West Bromwich Albion winger James McClean says that he wanted to join Celtic when he was leaving Sunderland for Wigan Athletic back in 2013.
The 29-year-old Republic of Ireland international winger was on the books of Sunderland from 2011 until 2013 before he moved to Wigan.
The winger left the Latics for West Brom in the summer of 2015 for a transfer fee reported by BBC Sport to be worth £1.5 million.
McClean has revealed that he was buzzing back in the summer of 2013 when he thought that Celtic were going to sign him.
“Look, if it was up to me I’d have been a Celtic player a long time ago,” McClean told The Daily Record.
“When I was leaving Sunderland, you get the rumour pages and I saw one saying Celtic had a bid accepted for me and I remember being buzzing.
“At the time it was under Paolo Di Canio and it was in my head that I was leaving anyway. I thought this is it! But absolutely nothing came of it. They signed Derk Boerrigter instead.”
Summer move on the cards?
With West Brom having been relegated to the Championship, perhaps Celtic should make a move for McClean in the summer transfer window.
The 29-year-old winger, who earns £30,000 per week as salary according to Spotrac.com, would be a good signing for the Hoops and would have no problem at all in settling into Scottish football.
Scott Sinclair’s performances for the Bhoys this season have not been great, and the former Aston Villa winger could do with more competition.
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