Former Celtic midfielder Peter Grant has expressed his amazement that the Hoops didn’t push the boat out to sign then-Aberdeen centre half Scott McKenna in 2018.
Celtic reportedly had a £3.5million bid rejected for the defender, who would go on to sign for Nottingham Forest in 2020 and now plays in the Premier League, with Grant baffled that Celtic didn’t go all in on the Pittodrie star.
Grant told BBC Sportsound: “I 100 per cent thought that Celtic would take him from Aberdeen because he is a natural left-sider and they were only going to make money from him because he was only going to get better.
“I can’t believe they didn’t go for him. He was available and it’s so key to have a left-sided player in the modern game.
“He’s like an old school centre back. There are no tattoos – you can imagine in the pub playing darts. He doesn’t get carried away with all the trappings of it he just wanted to get better. His distribution can be better but defending is his thing and he’s very good at it. He has a hell of a lot a of attributes.”
McKenna not the biggest miss of that summer given McGinn fiasco
It’s easy to say in hindsight that Celtic should have pushed the boat out for McKenna given his form for the national team and presence in the Premier League, but given the reported fee demanded by Aberdeen at the time, it was never a move likely to materialise.
With Kristoffer Ajer and Dedryck Boyata already in situ, the defensively capable but otherwise limited McKenna would have represented a step down from two incredibly well-rounded central defenders, both of whom were capable of carrying the ball out of defence to aid Celtic’s build-up.
Celtic seemed all but set to secure a move for Hibs’ John McGinn before being ousted by Aston Villa at the eleventh hour, a far more obvious transfer blunder in hindsight given McGinn’s exploits for club and country, since.
The club have broadened their horizons under Postecoglou with regard to transfers, no longer merely attempting to secure standout players from other Scottish clubs – a wise strategy given that Premiership rivals will rightly apply a premium when selling to Celtic.
In other news: Scottish football’s inferiority complex is at the heart of bizarre Ange Postecoglou and Celtic noise
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