Ibrox club Glasgow Rangers and Neil Lennon’s Celtic wanted him, says Norwich City youth coach Grant Holt.
Ibrox Stadium of Rangers
Holt has revealed that he had the chance to join Rangers and Celtic before he made the move to Hibernian in 2016 to work with Neil Lennon – who is now the manager of the Hoops.
The 38-year-old former Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest striker has also explained the reasons why he did not move to the Gers and why a switch to the Hoops did not materialise when he was playing for Norwich.
Holt told The Scottish Sun: “When I was at Norwich Lenny tried to get me twice when he was Celtic manager, though the truth was that Norwich wanted Gary Hooper and I was mentioned as going the other way as part of the deal.
“I had admired Celtic as a kid so it would have been an interesting move for me, but Celtic were very reluctant to let Gary leave and it never came about. In the end, of course, Norwich got Gary. I went to Wigan and they signed him from Celtic.
“Around the same time Ally McCoist tried to get me to Rangers when he was manager. He made a bid but Paul Lambert was never going to let a Norwich striker move to Rangers!
“At that time I was pretty settled at Norwich so I wasn’t too worried when it didn’t happen and as Rangers collapsed not long afterwards it probably wasn’t a bad decision.”
Premier League promotion
While Celtic are set to win the Scottish Premiership title this season and Rangers have secured the runners-up spot, Norwich have clinched automatic promotion from the Championship and will play in the Premier League during the 2019-20 campaign.
The Canaries will take on Aston Villa away from home at Villa Park in the Championship in their final game of the season on Sunday.
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