Scottish Premiership champions Celtic reportedly wanted to sign Thomas O’Ware from Greenock Morton in 2017.
Thomas O’Ware had more reason than most to step up to the plate as Partick Thistle made the short trip to Parkhead on Wednesday night.
Not only did the 26-year-old centre-back come through the ranks at Celtic’s bitter Old Firm rivals Rangers, he was also linked with a shock move to the green-clad Glasgow giants two years ago.
According to the Daily Mail in April 2017, O’Ware was a man in demand after enjoying the best season of his life at Greenock Morton.
He scored a scarcely believable 12 goals in all competitions that season from centre-back and The Mail claimed that he had played his way onto the radar of Wolverhampton Wanderers and Birmingham City.
Rangers, who have a habit of targeting players they let go, wanted to hand O’Ware a second chance at Ibrox but they were apparently facing competition from Celtic. Forget his remarkable goal-scoring statistics, it was his ability to fill in at left-back and dominate opposition strikers with his 6ft 4ins frame that appeared to catch Brendan Rodgers’ eye.
But two years after O’Ware was lined up for a move to the top of the Scottish game, he is still stuck in the second tier. Links with Celtic came to nothing and O’Ware was forced to settle for a move to Partick in July 2018.
And in his first appearance against The Hoops since a Scottish Cup tie in March 2018, the scene of Marvin Compper’s one and only outing in green and white, O’Ware found himself on the wrong end of a 5-0 scoreline as Celtic ripped Partick’s defence apart again and again.
The former Scotland U18 star did offer a reminder of his poaching ability but his consolation goal was ruled out for offside.
A night to forget all round then and O’Ware’s hopes of pulling on that famous green kit appear to have passed him by for good.
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