Very rarely have players represented both Celtic and the Rangers over the years. Also, there are very few who have signed for the Hoops, whose father used to play for the Ibrox club. And yet, there is one in Brendan Rodgers’ current squad. That is none other than Nat Phillips, who was brought in on loan from Liverpool for the first half of the season after a number of centre-backs went down injured.
Cameron Carter-Vickers, Stephen Welsh and Maik Nawrocki are all on the sidelines right now and not expected to return in the immediate future. Thus, it is not hard to understand why the club decided that signing Phillips was important.
The Liverpool defender might not have been playing much at Anfield, but he has shown his quality whenever he has represented the Reds. Celtic fans will be hoping that he does the same in the Hoops as well.
One interesting fact that many Celtic fans will not know about Phillips is that his father, Jimmy, used to play for Rangers. He was at the club for a short while in the late 1980s.
Celtic summer signing’s father used to play for Rangers
As reported by Football Scotland, Phillips said regarding the matter:
"“He was excited for me about the move and excited for me to play games.”"
Thus, it is pretty clear that the Celtic summer signing’s father did not have any sort of problem with his son joining the Hoops. Nat was not even born yet when he played for Rangers. Now, one can only hope that he delivers on the pitch.
There are a lot of expectations from Phillips, to be honest. One could argue that he was Celtic’s most high-profile signing of the summer.
That says more about Celtic’s summer transfer window than Phillips though. There were rumours about marquee signings and record-breaking bids. But none of that ended up materialising.