Scott McDonald was well-known to Celtic fans before signing for the club.
The Australian striker’s quickfire double at Fir Park in 2005 – which took the title away from Celtic – left scars which have never healed for many Hoops fans.
So when he made the move to Celtic Park two years later, it’s fair to say that he had a few fans to win over.
Thankfully for him, his goalscoring achieved this. He made a habit out of scoring against Rangers, also contributing some crucial goals in Europe.
But reflecting on the summer of his move, McDonald revealed that even club staff were giving him stick at the time.
Scott McDonald on his controversial move to Celtic
McDonald was publicly chased by both Celtic and Rangers, but Gordon Strachan pushed to bring him to his side of Glasgow, and was rewarded for that in time.
McDonald had such a close relationship with Strachan that he followed him to Middlesbrough in 2010.
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But not all staff at the club were having him right away. Speaking on The Warm Up, McDonald reflected on getting stick from staff after signing.
He said: “The elephant in the room is that no one liked me. The fans didn’t want me there.
“But I didn’t care about that, because I was like: ‘I’m getting the opportunity to play for Celtic’. So there’s when the fan mentality came in. Because now I’m living my dream.
“It was a bit of everything. It drove me, I was like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory walking through. I was like, ‘this is amazing. I get to play with top players, look at the facilities’
“No disrespect to Motherwell, getting a minibus to training every day. And we were moving from Barrowfield to Lennoxtown at the time. 60,000 fans, it’s what you dreamed of.
“I was still getting stick from some staff. I went to collect my season tickets, and the woman had a crack at me. The head of the season ticket department had to pull me in and apologise.
“And I was like, ‘It’s fine’. It’s just part of where I’m at right now.”
McDonald scored 64 goals for Celtic in 128 games.
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Scott McDonald’s career
Never an out-and-out poacher, McDonald made 26 appearances for Australia, but never scored for his country. He was controversially omitted from their squad for the 2010 World Cup.
He made over 100 appearances for Motherwell and Middlesbrough, as well as Celtic.
He was named in the PFA Scotland Team of the Year on three occasions, finishing as top scorer of the SPL in the Celts’ title-winning 2006-07 season.
He is now in the early stages of his coaching career in Australia.
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