‘Sign him blind’ – Celtic were told to sign Rangers hero

Celtic and the Rangers share arguably the most intense rivalry in all of football, and are expected to compete over every domestic title in Scotland this time as well. However, this rivalry is not only limited to on the field action but in the transfer market as well, with the two clubs often being linked with the same players.

Benjamin Siegrist is a great example of a player who was linked with both Glasgow giants, but ended up signing for Celtic ultimately.

And it looks like Celtic were made aware of Malik Tillman, before he ended up joining the Rangers on loan from Bayern Munich.

The 20-year-old has been a hit at Ibrox till now. He scored the goal third goal against Royale Union SG, which secured the Rangers’ qualification for the play-offs of the Champions League qualifiers, where they will face PSV Eindhoven. The Bayern Munich loanee then found the back of the net against St Johnstone as well in their latest Premiership game. Thus, the question arises – have Celtic missed a trick here?

Celtic were told to sign Tillman before his move to the Rangers

Former Celtic player, Mark Fotheringham, had told Celtic’s European scout to sign Tillman. As reported by The Scottish Sun, he said:

"“I’ve known about him for a while. When I was at Ingolstadt I recommended we took him from Bayern Munich on loan.“Their reserve team plays in the Bundesliga second tier and it’s packed with top-quality players like Tillman.“Unfortunately, we couldn’t get anything done. He would’ve been fantastic for Ingolstadt.“Now I just wish he was at Celtic. I know their European scout and bumped into him last year at a Greuther Furth game — and I told him all about Tillman.“I actually said, ‘Mate, sign him blind. Trust me, he’s a great player who’d be perfect for Celtic’.“He had been asking me about another player, a boy called Filip Bilbija who I’d coached at Ingolstadt. Now, he’s also a great talent and actually joined Hamburg a few months ago on a free transfer.“I’m convinced after two seasons he’ll move to a Bayern or Red Bull Leipzig.“Anyway, my conversation with him turned to Tillman.“I don’t know what happened afterwards, whether he passed on my comments to the first-team management or made up his own mind on the boy. It doesn’t matter now.“He actually said, ‘Yeah, we like him’. But I’m disappointed nothing happened.“At the time, he seemed more interested in Bilbija. Fair enough, he’s quality too.“But I believed Tillman was a big opportunity missed.”"

There is no denying the fact that Tillman has made a bright start for the Rangers and is making a difference for them.

But Celtic should not worry too much about missing out on him as they have a tremendous squad going into the 2022/23 season.

The Hoops have won both their league games of the season till now as well and have a couple of very good options in attacking midfield in the form of Matt O’Riley and David Turnbull. And if recent rumours are accurate though, they are looking to make another addition in the middle of the park.