John McGinn was desperate to sign for Celtic. He said it himself, plainly and without equivocation. Yet here we are, eight years on, and the midfielder’s boyhood club remains without him, not because Hibs were unreasonable, nor because McGinn didn’t want to join, but because Celtic’s board, in a move that is painfully familiar to any Celtic fan watching the club’s transfer dealings over the past two decades, simply assumed the deal would happen eventually.
The facts, as McGinn recounted them on The Overlap podcast, are straightforward enough. In the summer of 2018, the Aston Villa captain, then at Hibernian, wanted to move to Parkhead. Hibs, for their part, made it clear they would not stand in his way, but they also expected to be paid what they considered his value, somewhere in the region of £2m to £3m.
Celtic bid. They met with Brendan Rodgers. They even telephoned McGinn’s grandfather, the late Jack McGinn, a former Celtic chairman, in what appeared to be an attempt to apply familial pressure. Jack McGinn’s response was characteristically direct - if Celtic had the money [which they did], they should pay it; the rest was not his business.
And then, nothing. The deal dragged on for months. By the time Aston Villa came in, Celtic’s hesitation had created the opening the Birmingham club needed. Villa completed the signing within 24 hours. McGinn, the boy who grew up supporting Celtic, left for the English Premier League instead.
The indicative nature of the board’s approach
What makes this episode so telling is not simply that Celtic missed out on a player they clearly wanted and a move that the player had his heart set on. It is the reasoning that appears to have underpinned their hesitation. McGinn himself identified it, saying: “I think they felt that, because I was a Celtic fan, it would just happen. That nobody else would come, and Hibs would crumble.”
In other words, the board seemed to operate on the assumption that McGinn’s loyalty and his family’s historic ties to the club would eventually force a move. They did not need to move quickly, because no one else would seriously challenge for him. They did not need to meet Hibs’ valuation, because sentiment would do the negotiating for them.
This is not a new pattern. It is, in fact, one of the most consistent features of Celtic’s transfer activity over the years - underbidding early, returning too late, and relying on a player’s emotional connection to the club to bridge the gap.
The cost of sentiment over strategy
The consequences of this approach are not abstract. McGinn has went on to become a Premier League regular and, eventually, Aston Villa captain. Not to mention lifting the Europa League trophy last season. Celtic, meanwhile, missed out on a homegrown, quality box-to-box midfielder who knew the club, the league, and the pressure of the Glasgow derby fixture better than most. A player that even to this day Celtic sorely miss!
McGinn’s own assessment is withering in its simplicity, he added: “They’ve done that with quite a few players. I think if I wasn’t Scottish, if I wasn’t a Celtic fan, if they thought a team would come in, they probably would have just done it.”
There is a deeper irony here, one that McGinn himself acknowledged. His family’s connection to Celtic, which should have been an advantage, may have been the very reason the deal collapsed. The board’s assumption that loyalty would guarantee the outcome appears to have bred complacency.
Even now, as Celtic continue to navigate the transfer market this summer, the same patterns have surfaced. The club’s board appears to believe that a player’s desire to wear the Hoops will eventually force a deal through, even when rival clubs are willing to move quickly and meet valuations.
I’m listening to it as I read this. I can’t believe the stuff around Celtic messing him around