TOM ROGIC may not be playing for Celtic if it were not for a massive stroke of luck according to his former coach Graham Arnold.
The former Central Coast Mariners boss spoke to Socceroos.com ahead of the World Cup and divulged the sequence of events that took Rogic from relative obscurity to the player he is today.
“I remember in December [2012] he came to me,” Arnold recalled.
“We actually played Sydney FC, he got sent off and he said ‘can I go for a trial with Celtic in the UK?’
“And I said ‘look, I don’t think you’re ready for it yet, I think you should have another six months here in the A-League and finish the season off with us.’
“[Rogic asked] ‘can I have a training experience? I got sent off, I don’t have anything to do the next couple of weeks.’
“So I said yeah, okay. So he went to a Celtic training camp in Spain and I think luckily for Tommy they played 6v6s at training the whole time.
“That was his trial. Of course he killed it and they signed him straight away.”
So had it not been for an unlikely red card, he would never have been allowed to join up with Celtic and become part of history in the past two seasons in particular.
Life without Rogic, it doesn’t bare thinking about!
