“The phone will be off the hook. The world will be his oyster,” Ryan Christie’s former Inverness Teammate

The former Inverness Caley Thistle player Danny Williams – an ex-team-mate of Celtic’s Ryan Christie – reckons that the Celtic midfielder is destined for a successful career in the English Premier League. And he’s assessed the qualities of the Celtic midfielder against the likes of Stuart Armstrong, John McGinn and James Maddison and reckons that Christie is the best of the bunch.

Christie is believed to be one of the Celtic ‘Want-Aways’ alongside Odsonne Edouard, Kristoffer Ajer and Olivier Ntcham – who is enduring his own personal misery in his loan spell at Marseille.

All four – and perhaps others – were talked out of leaving last summer by Neil Lennon as Celtic tried to retain their top players for the history-in-the-making push for a tenth successive title. That didn’t go at all well and Neil Lennon paid the price when losing his job two months ago, maybe four months too late, if only the club had listened to the support.

Of the four Want-Aways Perhaps Kristoffer Ajer can hold his head up the highest for this season, with Odsonne Edouard also scrapping a pass mark (51% maybe) as we all know he is capable of delivering so much more. Christie, in many supporters eyes, appears to have been playing for himself and his ‘dream move’ all season and it’s interesting to read back on Sandman’s Definitive Ratings after each match that are published on The Celtic Star to observe his thoughts on how these ‘Want-Aways’ have performed.

Over the past few seasons we’ve carried a Player of the Year Poll on The Celtic Star. What we’ve done is get our writers to agree on a short-list of four players and then ask the support to vote, and many thousands of votes have been cast. James Forrest was the winner two seasons ago and last season the players nominated on our short-list were the eventual winner Odsonne Edouard, Scott Brown, Callum McGregor and Fraser Forster. Uncontroversial.

Shortly afterwards – and after French Eddie also won the poll on the official Celtic website – there was an interview in Glasgow Times (formerly known as Evening Times). Charlie somewhat bizarrely moans about Celtic fans not taking to his boy, who was a popular player among the support and pointed out that he’d scored 20 goals that season from 49 games and reckoned had the league campaign not been curtailed his boy would have been a shoe-in for player of the year.

“I think it’s between Ryan and Odsonne,” Charlie told Glasgow Times. “I think Edouard has been tremendous, he’s top scorer and at he has the potential to be top, top notch at any level. He’s a big asset Celtic have on their hands so it’s all credit to their recruitment team for splashing out.

“But Ryan should certainly be in the reckoning. When gongs are handed out I always feel people focus on the second half of the season. That stopped mid-March and Ryan missed four weeks in January with injury, but had the season stopped after six months, I think there would be a strong case for Ryan being player of the year.”

Later, to the same media source, Charlie talked up a move the the English Premier League were he reckoned that his boy would do very well and that’s the same theme that his former ICT teammate Williams has returned to today.

“Players ask who the best you’ve played with is and I always say Ryan,” Williams told Daily Record. “I reckon he could easily play in the Premier League. I look at players like James Maddison, who played in Scotland and is now in the Premier League, and I don’t think there’s any difference.

“He’s easily at that level. I played against the likes of John McGinn and Stuart Armstrong. They are top players as well and you see how well they have done in England. Ryan is every bit as good, if not better,” the ex-Inverness player stated.

“It will be interesting to see what happens this summer. I’m sure he loves playing for Celtic and they are a big club. There is the challenge of the Premier League, which might appeal to him.

“There’s bound to be interest. Ryan will be at the Euros this summer with Scotland and that’s the biggest stage in the world. If he does well, then the phone will be off the hook. The world will be his oyster.”

You could tell he has something special about him as a kid. He just wanted the ball all of the time. Sometimes when youth players come up, there’s a shyness about them – they go into their shell a bit. But there was none of that with Ryan. He was just really confident and even if he gave the ball away a few times, there was never a sense of him not wanting it.

“He wasn’t the biggest but even then he had such a good football brain and a wonderful touch, technical and tactical awareness. He has all the attributes to be a top No.10. Ryan’s had to work hard but you’ve seen his development. Brendan Rodgers was brilliant for him but John Hughes worked wonders with him.

“He loved the team to get the ball down and play football – it really suited Ryan. We had good boys with the likes of Graeme Shinnie and Marley Watkins in the squad. I remember games when you would hear Yogi on the sidelines constantly shouting, ‘Get the ball in to Ryan!’. He used to say he wanted Ryan sick of the ball. He never was though,” Williams added.

“Ryan will deserve whatever comes his way because while he’s got a natural talent, he’s not one of these guys where it all just comes easily. He’s a really hard worker, he’s a grafter. When he came through at Inverness he was quite slight but you can see it’s a part of his game he’s worked hard at as well.

“Sometimes when you get these No.10s, they just expect to be given the ball and then that’s when they can make things happen. But he is a humble lad. He busts a gut in training and on the pitch.

“He’s an individual talent but he’s a real team player. I know Celtic don’t have a manager at the moment but whoever comes in would be daft if they didn’t want him to stay. I’ve also no doubt there will be clubs watching him, so anything could happen.”

Tell us what you think about Ryan Christie. Should Celtic try to keep him, or is it best for both parties to allow him to follow the same path as Stuart Armstrong from smaller Scottish club to the English Premier League via a stint at Celtic? Do you agree with what Charlie Christie had to say last summer?  Email your thoughts to editor@thecelticstar.co.uk or alternatively Celtic Supporters can post your comments below.

Incidentally Celtic’s Player of the Year poll is currently running on the official Celtic website and Ryan Christie is one of the player nominated. We’ll do something a little bit different this year – given the way the season has gone. More on that after the game at the weekend at Ibrox…