Celtic star Ryan Christie “wasn’t fitting in” at Parkhead when he first joined, according to lifelong friend Calum Ferguson.
Christie signed for the club back in the summer of 2015 under Ronny Deila, but he struggled to see much game time in his first couple of years.
The youngster was immediately sent out on loan to Inverness for the 2015/16 season before an 18-month spell at Pittodrie became the making of him. That came after six months of battering his head against a brick wall when Brendan Rodgers first arrived.
However, the young attacker has now become of Celtic’s most lethal forces in the final third. As well as that, he’s also gone on to become an international hero with Scotland after playing a starring role against Serbia last week to secure a place at Euro 2020.
And Ferguson has touched on the journey that brought him to this point. As quoted by the Daily Record, he said: “When he got his move to Celtic he was struggling to break in and wasn’t fitting in.
“The loan at Aberdeen came and that moment came where he went and scored the winner at Ibrox, and it was the first time they had won at Ibrox in so long.
“Those moments cemented him as an Aberdeen player and piled the pressure on Celtic to play him, to be honest, because he didn’t just keep himself ticking over at Aberdeen, he was their best player. When he went back to Celtic there was pressure on to play him, and at Murrayfield he scored in the semi-final and that’s his moment.”
Christie no longer the player we signed from Inverness
When we signed Christie from Inverness back in 2015, not many could’ve envisioned just how much he would develop in Glasgow.
The Highlander is now a much more rounded player than the fresh-faced attacker we signed from Caley Thistle. He already had goals in his game when he signed, but he’s added an extra layer of ruthlessness to his play in the final third, and his on-field awareness and vision have also improved tenfold.
Added to that, he no longer gets brushed off the ball by a bit of wind. Christie instead is now able to keep hold of possession despite being under pressure from physical centre-backs. Adding strength to his game was crucial, and in fairness he’s managed it well.
Celtic have always done right by Christie though. Even though Ferguson says he wasn’t fitting in throughout his first couple of years in Glasgow, you have to put it into context. Breaking into Brendan Rodgers’ invincibles was always going to be a tough task for him, whilst Deila clearly felt he needed more first-team experience before he committed to featuring him regularly.
But it’s now been shown that it’s all for the greater good after he’s come out the other side of it a much better player.
Of course, the carrot of 10-in-a-row must be a huge incentive for Christie. As a lifelong Celtic fan, his days of struggling to fit in or break through are over. Now, he’s on the cusp of making Celtic history. What a journey.
In other news, an update last night has left Celtic continuing to face an anxious wait over two stars.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
