Celtic should have signed Scott McKenna according to former Bhoys ace Peter Grant having excelled for Nottingham Forest.
It’s always the way isn’t it? If you play for a Scottish club – not named Rangers – and impress, then you will be linked with a move to Celtic.
In the cases of players like David Turnbull, Stuart Armstrong and Greg Taylor, they earned their moves to Parkhead and impressed in the famous green and white hoops.
Others like John McGinn and defender McKenna did shine with other clubs, but headed to England despite strong Celtic interest.
Celtic should have signed Scott McKenna
McKenna had been impressing in the heart of the Aberdeen defence.
Tall, strong and naturally left-footed, McKenna appeared to be just what Celtic were looking for back in 2019.
Celtic lodged a £5million bid but couldn’t tempt Aberdeen into selling, before McKenna publicly admitted that he is a boyhood Celtic supporter.
It just seemed right that McKenna would end up at Parkhead, but that’s not what happened.
Nottingham Forest pounced to sign McKenna in September 2020 and will be delighted with their deal.
McKenna played a key role in Forest winning promotion to the Premier League last season and has played every minute of their top-flight campaign so far.
The 25-year-old is now vital for Scotland too and seems to be going from strength to strength.
The topic of McKenna and Celtic has now been brought up once again with former Bhoys ace Peter Grant offering his take.
Grant has been quoted by Aberdeen Live as saying that he ‘100 per cent’ believed Celtic were going to sign McKenna because he would make them a huge profit.
Grant added that he can’t believe Celtic didn’t sign him given how he is a ‘very good’ defender, and the ship may well have sailed with McKenna now playing regularly in the Premier League.
“I 100 per cent thought that Celtic would take him from Aberdeen because he is a natural left-sider and they were only going to make money from him because he was only going to get better,” said Grant.
“I can’t believe they didn’t go for him. He was available and it’s so key to have a left-sided player in the modern game. He’s like an old school centre back. There are no tattoos. You can imagine him in the pub playing darts. He doesn’t get carried away with all the trappings of it he just wanted to get better. His distribution can be better but defending is his thing and he’s very good at it,” he added.
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