Fresh claim about why Celtic failed to sign John McGinn

Celtic have earned a lot of plaudits for the efficiency with which they have conducted their transfer business in recent windows, since the arrival of Ange Postecoglou. And it truly deserves credit, and is one of the biggest reasons why they have been so successful following the disaster that was the 2020/21 campaign.

At the same time though, one has to remember that this was not always the case and instead, the way that the club conducted their transfer business was one of the biggest complaints that the fans had in recent years.

One of their biggest transfer failures in recent years was their inability to bring John McGinn to the club from Hibernian. Being a boyhood fan of Celtic, the player was believed to be more than happy to make the move to Parkhead but as the transfer stalled, he would end up at Aston Villa instead and the rest is history.

Now, fresh questions have been raised though about whether then manager Brendan Rodgers was convinced by the technical ability of McGinn. As reported by the Daily Record, Peter Grant said on Sportsound:

"“People talk about the Celtic scenario and them missing out on John. That was always my worry for John when Brendan was there, that Brendan Rodgers didn’t push the boat out as he didn’t think he was technically good enough to play in his side.“So it wasn’t the fact that Celtic didn’t want him, it was maybe the fact Brendan perhaps thought he’d slow the game down or technically wasn’t as good. Do you think that’s maybe one of the reason they never pushed the boat out on him?”"

Fresh claim made about Celtic’s failed attempt to sign McGinn from Hibernian

Was Rodgers not convinced by McGinn? Well, the only person who would know the answer to that is the Northern Irishman himself.

What we all know though is that it proved to be a massive mistake on the part of Celtic. McGinn went on to join Aston Villa and has established himself as a star in the Premier League, and become one of the Scotland national team’s key players.

He could have been the long-term successor to Scott Brown at Celtic, only if they had moved with a bit more efficiency. But that’s in the past and all we can do is look towards the future, although there is still the lack of a player who can fill the Broony role.