Celtic midfielder Aaron Mooy's journey to the top

The 32-year-old is on the verge of winning a domestic treble with Ange Postecoglou's side despite eyebrows initially being raised when he signed on the dotted line for the Hoops.

Fresh from a fantastic World Cup finals with the Socceroos in Qatar at the end of 2022, Mooy has been a real driving force behind Celtic's quest for a clean sweep and a second successive Scottish Premiership crown.

That's why The Celtic Way decided to speak to a few people who could give us the inside track on what it's like to manage him, play alongside him and admire him from the stands...

The manager who gave him a chance

Former St Mirren boss Danny Lennon gave Aaron Mooy his first break in football when he lashed out £50,000 for the midfielder. Mooy tasted the big time with the Paisley outfit as the Australian strutted his stuff in the Scottish top flight from 2010 to 2012. A bout of homesickness saw Mooy eventually return home to Australia but not before Lennon recognised his talents were always destined for a bigger stage...

"I take a great interest in all the players that I have managed in my career. I look at a player like Aaron Mooy who I had at St Mirren as a young kid and we paid £50,000 for him. He was the only player during my time as manager at St Mirren that we ever spent money on.

"You could see that Aaron had absolutely everything ability-wise. He had terrific balance, and fantastic core strength and he was strong on the ball. You could have put Aaron and Paul McGowan in the same St Mirren team against the other twenty players in the park and they would have struggled to get the ball off them.

"When he came to Paisley the only thing that Aaron didn't have in his locker was first-team experience. You have to gain that experience somewhere. He was a young boy playing first-team football and living away from home and he found that difficult to cope with.

"I was very reluctant to let Aaron go in the end because I saw the true potential that he had but the personal side was a far more important issue. When players start talking about missing families back in Australia then you have to listen to them.

"In the period I managed him, he was such a hardworking player but you could see that he missed home and his family and I think it had a slight effect on what we could get out of him on a more regular basis. With Aaron's ability, I felt that we only ever saw it in flashes at St Mirren but I think that he was maturing in football terms and he was finding himself and his own self-control on a football pitch. He has certainly found himself now.

"Aaron was a very humble guy but when you get to know him he opens up a little bit. I got to know his character well during his time at the club. I went out of my way to make sure that he was okay as he was a kid under my supervision. I felt a duty of care to him and I made that effort.

READ MORE: Why Celtic's Aaron Mooy ticks both Postecoglou boxes - Tony Haggerty

"It was always about football with Aaron. The more time you spent in his company you knew he was the real deal football-wise but personality wise I had to nurse and coax it out of him at times. Let's just say Aaron is never going to be the first one on the karaoke on a team night out.

"At 32, he has had a major impact on Celtic's title charge this season. Since he returned from the World Cup in Qatar, I think he's been Celtic's standout player. His manager Ange Postecoglou has also handled him well and integrated him into Celtic's system slowly but surely.

"I still think there's a lot more to come from Aaron. He is now chipping in with goals and the influence that he's having in Celtic games is growing all the time. His key attribute is that he keeps the ball for fun even in the tightest of areas. He possesses great balance and more often than not he makes the right decision which all top players do.

"It's always nice to say that you have had a small helping hand in what Aaron Mooy achieved. All I did was present Aaron with an opportunity and a platform and he has made himself the player that he is today. I gave Aaron an environment and a culture and he grasped it as that's what all good players do. If Aaron keeps up the momentum and influence that he has had with Celtic since he arrived then I can see him picking up major awards at the end of the season.

"His manager, team-mates and supporters certainly appreciate what he brings to the table and he's on the right track. Knowing Aaron as I do he would never take anything for granted or get blase about it. He is a player with his feet planted firmly on the ground. He has been like that ever since I was his manager at St Mirren. I once forked out 50 grand on Aaron and I would do it all over again in a minute."

The team-mate who saw the talent

Matt Smith crossed swords with Mooy on the pitch in the 2013-14 A-League Grand final. Ange Postecoglou's Brisbane Roar triumphed over Western Sydney Wanderers and Smith came out on top in that particular battle. The two players would then go on to become international teammates for the Socceroos...

"I'm a few years older than Aaron. I played against him many times at club level when he was younger in Australia and I have also been his teammate with the Socceroos. I played against Aaron in the 2014 Grand final for Brisbane against Western Sydney Wanderers which we were fortunate enough to win on that occasion. If memory serves Aaron lost two successive Grand finals with Western Sydney Wanderers.

"Off the park, he's always been a very quiet character. He was a very shy and reserved person at the international level with Australia and most of his club teammates would all say the same thing about Aaron. He is very humble and a very down-to-earth guy. Camera shy is a good way to describe him. I mean I'm English Australian which is a little bit different but if you talk to a lot of Australian people and they're not too dissimilar to Aaron to varying degrees. I'm so pleased for him as he has had a lot of football experiences and he has had an amazing career and he is still doing some magical things up there in Scotland even at 32 with Celtic.

"He's doing brilliantly for both club and country and to have that longevity, especially in his international career is brilliant. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing because Australia is so reliant upon him which is a positive thing, but it's also obviously a worry that he will have to retire at some point from playing for the Socceroos because he is 32 now.

"The way he is going he has probably got another year or two at least left in him to play international football. That's what I am hoping for. I guess the worry for Australian now is going to be who is next in line to carry the baton, handle that mantle and replicate what he's done. It's a good thing at the moment that he's performing excessively well for the national team and Celtic but it's also you know something that Graham Arnold and the Socceroos will be planning for and they will be ahead of the curve on that one I'm sure.

"I first met I was playing against him when he was at Brisbane Wanderers. He was fairly young then. I had a more personal relationship with him and when we both got called up for the national team. He's a fairly quiet character on the pitch. That being said Aaron just lets the ball do the talking. He is undoubtedly one of the smartest players that Australia has produced in the modern era for sure. In the training camps within the national team, I was a bit older at that point and he came to the Australia team keeping a low profile and kept his head down.

"From talking to him that was just his personality which became apparent. He's not the overly talkative type but when he's on the pitch it's like this whole new football beast unfolds and is unleashed. He just dictates and dominates every little position and duel. He did that in every little practice game that we had. I hesitate to call it white line fever, but it's one of those ones where Aaron is a quiet character off the pitch but a different animal on it as he kind of just lets his football personality come to the fore.

"He had a kind of Jekyll and Hyde nature. Aaron was a non-demonstrative person off the pitch but on it, he became a really dominant player. He's played various positions across the field from being a box-to-box midfielder. You know he likes to get in to score goals. All throughout his career, he's been amazing with set pieces, free kicks, and corners. He possesses superb technical ability to be able to perform at that level. He's also very comfortable in building up the play and sitting a bit deeper and connecting the back to the front which is probably what he's done in recent years.

"He's obviously become wiser and smarter and he's racked up some amazing achievements in the teams that he's played for. He's obviously learned a lot from the players he's played with and coaches that he's played under. I think that's why you see longevity in his career at the moment because everything is really positive and he is enjoying a renaissance in his career.

"I think it's good for Aaron that obviously Ange Postecoglo has been around and worked with him for a long time. So Ange, Ange, more than anybody would know, his strengths and weaknesses. Ange would know his personality and his ins and outs. He knows a lot about Aaron maybe more so than he knows about himself. Ange is very thoughtful and knowledgeable about his players.

"I think that when Ange bought brought Aaron into Celtic it certainly wasn't the old pals act. Ange doesn't do old pals' acts. Ange is not one for favours. He's not one for the boys' clubs. He's not one for anything apart from being the best that he always can be. That is Ange's mantra how can the club and team be the best that they can be? It's why Aaron and Ange have made such a positive impact at Celtic. It wasn't one of those ones where Ange brought Aaron to see how well it would go or to see if he could get the best out of him. Ange knew full well how to get the best out of Aaron. Aaron has been involved and schooled in Ange's style and philosophy for a long time so it made perfect sense.

"I think that Aaron is more of a full-rounded player now compared to when I played with him for the Socceroos. He was a bit younger then and he was at the early juncture of his career. From an Australian point of view, it's just amazing to see both Aaron and Ange doing so well for Celtic. However, it's great to see Aaron in there kind of enjoying his moment."

The fan who watched him flourish

Jon Pidgeon had the pleasure of watching Mooy for three seasons at Huddersfield Town - two of them in the English Premier League. He cannot speak highly of the midfielder, who the lifelong Terriers fan rates as Town's best player of recent times...

"Aaron Mooy was instrumental to Huddersfield Town’s best two seasons in recent history. Huddersfield had reportedly been tracking his progress at Melbourne City so they knew all about him when they got the chance to take him on a season-long loan from Manchester City at the start of the Championship season of 2016-17.

"He made his debut in a 2-1 win over Brentford and in that same season, only captain Christopher Schindler played more minutes in the league than Mooy. Town fans take to somebody who ‘puts a shift in’ and it soon became clear that Mooy was an intelligent footballer who didn't waste energy unnecessarily.

"In midfield he could dictate the pace of the game, he knew when to move forward quickly and when to slow down and take the sting out of the game. Defensively, he was very good at winning the ball, he also knew when to make a tackle or position himself for an interception and he was adept at playing out of tight situations either with a quick short pass or finding a way to switch the play.

"After Town's promotion to the Premier League, he transferred from Manchester City to Huddersfield permanently. He even scored our first Premier League goal, a curler from outside the box against Newcastle and he racked up the fourth-highest minutes on the pitch in 2017-18.

"One particular goal in a 2-1 win over Manchester United summed up his abilities when he intercepted a loose pass and quickly drove the ball forward before being on hand to slot home after David De Gea could only partially save.

READ MORE: How Aaron Mooy swung derby v Rangers back in Celtic's favour

"His ability to pick a pass was also demonstrated in the match that clinched Huddersfield's survival in the Premier League the following season - away to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the penultimate game of the campaign - it was Mooy's perfectly weighted assist from just inside his own half that allowed Laurent Depoitre to beat the on-rushing keeper and secure another season in the top league.

"Sadly the next season it all went downhill for Huddersfield even though Mooy scored twice in a 2-0 win at Wolves including a brilliant free-kick bent inside the near post. The Aussie then picked up an injury away to Arsenal and he missed the best part of two months. When he returned, the club was already doomed to relegation and by then manager David Wagner had also left.

"Following Huddersfield's relegation from the top flight, Mooy left on a season-long loan deal to Brighton but not before one last act of generosity to the club. He knew he would be out of contact at the end of the loan but he signed a new deal to ensure that Town recoupled a transfer fee when he eventually left on a permanent deal.

"He went about his business quietly and effectively and he pulled the midfield strings and played with real game intelligence. He could pick out a pass and make a timely interception and possessed great dead ball delivery. Above all else, Mooy always seemed to be in control.

"Despite being very softly spoken and modest in interviews, as the old cliché goes, Mooy preferred to do his talking on the pitch. Overall, Mooy was probably our best player in recent times."