Former West Ham United and Newcastle goalkeeper, Shaka Hislop has spoken out about how Celtic were looking to sign him back in 2002 when Martin O’Neill was the manager.
The former Trinidad and Tobago international goalkeeper revealed on ESPN’s YouTube podcast how the then-goalkeeping coach, Terry Gennoe was speaking to him about the move and how the strange ‘disappearance’ of Martin O’Neill made the move fall through.
Hislop said [ESPN FC], “I nearly went to Celtic after West Ham first time. So the goalkeeper coach up at Celtic, Terry Gennoe was my goalkeeper coach in Newcastle.
“So this would have been 2002. The story is my goalkeeper coach at Newcastle became the goalkeeper coach at Celtic. And I was going out of contract at West Ham and Martin O’Neill was the manager at Celtic.
“Then the Leeds job became available and they were after Martin O’Neill and he just disappeared. So it was something like I think Celtic weren’t allowing him to talk to Leeds and there was something going on. And he just disappeared and none of the coaching staff knew where he was.
“So the goalkeeper coach is saying, ‘Listen, we’re desperate to get you up here’ but no, he [O’Neill] just went missing. But at the same time, Harry Redknapp is talking to me about coming down to Portsmouth.
“So I kind of drag it on for as long as I can. But then I had to say to Terry I’m signing for Pompey. I do not know where Martin O’Neill is. Nobody knows where he is and nobody knows what he’s going to do. I can’t just sit here and wait.
“I just told him that I had to make a decision. So I called Harry in Southampton and committed to join Pompey.”
Hislop was indeed a very good keeper in his day. Although he never won any major domestic honours in his career, he was an FA Cup runner-up twice with Newcastle in 1998 and West Ham in 2006. He also won 26 caps for Trinidad and Tobago.
At the time, Celtic had Jonathan Gould, Magnus Headman and a young David Marshall at the club so it would he been difficult to see how Hislop would have broken into the first team ahead of the established Gould and the up-and-coming Marshall.
In other news, Fabrizio Romano tells of Jeremie Frimpong’s transfer ‘priority’; what it could mean for Celtic
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