Lennon Miller was a long-term target for Celtic.
Brendan Rodgers all but said as much. But despite interest in a number of transfer windows, it seemed inevitable that the teenager would move abroad.
Miller, who received his first Scotland cap this year, was subject to interest from a host of clubs before deciding to join Udinese in Serie A.
This decision was clearly influenced by the likes of Lewis Ferguson, Aaron Hickey and Josh Doig, who are all currently plying their trade in Serie A having moved there from the Scottish Premiership.
But having played every minute, often as captain, while at Motherwell, it has been a different story for Miller in Udine so far.
Udinese boss sends strong message to Celtic target Lennon Miller
Miller is yet to start a Serie A match for his new club, but he started and scored in a Coppa Italia win against Palermo.
He has made four substitute appearances in the league, the most recent of which was against Juventus.
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And it was in this game that his performance didn’t impress Kosta Runjaic, the German manager of Udinese who currently has them sitting ninth in the table.
And when questioned about Miller, for whom there is a lot of excitement among Udinese fans, he was pretty blunt in his response.
He said: “Lennon played a lot of football last season. So I wanted to test him against Juventus because they are a great team.
“He could have done better – he lost a lot of balls and that shows to me he needs time to be 100 per cent ready here.”
It shouldn’t be a surprise that a 19-year-old from Scotland isn’t ‘100% ready’, but given the promise Miller has showed, Scotland fans will be hoping that he is given further opportunities.
It has been said that Miller would not have had the playing time that he desired had he come to Celtic.
It was a big career choice for the 19-year-old midfielder – we will never know what it would have looked like if he said yes to Rodgers.
Should Lennon Miller have joined Celtic?
Celtic are in the market for players who count as homegrown for Europe – their reported interest in David Watson this week is evidence of this.
Miller’s style of play is probably most similar to Callum McGregor or Reo Hatate – in the Hoops squad a volume passer who can control the tempo of the game.
Celtic currently have six good midfielders in their squad, so breaking in would not have been easy for Miller.
But it could still be argued that the Hoops’ style of play could have suited his strengths, as would the ability to learn from McGregor.
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