Celtic tried to sign former Rangers centre-back

In recent years, Celtic have not really been active when it comes to signing players from other Scottish clubs. Instead, they have spread their scouting network far and wide, to mixed results one must add. The last player that the Hoops signed from a Premiership rival was David Turnbull, who joined from Motherwell. That was in 2020. Benjamin Siegrist had been at Dundee United the season before his arrival but had become a free agent.

That was not always the case though. Not too long ago, Celtic would sign players from other Scottish teams regularly.

It looks like they had an interest in a Hearts player almost a decade back. He had come through the youth ranks at the Rangers and played for the Ibrox club as well before making a move to Liverpool. Ultimately, nothing materialised.

The player in question is Danny Wilson, once considered one of the best talents in all of Scotland. It looks like there had been some interest from Celtic at one point in time in signing him, but he ended up making a return to Rangers later on.

Celtic tried to sign former Rangers centre-back

As reported by The Scottish Sun, Wilson said about the Celtic interest in him:

"When I was leaving Hearts to go back to Rangers, I think there was Celtic interest. Would I have been prepared? You don’t know until you’re put in that position."

It was for the best that Wilson did not end up at Celtic Park. His time at Ibrox was nothing remarkable and he would find himself playing for the Colorado Rapids not too long afterwards. Today, he is in the Scottish Championship, representing Queen's Park.

Wilson's career could have turned out a lot differently. He had made a brilliant start at Ibrox but ended up joining Liverpool after a fantastic debut campaign for the Rangers. Things never fell into place for him at Anfield and it felt like he never recovered his confidence after that spell.