Cameron Harper has bemoaned the lack of togetherness at Celtic, making a veiled dig at his Celtic teammates. The American did praise the club for aiding his development on the park as well as helping improve his mentality around winning. The attacker, who made one appearance for the club, left last month despite attempts by the Parkhead side to retain him. The 19-year-old joined New York Red Bulls after Celtic agreed a fee to bring the player to New York in March, having already held pre-contract talks with the club.
Speaking to American Soccer Now, Harper said that there were cliques at Celtic, which may have infringed upon the ability for everyone to pull in the right direction.
“There’s a good spirit. I think that’s one thing at Celtic that sometimes did lack, in terms of our reserves or our first team – there were kind of cliques and there wasn’t a full togetherness. At Red Bull, everyone wants to work hard for one another. He’s creating a real togetherness and a real spirit where, if you’re not going to give 100%, don’t even bother showing up type of thing.”
With that said, the player likely was only in the first team picture for a short period of time, meaning he was always going to struggle to assimilate fully. Players like Jeremie Frimpong prove that by performing on the pitch, you will be welcomed into the dressing room with open arms. Harper
Harper made his debut in January in the game against Hibs but lasted just over an hour before he was substituted. He did miss a chance when the better option was to square it to Tom Rogic; however, his inexperience got the better of him. He appears to have fallen out of favour with the club after failing to agree a new deal, which subsequently lead to him being placed in the reserves.
The player did praise the mentality that Celtic helped instil in him, making him want to win at all costs, which would ultimately aid his development.
“When I went there, I was 16, playing in the Development Academy in California. It wasn’t even an MLS team – so, it wasn’t too serious. Then to go from that straight to an environment where even at a U-18 level or U-23 we needed to win every game – it helped you become more serious. I realized I have to take my development very seriously if I really want to improve. That winning mentality, sometimes people can say: ‘oh, it’s about development over winning.’ And I agree – but when you need to win every game, that’s when you also develop because you can’t just take games off.”
“Getting used to an environment where it’s pretty cutthroat, is definitely going to help in terms of coming to a first team environment at Red Bull which is also very cutthroat,” he added. “Only the best 11 guys get on the field – so you want to be one of them.”
