Millwall playmaker Barry Bannan has admitted that the biggest disappointment of his career is never playing for Celtic…
The former Sheffield Wednesday talisman, who made a January move to the London club after 11 years at The Owls, has long-standing ties to the Hoops, having been part of their academy setup in the early 2000s before his switch to Aston Villa.
Reflecting on nearly two decades in professional football, the 36-year-old ex-Scotland midfielder said that missing out on playing for Celtic remains the only real blemish on his otherwise successful career.
Speaking via Total Media, Bannan said: “Obviously, my dream was to play for Celtic, growing up as a kid. That was maybe my only regret in life is that I never [played for Celtic].”
“When I signed for Aston Villa, I was training for Celtic. I could’ve gone to Celtic, but – long story short – where I was brought up in Scotland was a really rough area. We lived in a council flat, and I shared a room with my brother.
“And that area was full of drugs, drink, addiction… my Dad was a really good footballer, but he liked the drink too much. He was at Celtic, and they came to pick him up on a Saturday. He must’ve been 16, 17 maybe. They knocked on the door, and my Gran, who has passed away now, opened up the door and the guy had Celtic stuff on.”
Bannan added: “He said ‘we’re here for James to go and play today, he’s got a game for us’. She was like, ‘he’s in the pub’. He was 16 at the time! So the guy was like, ‘Oh well, we’ll come back for him next week.’ They never came back for him.”
“So he saw how he fell away, and he knew it was down to that area. He can obviously say no; he didn’t know how I was going to grow up. I might’ve gone that way; he might’ve taken me out of it. So they didn’t want me in that area; they didn’t want me making the same mistakes that he made.”
“So that’s a little bit of a regret, but then again, I look back and say, ‘Would I have been the same as him?’”
Conor Spence
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