Sporting director is adamant Celtic beat his club to sign ‘one of the best’ players in the country

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Celtic’s summer transfer business went right to the wire as Brendan Rodgers made three deadline-day signings.

The Celtic boss made Arne Engels the club’s record transfer signing and then added Sheffield United’s Auston Trusty and Dundee midfielder, Luke McCowan as he spent a large chunk of the Matt O’Riley money to reinforce his squad.

But it was the deal to sign McCowan that seems to have irked Hibs sporting director, Malky MacKay, as he shared just how much money the Edinburgh club offered to try and get what he calls the ‘best midfielder’ in Scotland outside of Celtic and Rangers.

What Hibs offered for Celtic’s Luke McCowan

The Easter Road club were huge fans of McCowan and MacKay tells just how serious Hibs were about signing him after making a seven-figure offer for the midfielder.

McKay told Edinburgh News, “The Luke McCowan one was very particular signing.

“It was one who clearly is one of the best midfielders outside of the Old F*rm, in Scotland. And data backs that up.

“Forget the naked eye. His numbers over the last two years show how productive he’s been, so he’s a very specific player.

“There are not a lot of them around. Certainly in the timescale we were looking at. To go and find another version of Luke McCowan, that’s not easy.

“Now, we had an owner absolutely willing to back that signing. Let me be really clear about that.

“I’ll tell you that he wanted to back it to the tune of a million pounds. The man was prepared to back that. I don’t mind saying that our owner was going to spend that.”

That is a move of serious intent for a club like Hibs who are not known for their big spending power. And Mackay genuinely believed they had a great chance of getting their man.

Celtic’s late-night offer for Luke McCowan

Talk of McCowan joining Celtic in the summer was bubbling under the surface as Brendan Rodgers faced losing Matt O’Riley.

And it did look like he was set for Hibs until Celtic moved with a late-night offer for the 26-year-old as MacKay shared just how late that bid actually was.

MacKay continued, “Obviously once Celtic come in, you are not going to get that player. There’s not a lot we can do about that.

“But our conversations with Dundee were all conducted in good faith. And our owner was really prepared to back the football club by going to get a very specific player.

“It went right down to the wire, it really did. It was an hour from the deadline.

“It’s not as if we knew for definite that Celtic were going to come in for him – it went down to 10 o’clock on the night when we were told that we’d been outbid.”

Fortunately for Celtic and Rodgers, McCowan had no hesitation in joining his Bhoyhood heroes as soon as he heard about the club’s interest.

And after making his debut against Rangers, the decision to sign the former Dundee player does now look like a shrewd piece of business by the Celtic manager.

With the international break now upon us, the Celtic fans will need to wait two weeks until they see McCowan in the green and white Hoops again.

A struggling Hearts will visit Celtic Park on the 14th of September where another three points will keep Celtic’s five-point advantage over Rangers intact.