McStay understands Caldwell decision

13 January 2010 20:11
Scotland defender Caldwell completed his move to Wigan on Wednesday morning, ending a three-and-a-half-year stay at his boyhood idols.[LNB]Former midfielder McStay spent his entire 16-year career at Celtic before being forced to retire through injury in 1997.[LNB]Far from being set up for life, the 45-year-old still has to work to support his family.[LNB]He therefore would not begrudge anybody the opportunity to earn as much as they can while they are still playing.[LNB]"My football career was taken away from me from a very early age," McStay said.[LNB]"I've got to work very hard now to earn a living and look after my family.[LNB]"So, based on that, you'd probably think in a different way."[LNB]He added: "Financially, it is a very short career and most of the players have young families.[LNB]"I think you've got to look after yourselves.[LNB]"If there's an opportunity to secure your future financially, I think you've got to look at that."[LNB]Although McStay can understand the monetary motivation for Caldwell jumping ship, he cannot see how it would benefit him from a footballing perspective.[LNB]"If you're talking about playing for Celtic or Rangers, you're talking about a couple of the top clubs in Europe," he said.[LNB]"From a football point of view, I'd have to think twice about that.[LNB]"Celtic Football Club is a magnificent place to play your football and there's the Champions League.[LNB]"You'd have to weigh up that and what the opportunities down south were."[LNB]McStay believes the loss of Caldwell, 27, is a big one for Celtic but reckons Tony Mowbray has signed a "quality" replacement in Jos Hooiveld.[LNB]"Gary's a great player, has been a great servant to the club," McStay said.[LNB]"Tony's already made a signing to hopefully fill that gap and, by all accounts, he's a quality player.[LNB]"Gary will be a loss; it's disappointing to see him go.[LNB]"He made that decision but, again, Tony's had that in mind and he's immediately filled the gap."[LNB]Caldwell's departure was just one of four from Parkhead on Wednesday as Barry Robson, Chris Killen and Willo Flood all completed moves to Middlesbrough.[LNB]McStay, who played alongside current Parkhead boss Mowbray for four years in the early 1990s, said: "We we very much aware that Tony wanted to bring in one or two players and there are players who have left the club.[LNB]"He's made one or two good signings as well."[LNB]Celtic currently lie seven points behind Rangers in the SPL with a game in hand and McStay added: "If you look at the last performance against Rangers, I thought Celtic were outstanding and unfortunate not to win the game.[LNB]"With some new faces in, maybe that will improve the squad as well.[LNB]"Although they're a few points behind Rangers, I think there's still plenty of time to close the gap.[LNB]"Both sides have got their problems as far as injuries go.[LNB]"I think there's an opportunity - no matter who's in the Rangers squad - for Celtic to close the gap."[LNB]Despite being less that seven months into life in the Celtic hotseat, Mowbray has already come under criticism for the club's performances this season.[LNB]Speaking as Tesco Bank announced plans to invest more than £1million in a new sports programme for primary school children, McStay said: "It's only six months in, although nowadays people think that's quite a long time in football.[LNB]"He knew what he wanted to do when he came in; he had one or two changes in mind, and he had to wait to the January window."[LNB][LNB]

Source: Team_Talk