Celtic Fan View: Lewis Morgan needs platform to shine next season

Celtic certainly aren’t dwelling in their pursuit of transfer targets this month. The club have already completed the signing of centre-back Marvin Compper to strengthen the backline. And by Friday they sealed the capture of 21-year-old Lewis Morgan from St. Mirren.

The young winger joins for a fee of around £300,000 but will remain at the Buddies for the next six months to help their push for promotion. It’s a deal that suits all parties. Celtic get an exciting talent who is ready to make the next step in his career. St. Mirren, meanwhile, pick up a nice sum of money for a second tier side.

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This could be one hell of a bargain for the Bhoys. Morgan undoubtedly has the potential to light up Parkhead next term. His ability evidently sticks out when you see him play. The wideman has searing pace and is excellent in one-on-one situations with a fine level of productivity in the final third.

Nine goals in the Championship is some return for a club chasing promotion in a competitive league. And whenever he scores St. Mirren don’t lose which isn’t a bad habit to have. Beyond his obvious goal scoring threat, however, Morgan always seems to leave his mark on a game, always influencing things in one way or another.

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With doubts surrounding the future of Scott Sinclair beyond the end of the campaign and Patrick Roberts set to move back down south, Morgan could be the ideal replacement. That’s the thing though. On paper it’s a move that makes complete sense but Morgan must feature regularly for us to truly see his progression.

That sounds so obvious but Morgan won’t have to look far to see how quickly a move to Scotland’s biggest club can be hard to cope with. Within Celtic’s current squad the likes of Eboue Kouassi and Kundai Benyu will spend the rest of the term on loan elsewhere despite arriving for fees up to 10 times that of Morgan’s. Even Olivier Ntcham- a France under-21 international- has found it difficult to hold down a regular starting spot.

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There are further examples including Gary Mackay-Steven, Ryan Christie and Scott Allan. The trio were signed by the previous regime as bright prospects but are now developing their talents away from Parkhead. There’s a fine line between success and failure when youngsters make the step up to Celtic. It’s up to the club and coaching staff to take care of them and ensure that talent is nurtured correctly and patiently.
Morgan seems capable of handling the pressure from a mental perspective. At his unveiling he said: “I can’t wait to get started in the summer. Obviously I have a duty to St. Mirren to go back and hopefully have a positive second half of the season with them. And then I can’t wait to get going. When a club like Celtic comes along, I don’t think you can turn it down.”

The young man has an abundance of speed and tricks while his direct attitude should get fans excited pretty quickly. Brendan Rodgers must give Morgan the platform to showcase his skill. It would be such a shame to see such talent wasted as has been the case for others in the last few years.