Many a Celtic supporter has donned the green and white hoops to make their dreams come true.
Luke McCowan signed in summer and beamed a huge smile as he walked out on the Celtic Park pitch as their newest player.
His agent, Jackie McNamara, pulled the curtain back on the move and explained how happy he was to help the midfielder achieve his dream by joining Celts.
There have been countless players down the years to do it, so it’s rare to hear of a case when a Celtic-mad player turned the club down in order to go somewhere else.
There’s the infamous John McGinn saga – albeit he wanted the Parkhead move – but now former player Steve Evans has revealed he once rejected a move to his favourite club when former manager and Celtic icon Billy McNeill came knocking.
The Rotherham manager was sought after and had the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal sniffing around in a bid to sign him.
Celtic tried to sign Steve Evans
That’s when Cesar and John Clarke went to his door for a personal touch in their own efforts to have him join the club as a youngster.
“I had decided that if I was gonna go away from my Mum and go to England, I’d go to Bolton,” Evans told the Scottish Sun.
“But the guy who took me down there had left to become chief scout at Celtic. I was due to sign for Bolton on the Tuesday and on the Monday I get in from school and my Dad said, ‘Are you out tonight?’
“When he said out he meant you get your ball and go to the garages and play. He said, ‘Don’t go out before 5 because Billy McNeill and John Clarke are coming’.
“They sat there for about two-and-a-half hours and it’s the only decision that I’d say in many years that I didn’t make in terms of football. They left and my Dad asked what I think. I said, ‘one million percent I’ll sign for Celtic’.
“My Dad said, ‘The deal at Bolton was that you’ll get more money just for signing the forms than you’d make in five years’, which was true. And then you sleep on it and I thought, ‘I’m gonna say no to Celtic’…”
Why Steve Evans rejected Celtic for Bolton Wanderers
McNeill and Clarke are giants of Scottish football and were convincing back then for Evans.
But the former Leeds United and Peterborough boss explained further how he managed to knock them back for financial reasons.
“How could I say no to them? I didn’t, I said yes! I had to say no the next day,” Evans added. “I said to my Mum and Dad that I’d go to Celtic but the Bolton financial deal was ridiculous, it was six-figures to sign at 15.
“That was just to sign the form! It was bonkers. Then my Dad started saying you could buy a house and this and that and you couldn’t do that on £250 a week at Celtic.
“My love was Celtic and I would’ve signed for Celtic but I got turned around a little bit. At the end of the day my parents wouldn’t have made me do something I didn’t want to do so it was my decision, I decided Bolton.”
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