‘Hard one to take’: £3.25m ace comments on failed Celtic move, discusses Lennon texts

Follow us on Google Discover

Celtic missed out on Motherwell’s David Turnbull last summer.

Motherwell midfielder David Turnbull has told the club’s official YouTube channel that his move to Celtic collapsing was ‘a hard one to take’.

Turnbull, 20, had come up through the Motherwell ranks, and his sensational season last term had really turned heads.

The midfielder hit 16 goals and seven assists in 34 games for Motherwell last season, and he became a wanted man off the back of his success.

Celtic had agreed a deal with Motherwell, but when they couldn’t agree terms with Turnbull, it looked like he would be heading to Norwich City instead.

Turnbull did end up picking Celtic, but a £3.25million move to Parkhead collapsed after a medical found an issue in his left knee (BBC).

Turnbull had to have an operation to solve the issue, and he only made his return to first-team action last week, coming on as a substitute in Motherwell’s defeat to St Mirren.

Now, Turnbull has opened up on his failed move, admitting that he was texting Neil Lennon about training following his medical, getting new boots and getting himself excited for starting at Celtic.

However, it soon became clear that a move wouldn’t be happening, and Turnbull admitted that missing out on his move to Parkhead was ‘a hard one to take’.

“Came back up that night from the medical, texted Neil Lennon who said to come in and do a wee bit of training tomorrow, a bit of light circuit and moving,” said Turnbull. “So I went into Lennoxtown on the Saturday, got my new boots and my new running trainers, looking forward to training.”

“Then I went, had a meeting with Lennon and spoke to the physio after my medical and he said something had come up in my left knee but they didn’t think it would be much to worry about. Obviously, it was. My agent was still working on it, I’m sure Motherwell and Celtic were still working on it to try and get something sorted, so it was a waiting game really. I found out I had to get an operation, and the deal was kind of done. It wasn’t a great feeling to be honest; it was a hard one to take. It was tough to get my head around,” he added.