Kelvin Wilson has claimed that Tony Watt’s attitude at Celtic was too big for his boots.
Watt will be back at Parkhead to face his former club tonight with St Johnstone. The former Hoops youngster memorably scored that winner against Barcelona back in 2012.
But what followed was massively disappointing for everyone. After the Barca win, Watt only made 18 more appearances for the Hoops before being farmed out to Lierse on loan.
Since then he’s played for the likes of Standard Liege, Charlton Athletic, and Hearts to name a few. He now finds himself looking to reinvent himself in Perth.
And Wilson told Simon Ferry’s Open Goal that Watt could’ve been so much more at Celtic, if it wasn’t for his attitude.
“I just thought, it’s going to go one way or the other. When he says I didn’t like him, I liked him but he wasn’t like me as a young lad,” Wilson said.
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“He’d come in like he was the main man and it wasn’t traditional. As a young lad, shut up, sit there and clean my boots. He was a bit cocky and stuff so I was just trying to bring him down to earth a little bit.
“He just never…I think he thought when he scored that goal, that was it. That was his way to get anything – ‘I scored the winner against Barca’.”
A tale of what might’ve been
Watt was perhaps the most promising out-and-out forward to come through the ranks at Celtic yet. He spent most of his developing years at Airdrie, before Celtic plucked him.
Wilson makes it clear his attitude wasn’t as humble as it should’ve been, particularly after Barcelona. And it always makes you wonder just how much that truly did set him back.
By now, he could’ve been a Celtic super-star. A regular at international level and a European goal-scorer given the raw talent he had. But instead, he’s looking to help St Johnstone to a top-half finish this season whilst kick-starting his own career again.
The comments from Wilson are extremely scathing. It’s evident Watt didn’t behave how he should, and even more interesting to see that it annoyed certain players too.
It makes you wonder how big of a factor that was in his loan move to Lierse.
In any case, it’s over now, and Celtic will welcome their Barcelona hero back to Parkhead tonight in a must-win game.