Speaking on The Big Interview with Graham Hunter, Aston Villa star John McGinn has opened up on how close he came to joining Celtic back in 2018.
The midfielder was strongly linked with a move to the Glasgow outfit at the time, but in the end he went to Aston Villa.
McGinn says that he wanted a move to Celtic, but there were too many doubts in his head about how he’d have been received by fans and if he’d have gotten a game.
“You read the reports and you see that Celtic are interested, but you never actually believe it, but then at the end of the season Celtic put in an offer. It was way below what Hibs wanted, but when that offer came in I thought ‘it’s done, it’s going to happen.’ It turned into a waiting game, the longest waiting game ever it ended up being,” McGinn said.
The Scot then explained why the deal wasn’t done quickly, before further explaining why the move never came to fruition.
“Doubt started growing in my head and I’m thinking ‘is this the right thing’ then it started to become a bit of sitcom getting more and more publicity, offers eventually came in, so then I’m thinking, I’m from the west of Scotland I’d be naïve to think I wouldn’t be switching on Super Scoreboard every now and then and have Jimmy from Parkhead phoning in saying ‘he’s not going to get a game’ and that was a popular opinion at the time.
“So then you start worrying about whether or not you’re going to get a game. Celtic had an unbelievable midfield at the time, I think Stuart Armstrong was still there, Ryan Christie and Scott Brown all at the top of the game. I had to weigh up everything, in my head I still wanted to play for Celtic.”
“I ended up being content with just playing football and I managed to block out the noise and then Villa got a takeover and the next thing you know my agent phoned and asked if I wanted to have a look, and then I didn’t end up coming back.”
This is very interesting to hear.
The idea that McGinn wouldn’t get in the Celtic midfield seems rather ridiculous now. After all, the Birmingham Mail claim that Aston Villa value him at £50m.
However, at the time, he wasn’t proven at the top level, while Armstrong, Christie and Brown all looked undroppable at the time.
Sadly for Celtic, the move never came to fruition and now McGinn is starring in the Premier League.
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