Mo Bangura: The Only Thing Larsson Got Wrong In His Life.
Aaah man … what were you thinking? We signed Mo Bangura on the highest recommendation there was, that of Henrik Larsson himself. It was easy to take that at face value. The greatest predator the game here has known since King Kenny, perhaps even the greatest ever, knew this kid and knew his quality. When he said “sign him” we probably couldn’t get the cheque book out quick enough.
We paid big for him too; the fee was over £2 million.
We didn’t get very much for our money. He played 16 times for Celtic, all in, and did not score a single goal for the club. That’s some going. It was a colossal mistake. Whatever Henrik saw, or thought he saw, we didn’t catch even the faintest glimpse of it.
Not only did he fail to hit the back of the net in the games he played for us, but this guy was always bloody injured. He spent far more time on the treatment table than he did on the pitch, and that infuriated Neil Lennon and the supporters.
This was never a guy who was going to run through brick walls for the cause.
Did we even scout Bangura? Or was the word of the King of Kings simply deemed good enough for us to sign over such a large sum? Who knows? That question, along with many others, will never be properly answered. The player himself would have disappeared into ignominy and his name would have been forgotten entirely except for a bizarre postscript.
Bangura ended up going out on loan a couple of times. The second time the club he went to was Elfsborg, who we promptly drew in the Champions League. Bangura was not under any restrictions, as the competition doesn’t allow them. He had shown absolutely nothing in a Celtic shirt to suggest that he would pose any kind of threat, but for reasons known only to himself Neil Lennon decided to issue a public rebuke to the idea that he should play.
Others at Parkhead weighed in, including Joe Ledley, who said that the player would not be welcome in the dressing room if Elfsborg knocked us out. Bangura himself reacted furiously and declared himself ready to appear in both legs.
As it turned out, he did. He actually looked decent in both games, and gave us a fright in the away leg, even, at one point, attempting an overhead kick. It was bizarre. The whole thing was bizarre. He returned to Celtic at the end of that deal, but we’d seen enough.
His contract was terminated “by mutual consent.”