Matthew Anderson gives damning account of how Celtic managed his exit

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Matthew Anderson has reflected on leaving Celtic without making a senior appearance.

A highly-rated youth player who rejected interest from Leeds to remain at his boyhood club, Anderson has just been promoted to the Belgian top-flight after a stellar season with KV Kortrijk.

After a season on loan in the Austrian second tier as part of Celtic’s partnership with Admira Wacker, the left-back returned to the Hoops for pre-season and was involved with the first team.

He was left uncertain on where he stood until late in the window, and eventually returned to Admira for a second move. If the club had made their mind up earlier, he would’ve got a move to a higher level.

Celtic have bloated their squad with a high volume of ‘project’ signings over the last decade…

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Matthew Anderson on not knowing the ‘plan’ for him at Celtic

Reflecting on that summer with The Herald, Anderson said: “My idea was to come back and do pre-season, and if Brendan Rodgers felt I needed another loan, then that was fine.

“I started against DC United and the other two games were Manchester City and Chelsea. And I think I had a good pre-season.

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“I had a few good teams interested. I had League One teams in England, which I thought would be a nice step for a loan.

“I also had top-division options in Austria and that seemed a natural step after my first spell over there.

“If I wasn’t going to make the breakthrough at Celtic, then I was happy to go back out and get more experience.

“The issue was that Celtic kept me in pre-season mode until a few days before the end of the window. I got to the last week or so and asked them, ‘what’s the plan here?’”

“I went back to Austria for a second loan but by that point I had made up my mind that there was no point in me going through the same scenario again.

“I had loved my time in Austria with Admira, but to progress my career I wanted to have a decent season and see if I could build my career elsewhere after that.”

The market can be volatile for young players, and getting the right loan matters. He clearly could’ve spent the 2024-25 season at a much higher level than the Austrian second tier.

His long-term goal was still to make the first-team at Celtic, though: “I really wanted, at that point, to be even a squad player with Celtic,” he said.

“My target was to be the back-up to Greg Taylor and take things from there. I look at what Colby [Donovan] has done at Celtic and that was what I wanted to do.

“Colby has done really well for himself and after my first loan I felt that would have been nice. If not, then I was looking for another really good loan to progress my career.

“When I finished up making the same loan move again, it felt as if that was not really progression. I had agreed with my agent after the second loan that it was time to try somewhere else.

“I never really had an explanation from the higher-ups or Brendan Rodgers as to why it wasn’t going to happen for me at Celtic.

“I grew up in a Celtic family and our extended family included the club doctor for the Lisbon Lions.

“I would still love to play first-team football for Celtic one day. While I’m happy with where I am now and enjoying every minute, yeah, I would love to do that at some point in the future.”