Striker who scored 34 Premier League goals tells Sky Sports of Celtic transfer near miss

Former Premier League striker Charlie Austin has said he missed out on a move to Celtic in January 2013.

At the time, Gary Hooper was scoring goals for fun at the Bhoys and subsequently, he had caught the eye of Norwich City mid-season.

Norwich were in the Premier League at the time, so this was an attractive move for Hooper. And if Celtic did sell in the January, Austin was going to be his replacement.

Austin was at Burnley in the EFL Championship and ended that season as top scorer with 28 goals in 40 games across all competitions.

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Charlie Austin of Burnley (L) celebrates with Marvin Bartley of Burnley after scoring the opening goal of the game during the npower Championship match between Charlton Athletic and Burnley at the Valley — Photo by Ben Hoskins/Getty Images

Charlie Austin was set to be Gary Hooper’s Celtic replacement

However, despite Norwich lodging a £5m bid for Hooper, Celtic rejected the offer and Hooper ended up staying at Parkhead until leaving for the Canaries in the summer.

It meant that Austin stayed put at Burnley until the end of the season, before a switch to QPR.

Austin explained to Sky Sports News on Thursday: “When I was at Burnley, Neil Lennon was the manager at Celtic. I spoke about it before, the domino effect.

“Gary Hooper was linked to Norwich from Celtic, and I was his replacement from Burnley to Celtic. Obviously Gary Hooper’s move to Norwich didn’t happen, and I never went to Celtic.”

Johan Mjallby confirmed Celtic interest in Austin

In January 2013 amid Norwich’s bid for Hooper, Lennon’s assistant manager and former Celtic defender Johan Mjallby unusually confirmed interest in Austin.

He revealed Austin was on a shortlist at the club, but was confident Hooper would stay in Glasgow until the summer.

As quoted in The Scotsman, Mjallby said: “He might be on the shortlist. Charlie is a proven goalscorer and he might come in handy in the future.

“But right now we think Gary will stay on, at least until the summer, and that will be great for the club. He is a top-class player. It’s not only his goals, the last couple of months have shown he is improving his all-round game.

“We can use him in midfield as well because he is a very clever player. We want to keep him because he is improving and making the team better.

“Gary has proven to be the best goalscorer for us so that’s one of the reasons we want to keep him. We always have a shortlist for players in each and every position but right now we are just thinking about Gary staying because he is a very important figure for our squad.”