Alan Stubbs has intimated that he can’t believe that former Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers didn’t force through a move for John McGinn. McGinn, 28, was playing his football at Easter Road during the summer transfer window of 2018 and the Hoops were keen on a move for the midfield dynamo to freshen things up for the coming season.
Left to right Scotland’s John McGinn,captain Andrew Robertson and Kieran Tierney celebrate after scoring during the friendly match between Austria and Scotland at Ernst Happel stadium in Vienna, Austria on March 29, 2022. (Photo by JOE KLAMAR/AFP via Getty Images)
Brendan Rodgers had the Scotland international on his list of key targets but Peter Lawwell was hellbent on having a showdown with Rod Petrie and it put an end to our chase when Celtic dithered on the asking price, before Aston Villa and Steve Bruce stepped in to steal the ex-St Mirren man away from under our very noses.
Villa, who were chasing promotion to the English Premier League at that time saw the young Scotsman as a bargain for the reported £2.75 million price and he hit the ground running in the Championship that year. After helping the Villians regain access to the riches of the top-flight down south, he has went from strength-to-strength at Villa Park and the rest they say, is history.
Speaking about the whole fiasco, the former Hibernian boss and Celtic defender said: “The best player I coached and managed was John McGinn at Hibs, as reported by Football Scotland. “He was a pleasure to work with. He had a fantastic attitude, always desperate to play at the top level. Celtic were interested and I still don’t know why Brendan Rodgers didn’t make that deal happen because the fee would have been lower than the fee we would get if he went to England.
“I told Everton to make the investment because I knew he would be a very good player and they could get him for £3m. What’s he worth now? £40m plus? Typical Everton, they didn’t do it and now Aston Villa are reaping the benefits. I spoke to Everton when it became clear that Leann Dempster (chief executive) was looking to lure one of the big boys to come and sign him.”
The failure to sign McGinn through ego and posturing on behalf of out now Chairman and former Chief Executive, Peter Lawwell, will forever remain a black stain on his legacy amongst the countless other misdeeds that sabotaged our club. Rodgers and Lawwell’s relationship had deteriorated at the time of the John McGinn transfer saga, but even so, Lawwell must have known he would have given Celtic years of service. He many even have bagged us a small fortune.
I'm a Garngad Bhoy through and through. My first ever Celtic game was a friendly against Italian side Parma at Celtic Park, in 2002. Currently a student of English Literature and Education at the University of Strathclyde for my sins. Favourite game would be a toss up between beating Manchester United with that Naka freekick, or the game against the Oldco when Hesselink scored in the dying seconds. I'm still convinced Cal Mac is wasted playing that far back.
