Many Celtic fans thought the Kieron Bowie rumours were put to a close when he joined Hellas Verona in January.
The then-Hibernian forward had long been linked with a move to Celtic Park, but life in Italy didn’t go as planned for the 23-year-old.
Bowie was relegated with Hellas Verona, who finished 18th in Serie A on 21 points, 17 points from safety, which shows the mess he walked into.
Nonetheless, with the Bowie and Celtic rumours re-emerging, 67 Hail Hail has taken a look at how he performed during his six months in Verona.
Kieron Bowie to Celtic… yes or no?
Kieron Bowie struggled to save Hellas Verona’s sinking ship
When Bowie signed for Hellas Verona in the winter, they were rooted to the bottom of the Serie A table on 14 points, and they were four points from safety.
They would only pick up seven points from that situation onwards, with Bowie starting 14 matches and suffering a painful nine defeats in the process.
However, it needs to be noted that Bowie was joining a sinking ship. When the Scotland star netted his first goal in the comeback win over Bologna in February, it ended Gialloblù’s 12-game winless run.
Another one of Bowie’s standout moments came against the champions Inter at the San Siro. Bowie would score a brilliant solo goal to snatch an unlikely point for his side, but they were down and out by then.
| Games | Goals | Big chances missed | Big chances created | Top speed |
| 14 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 35.6 km/h |
A star in the making for Celtic?
Yes, on paper, Bowie suffered relegation, but he still got plaudits for how he went about his work, and this shouldn’t be off-putting for Celtic.
It probably shows that he has fight in him when the chips are down, and that sort of mentality is more than welcome at the champions of Scotland.
What’s interesting is that in March, Serie A expert Andy Brassell was backing Bowie to earn a call-up to Scotland’s World Cup squad. That knock didn’t arrive from Steve Clarke.
But Bowie was still being lauded by Brassell’s, who told talkSPORT that ‘there is a player there’, despite the player walking into a club whose confidence was on the floor.
“I think it has been super difficult for him because Verona are not quite sunk but are pretty close to it,” said Brassell in March.
“The fact that he is off the market at last is great. He has come into a team that has been absolutely desperately low on confidence. But a team that I think are a little bit better than their results globally suggest.
“I have seen a fair bit of Kieran Bowie at Hibs, and I really liked him there as well – Even though Bowie was not relentlessly consistent with Hibs, there was enough to suggest that there is a player there.
“With the right coaching, with the right development, with the right team around him, he can become a really good player. He is already showing signs of that.”
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