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His Twitter parody account, which regularly spoke of “Burds” and “Playstations” astonishingly turned out to be genuine and his summer holiday with friends was played out to a disbelieving public when he should have been priming his body for a return to Celtic’s first team.
To the surprise of many, Neil Lennon departed Celtic Football Club in May 2014 and was replaced by Ronny Deila, a young Norwegian with a fantastic reputation for developing players in his homeland. Deila and his assistant John Collins instantly mapped out a vision of their Celtic side and placed a huge onus on conditioning, performance analysis and sports science.
Celtic’s first competitive match under the new managerial team came in the shape of KR Reykjavik in the Champions League Second Qualifying Round. As Callum McGregor scored the only goal of the game in Iceland, Tony Watt was lining up for the reserves against Stenhousemuir.
Regardless of his well-documented problems in Belgium, Watt had still done enough to impress Zulte-Waregem, KV Oostende and Standard Liege and all three clubs were said to be preparing a bid for the 20-year-old.
New manager, Deila, revealed that he had tried to sign Tony whilst in charge of Stromsgodset and it appeared that there may yet be a glimmer of hope for him at Celtic Park. Tony, meanwhile, uploaded images of his new leg tattoo on to Twitter.
Celtic travelled to St Pauli in July 2014 as I had done two years previously and it was in the quarter infamous for the sinful mile that Tony Watt had truly come to my attention. It would also be here, in the Millerntor, that his Celtic career would come crashing to an end.
Ronny Deila picked Watt to start for the first time and played him wide left. As AC/DC‘s ‘Hells Bells‘ rang around the incredible home of St Pauli it occurred to me that a more fitting soundtrack could have been The Specials‘ ‘Too Much Too Young‘. Tony Watt walked onto the pitch sporting a hairstyle aggressively shaved around the back and sides and I wondered if he was perhaps made for a cult club like St Pauli.
Watt played well enough and almost scored but when Celtic won a late penalty, and an opportunity to equalize a first half opener from Christopher Nothe, there was a scene more fitting of a public park on a Sunday morning. Watt instinctively snatched the ball to take the penalty despite Bahrudin Atajic being an apparently pre-determined choice for the spot kick and he was berated from the touchline by an incensed Ronny Deila. Watt was forced to hand the ball over to the Bosnian, who proceeded to loft it high over the bar.
A procession of managers have criticized Tony Watt for his fitness and attitude but he was an exciting young prospect with a composure in front of goal that belied his tender years. There was a sense of sadness and disappointment, if not surprise, when Celtic accepted an offer of around £1.2 million from Standard Liege and Watt signed a lucrative five-year deal with the Belgian side. Like the many expensive foreign imports before them meanwhile, Balde and Pukki monumentally flopped at Celtic Park and the club struggled to recoup the vast amount of their outlay on the pair.
At just 22, Watt signed a year-long loan deal with eighth club Hearts but that didn’t work out either. There may still be an opportunity for him to develop into the player he promised to be just six short years ago.
Sadly, it seems more likely that future generations of Celtic fans will watch reruns of Celtic’s historical victory against the best club side in the world only to ask, “Whatever happened to Tony Watt?”
Listen to “A Celtic State of Mind (EP32) with Neil Lennon” on Spreaker.
