Aaron Mooy

Celtic’s new signing Aaron Mooy says he joined the club to win trophies and is happy to be back working with former Australia boss Ange Postecoglou again.

Mooy joined Celtic’s list of summer recruits when he signed a two-year deal earlier this week and is working with his new team-mates as they prepare to defend their domestic crown and compete in the Champions League.

The experienced midfielder said the opportunity to win things was a major factor in his decision to move to Glasgow when he had options after leaving Chinese side Shanghai Port.

“It’s obviously a huge club with a massive history and when I found out I had the opportunity to come, it didn’t take me long to say yes,” he said. “I’m very happy to be here.




I’m here to enjoy my football. Obviously Celtic challenges for trophies as well and I haven’t won many in my career so hopefully I can be part of a successful team.

“You can move to different countries and maybe play in strong teams but when Celtic came up, I couldn’t turn it down and I’m looking forward to the challenges ahead.”

Mooy will also be reunited with Postecoglou after playing under him when the Celtic boss was Australia manager.

The player is on record as having described Postecoglou as an “intimidating” figure and he joked that his boss still had that quality.

“The manager obviously I know from a few years with the national team,” he said. “He likes to play good football, get the ball on the deck with quick triangle patterns and I enjoyed it a lot.


“It makes it a little bit easier for me to make the transition because I know what he likes. Hopefully it all works out for everyone.

“He’s still intimidating, yeah. He just has that aura about him. He keeps you on your toes and pushes you.

“He’s done an amazing job at Celtic so far and I’m sure he will continue to do well.”

 

He sounds South African

 

Played two full games of WC qualif/playoff v UAE and Peru in June plus a friendly against Jordan. Looked like he needed the run as matches wore on

 

He worked for six weeks with the Australian fitness staff to get ready for the WC qualifiers and played two full games - the second one 120 minutes against Peru. Took one of the penalties for good measure.

Don't know what he's done over the last month but I reckon he won't be far off fitness wise. It's not like he's inexperienced either - he's been doing it long enough to know his body and how it goes through the fitness levels.

 

Father in law is a big Celtic fan. * help Aaron if he has a crap game.

 

NEW Celtic signing Aaron Mooy is no stranger to Ange Postecoglou’s managerial methods. The central midfielder was in and out of the Australia squad coached by the Parkhead boss between 2013 and 2017 and has accompanied the Greek-Australian on many a long-distance flight.

Speaking last year, Postecoglou revealed that he isn’t exactly the most entertaining person to be stuck next to on a plane. He would sit in abject silence for seven or eight hours, unsettling those unfortunate enough to be sat beside him, in what the Celtic manager dubbed the ‘death seat’.

No, I haven’t!” Mooy laughs when asked if he’s ever sat in the ‘death seat’. “The way Ange coached with the national team, back then it was a case of speaking mainly about the football and other little bits here and there. It wasn’t like a best mates sort of thing.

“I understand that’s his way and wherever he’s been, he’s been successful pretty much.”

Mooy certainly knows what he is signing up for at Parkhead. The high-intensity style employed by Postecoglou isn’t for everyone but the 31-year-old believes it plays to his strengths – even if the Celtic manager can cut a menacing figure at times.


“Yeah, definitely. He’s intimidating for sure,” Mooy said. “There is that kind of automatic respect. You never know where you stand so you always have to be pushing yourself.

“He likes to play football – not always long balls and fighting for second balls and things like that.

He likes to play through teams. When I was in the national team I enjoyed it a lot.

“There is no time to take your foot off the gas. The demands are high.

“The fans expect to win and you look forward to the challenge.










CELTIC midfielder Aaron Mooy admits that the lure of challenging for titles and winning medals was a big pull when deciding to move to the cinch Premiership champions – and he is determined to follow in the footsteps of his countryman Tom Rogic by winning silverware.

Mooy, 31, signed a two-year deal at Parkhead earlier this week following a stint in China and arrived within weeks of long-serving Australia internationalist Rogic departing the Glasgow club.

The pair are team-mates in Graham Arnold’s Socceros squad and although Rogic has been a hard man to reach lately – Arnold revealed earlier this month that he hasn’t heard from the playmaker since he left Celtic – Mooy was able to exchange a few texts with the 29-year-old since sealing his return to Scotland.




Yeah, we have been messaging each other,” said Mooy, who spent two years at St Mirren as a young player taking his first steps in the professional game. “I just asked if he had any tips, as a joke.


“He said ‘you don’t need any, they are good boys and it is an easy dressing room to be comfortable in’. He knows I will enjoy it.

“He obviously had a very successful period. He should be very proud of his time here.

“I didn’t know if he would reply. He’s obviously fine.”




Ange Postecoglou guided the team to a Premier Sports Cup and Premiership double in his debut campaign in Scotland last season and Mooy believes says that joining a team with a track record of success made his decision that little bit easier.

“That’s a big thing,” he added. “It’s an attraction for sure.

“They are competing all the time for trophies and last year was a very successful year for the club.

“Hopefully this year more success will follow.”

 

FOR most of us, a run around the local park is little more than an attempt to keep in shape. Maybe we would do it to train for a 10k, perhaps even a marathon. Between negotiating your way past other joggers and dodging errant dogs, it is about as far removed from the life of a top professional athlete as can be imagined. Well, most of them.

As Australia geared up for a for play-offs against the UAE and Peru with a place at this winter’s World Cup in Qatar at stake earlier this summer, Aaron Mooy found himself in something of a conundrum. The central midfielder, who earlier this week signed a two-year deal with Celtic, needed to train to give himself a chance of being included in Graham Arnold’s squad but was unattached to a club after his time at Chinese Super League outfit Shanghai Port was cut short.




A warm-weather training camp with the rest of his compatriots in Dubai in the build-up to the match itself was lying in wait, and the 31-year-old avowed to be in top condition for it. The decision was made to fly a fitness coach out to Glasgow, where Mooy’s family are based, and he trained in the only place that he could.


“The national team knew I was sort of in limbo, so they had one of the fitness coaches come out and train me in Scotland,” he explained.

“We then did a warm weather training camp in Dubai building up to the games. It was obviously an amazing time for me and for Australia to qualify for the World Cup.

“There is a local park near my house [where I trained]. Then we went to Dubai and it was more professional. A bunch of the team were there so it was good.

“I was really motivated [when training in the park] because they were important games. I didn’t really need that much motivation because I was hungry to be there.


There were people walking their dogs and I’m legging it.

“A few young kids and kids kicking the ball around [recognised me] but it wasn’t too bad.”

He added: “I haven’t touched the ball for a while [since Australia’s play-off win over Peru]. I’ve only just started training two days now.


I did some fitness testing the other day and today was just doing some football with the reserve team.

“It was nice to touch the ball again but you need some time to get up to speed and try to be in the best shape possible.”

When Mooy first moved to China in the summer of 2020, he had to do so without his family. That adversity away from the game made life difficult, he admits, but overall he looks back on the experience positively.

Shanghai Port – formerly known as Shanghai SIPG – weren’t shy of luring big names to the club during Mooy’s time there and he enjoyed playing alongside players who have competed at the very top of the sport.

A return to Europe never seemed particularly likely but Mooy insists he knew that the door was not shut altogether.

“Probably not, but you never know,” he replied when asked if he envisioned a return to European football. “My contract was a cut a bit short in China. Maybe if it had been another year later it wouldn’t have been a possibility.

“I’m just happy to be here and looking forward to it all.

“It was a difficult time before. One of the main things in China was that I couldn’t get my family over so I over there by myself for large periods without seeing them. That makes it tough.


But it was a good life experience and there were good players there. The level is pretty good. Shanghai is also an amazing city so, as I say, it was a good experience.

“There were a lot of stars, if you like, in my team – Hulk, Oscar, [Marko] Arnautovic. It was nice to play with these guys.”

Now that a move to Parkhead has been agreed, Mooy will get to spend more time with his family. The former Huddersfield Town and Brighton midfielder met his wife during his time at St Mirren between 2010 and 2012 but there is another member of the clan who will be keeping a keen eye on his progress in Glasgow.

Mooy’s father-in-law, Ian, is a lifelong Celtic supporter and the new signing hopes that a fulfilling life off the park will lead to better performances on it.

“I’ve seen him watch the games before and when Celtic score he screams the roof off,” Mooy said of his father-in-law.

“He will be on my back making sure I am doing everything I can.

“On paper it is perfect for me. The opportunity to play in this amazing stadium, the fans, it is a proper football club. I have family here. Hopefully I can enjoy my football and my life.

“I’m quite close with [Ian] so I can trust him. When I mentioned to him [about the move] he was a bit worried with what it’s like in Glasgow.

“But I couldn’t, once I had the chance, say no. Now he’s happy.

“He’s not a season ticket holder but he might get a ticket now! I’m sure he’ll be here a lot more.”

 

The quiet assassin. That's his name from now on in.

He looks like Hitman. I wonder if he's got a barcoad on the back of his head, which upon scanning says. Bargain of the century.

Andrew Mooy. The silent hun slayer.

13. Unlucky for some. Hun goalkeers that is.

 

More like Aaron 'the bull' Moo - I mean Mooy.

 

Literally know nothing about him, but simply going by what's said in here and a handful of interviews he sounds like a less mobile callum mcgregor, and not really what we're "missing" in midfield.

I get the idea, if he's been brought in to provide cover for callum and that's fine. I would be concerned if he is supposed to be the answer to our midfield problem. That being, our midfield is a bit soft and somewhat lacking some steel. Not that a hulking cdm is necessarily the answer either. I would just like to see us bring in someone that will stand up for themselves, not retreat into their shell when the tackles start flying, and not allow themselves to be bullied. Ideally with a bit of pace andca good engine.

Mooy might turn out to be a good player for us but the narrative on him sounds like a he's a bit more of what we already have, when we could be doing with a bit of variation.

 

Sounds like you really love him. Might want to learn his name, though.

* creep.

 

That dyslexia is contagious.

 

You're an absolute riot. Please never leave.

 

Racist

 

Andrew Mooy

 

Definitely not what we’re missing but think he can add a lot to us. That’s probably the thing people are getting annoyed with, we all wanted a Wanyama type. But there’s still a * of a long way to go in the transfer window, we’ve done some very good business these last 3 windows, we need to get a bit of perspective