the 2022/23 campaign, yet Celtic have never confirmed his departure.
Per Salary Sport in the table above, the Hoops are still paying McCarthy £728k-per-season and Transfermarkt reports that the Irishman’s current deal does not officially expire until this summer, which means that the club appear to be paying a significant sum of wages for, essentially, nothing in return.
It is a bizarre situation and one that may be officially resolved in the summer if and when they confirm that he has left the club at the end of his deal.
Celtic, however, have another player who is fast becoming the new McCarthy, as another flop on fairly big wages despite rarely being seen on the pitch, in the form of Anthony Ralston.
Why Ralston is becoming the new McCarthy
Per Salary Sport, the Scotland international is on a weekly wage of £14k at Parkhead this season, with McCarthy being the only other player in the squad on the same wage.
Wage Burners
Football FanCast’s Wage Burners series explores the salaries of the modern-day game.
This means that he is currently on more money per week than Kasper Schmeichel (£13k), Nicolas Kuhn (£12k), Paulo Bernardo (£11k), and Luke McCowan (£8k), among other first-team stars.
That is despite Schmeichel being the number one goalkeeper and Kuhn delivering excellent performances this season, racking up 18 goals and 14 assists from a right wing position for the Scottish giants.
The German winger has, therefore, made a huge impact at the top end of the pitch for the Hoops in all competitions, providing quality as both a scorer and a creator of goals.
Ralston, on the other hand, has only started five matches in the Champions League and the Premiership combined in the 2024/25 campaign, after starting six times in those two competitions last season.
The Scottish defender, who came up through the academy system, did start 61 Premiership matches between the 2019/20 and 22/23 campaigns, but has fallen down the pecking order in recent years.
24/25
5
£728k
23/24
6
£728k
22/23
14
£728k
21/22
25
£442k
20/21
1
£286k
19/20
21
£286k
18/19
3
£234k
17/18
7
£234k
16/17
1
£130k
As you can see in the table above, he has only started 11 league matches – alongside zero in Europe – since the start of the 2023/24 season for the Hoops, earning the best part of £1.5m in wages in that time.
The rarely-seen defender is, therefore, fast becoming the new McCarthy at Celtic as his number of league starts each season has declined year-on-year for the last four campaigns, despite still being a relatively high earner.
Ralston is currently earning more in wages than players, like Kuhn and Schmeichel, who offer far more on the pitch for the Bhoys, which suggests that the Hoops are throwing money down the drain with the reserve defender.
With this in mind, Celtic should consider moving the full-back on in the upcoming summer transfer window before his lack of minutes on the pitch reaches McCarthy’s territory.
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Unless Ralston can find a way to put himself back in Brendan Rodgers’ plans as a regular in the first-team, the 26-year-old flop is well on his way to becoming a forgotten man at Parkhead.