DEDRYCK BOYATA can become a top international player for Belgium, under the careful guidance of Ronny Deila and his coaching staff at Celtic.
Boyata signed on at Paradise earlier this month for the next four-years, arriving from Manchester City. The player was top of Deila’s summer shopping list after the departure of loan signing Jason Denayer who enjoyed an outstanding season in the Hoops, winning Scotland’s Young Player of the Year award.
Earlier today ex-Rangers player Neil McCann claimed on Sky Sports that Danny Wilson had snubbed Celtic and the chance to play in the Champions League in order to sign for The Rangers. The player had previously played at the former Ibrox club but like McCann supported Celtic as a boy.
CQN Magazine broke the story that Celtic had scouted Wilson, last season’s captain of a Hearts side that romped the Championship ahead of second place Hibs. Amid increasing speculation, Deila admitted that Celtic were interested in the player for a possible vacancy in the squad in central defence but added that he was being considered on a shopping list of potentials.
Wilson, maybe a little over eager to make it to Paradise, utilized a get-out clause from his Hearts contract and awaited developments from the East End of Glasgow. This all was happening round about the time Motherwell were humping The Rangers 6-1 to ensure that the new club would have to await at least another year to try to reach the top Scottish league for the first time.
Deila headed a Celtic party that travelled to Manchester to meet Boyata. Celtic Chief Executive Peter Lawwell was present as was assistant manager John Collins. Celtic enjoy an extremely good relationship with Manchester City and discussions with Boyata went very well. When the player arrived in Glasgow to sign on for the 4IAR Champions, Celtic’s interest in signing Danny Wilson came to an end, much to the player’s disappointment.
To be fair to Wilson, he refused to comment on what actually happened in his discussions with Celtic. Today Celtic confirmed on the official website that NO offer was ever made to sign the player. So clearly Neil McCann was mistaken.
Meanwhile Ronny Deila is clearly excited about working with Boyata. Relaxed having just returned from a sunshine holiday in the Canary Islands Ronny said of his first choice signing target: “He is a great talent who has a very high ability.
“He needs matches now to get to match fitness and our task is to get his potential out and I think that if we can do that we have a top international in our squad.
“But with Dedryck, like everyone else, they need time to adapt and settle in and get used to the way we want to play football.
“He has a lot of experience at being at a big club. He hasn’t played so many games but he knows what it’s about being at a big club and he has trained with, and seen, the best players for so many years. So he is very hungry to play games and get out his own potential and we are going to help him do that.”
Referring to the disappointed Danny Wilson Ronny gave this as an explanation:
“We have a lot of options at Celtic,” Deila explained. “We went for Boyata at Manchester City and we are very happy with that. We only needed one central defender and we got our first choice.
“We have a lot of central defenders and, if we can keep what we have, we don’t see any reasons to get one in,” he said.
“Charlie Mulgrew and Mikael Lustig back in full training now and that’s like two new signings.
“We have Dedryck in now and he is a great talent.
“He has high ability, but he needs matches and our task is to get his potential out.
“If we can do that, we have a top international player.”
So Danny Wilson was scouted, considered and may well have been signed had Celtic failed to get their number one target Dedryck Boyata. Having perhaps jumped the gun in leaving Hearts he probably thought that he was Celtic bound or at worst he’d be able to join The Rangers who at that time were favourites to win the play off final with Motherwell. Boyata’s decision to come to Celtic and Motherwell’s 6 goal hammering of The Rangers means that Wilson is destined for at least another year playing with the also rans of Scottish football.
That, Neil McCann, is the truth. Oh and Wilson got closer to a Celtic deal than you ever did.
