Former Celtic target Scott McKenna has hinted that his next move won’t be to Parkhead, as he talked up the English Premier League.
McKenna was sidelined with a hamstring tear over the last month. However, when he’s fit, he’s one of the first names on Derek McInnes’ Aberdeen team-sheet. That was proven as he was tossed straight into the side for last weekend’s 1-1 draw with Hibernian.
Celtic infamously failed with a bid for the Scotland international in the summer of 2018. The Hoops apparently offered £3.5million for McKenna’s services (BBC). Aberdeen, however, have apparently reportedly been looking for around £10m for their main man (Daily Record).
And, speaking in the Daily Record, it doesn’t sound as though McKenna has any thoughts about moving to Parkhead.
“That’s probably the end goal for a lot of young players, to go to the Premier League or via the Championship. Whenever I’ve gone away with the national team, my form for Aberdeen when I get back is always pretty decent. It’s because of the standard of training with Scotland and that’s no disrespect to playing in the SPFL.
“I’m not sure the jump from Aberdeen to Premier League will happen for me. It’s never a case of moving straight to the top level.
“At Aberdeen right now, I’ve got to prove to people in England that I’m good enough for them to take a chance on me and give me that opportunity at some point.”
McKenna has made his plans clear
Not too many Celtic fans will lose sleep over McKenna’s plans to move to England one day. If that is indeed where he heads off to next, some Hoops supporters will breathe a sigh of relief.
McKenna has struggled to make himself standout at international level. He may have 12 Scotland caps to his name, but he still hasn’t done enough to impress the Hoops support by and large.
A positive season this year could perhaps have helped him. But the fact is he’s now only played 11 games this season. He’s missed four of the last five league games for the Dons, and didn’t impress on Saturday.
Christian Doidge broke through the Dons defence on four separate occasions for Hibs. That’s a big concern if you were potentially looking at McKenna.
But his eyes don’t appear to be on a move to Parkhead in any case. He’s talking up a move to England, and it’s clear that’s where he sees himself in several years’ time.
It may be music to the ears of Celtic fans, but this could all but rule us out of trying to sign him in the future.
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