He was never really at the top of the pecking order for Celtic in his time at Parkhead – but after a superb season in Belgium at KV Oostende, Jack Hendry has shown Celtic fans what they were really missing out on.
Consistently behind Kristoffer Ajer, Filip Benkovic, Christopher Jullien and Dedryck Boyata in his time at Paradise, it is fair to say Hendry never really got a fair crack of the whip. With the talented group of players ahead of him in the queue for the centre-back positions, you can’t really blame Brendan Rodgers or Neil Lennon for not playing the Glaswegian – but after working his way into the Scotland national team, it is a case of what if for Hendry.
Released by Celtic at sixteen, and brought back at twenty-three, Hendry only made 27 appearances for The Bhoys’ over the course of three seasons – which included two loans spells to Melbourne City and his new club Oostende.
Truth be told, Celtic could have done with a centre-back in the ilk of Hendry this summer, given the frailties that Nir Bitton showed, the sale of Kristoffer Ajer and the injury that continues to rule out Jullien. However, the former youth product didn’t look back in his scathing judgement of the Celtic board – claiming they didn’t get in touch with him once over lockdown, which mentally sealed his move abroad.
Speaking to the Daily Record, Hendry claimed it was difficult to go back after being shunned by Celtic bosses.
I wanted to wait until the end of the season and KV were constantly pushing but there was very little communication from Celtic. For me, it was key to be at a club who really wanted me and Oostende went all out to get a deal done.
That convinced me to sign there rather than going back to Celtic with one year on my contract and not knowing what the future was going to hold. Celtic had just missed out on Eddie Howe and there wasn’t great communication on what was going to happen going forward.
It was difficult for me to go back to a club who didn’t have a manager and weren’t really communicating with me. The only feedback I got was when pre-season was restarting, there was very little else.