Former Celtic man Darren O'Dea hits back at tabloid claim

By Hamish Carton

August 22, 2019

Former Celtic defender Darren O’Dea had rejected the notion that he had anything to do with a Rangers youth player moving to Dundee.

On Wednesday, the Scottish Sun reported that O’Dea had a role to play in Gers youngster Josh McPake’s loan move to the Dens Park side.

(Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

However, O’Dea hit back strongly at those rumours by saying he had nothing to do with it. Furthermore, he said he’d never even seen the 17-year-old play.

The newspaper has since removed the news piece from their website hinting that they got it badly wrong.

Is O’Dea still coming to Celtic?

A fortnight ago, the Scottish Sun (hopefully more reliable this time) reported that 32-year-old O’Dea was poised to become a coach at Celtic. The Hoops have been in search for a new member of the backroom team since Damien Duff was promoted from the reserve set-up to be one of Neil Lennon’s main men.

(Photo by Mark Runnacles/Getty Images)

O’Dea is currently under-18s coach at Motherwell while he also started the season playing for Lowland League side East Kilbride. It was understood that he would leave both jobs to return to Lennoxtown.

News seems to have gone a little bit quiet on that front with the defender taking a more reserved stance on social media. There may be news in the coming weeks. The Scottish Sun will certainly be hoping so anyway.