Celtic have signed a lot of top stars over the years and a former Liverpool and Arsenal player has revealed that he was in talks with the Hoops during Brendan Rodgers’ time as the club’s manager. But a move never materialised as the club ended up signing someone else.

The player in question is Jermaine Pennant, who played for a number of big clubs around England through the course of his career, including Liverpool, Arsenal, Leeds United, Birmingham City, Stoke City and quite a few others.

It looks like a move to Celtic was very much on the cards at one point of time as well and the player himself was interested in experiencing what it was like to play for the Hoops and in Scottish football, but it did not end up happening.

While speaking on the Open Goal Podcast and as reported by 67 Hail Hail, Pennant said when asked whether he nearly signed for Celtic:

“Yes. I can’t remember the year but it was Brendan Rodgers.

“I think it was when my contract was coming to an end at Stoke and I was in talks with Celtic. But I think that someone else signed so that deal kind of dropped off.

“I love experiencing different things which is why I went to Spain. I thought Celtic would have been perfect for me at that time in my career. To sample the rivalry with Rangers and Scottish football I thought was something I could look forward to. And it’s not far from home. I didn’t speak to Rodgers but my agent did.”

The former Liverpool and Arsenal player reveals he held talks with Celtic

Pennant does appear to get the timeline a bit mixed up on this though. He left Stoke City back in 2014 while Rodgers would not become the Celtic manager until 2016.

Whatever maybe the case, it was definitely towards the last few years of his career and as a result, one has to wonder kind of an impact he would have made even if he would have ended up signing for the Hoops.

Pennant would go on to retire from the game not too long afterwards. On the other hand, Rodgers enjoyed a brilliant spell at Celtic, and it was under him that they became the Treble winning machine that would go on to dominate Scottish football for four straight years. So it is safe to say that things worked out when it comes to Celtic.

This article was originally posted here