Karpaty Lviv sports director Oleg Smaliychuk has lifted the lid on Marian Shved and his deal at Celtic which hasn’t gone to plan.
Smaliychuk revealed the winger was also wanted by Genk and in the end, they left it up to Shved to make the call himself.
He obviously picked Celtic, and Karpaty were happy to go along with the player’s wishes.
Shved was loaned back to his club for the rest of the season once signing for Celtic then joined Celtic in April last year to begin his career in Glasgow.
It hasn’t gone to plan at all for the midfielder who has struggled to make matchday squads.
Smaliychuk and Shved are still very good friends and speaks regularly. The sporting director claims Shved has told him how good the Celtic team is and how hard it’s been to try and get game time.
The biggest takeaway from Smaliychuk’s comments is the part about Celtic were set to send Shved out on loan to another Scottish side in January but then pulled the plug on the deal.
Smaliychuk told SUNSPORT: “Marian has very strong qualities as a player and as a person. He never looks for excuses.
“If you asked 99 per cent of Ukrainian players why they weren’t playing, they would say the manager is bad, their agent was rubbish, or the pitch isn’t good enough. Anything.
“But when I asked Marian about Celtic he just told me he was trying as hard as he possibly could, but there are so many good players at Celtic.
“He told me they are a big club and have an excellent selection of players.
“When the time came for him to move, he had an offer from Belgium too.
“I gave him a list of pros and cons of moving to Genk or Celtic and told him to make a decision, along with his father.
“I thought he made the right choice, but how was he to know Brendan Rodgers would leave straight away?
“Celtic were also going to loan him to another club in Scotland, but changed their minds too.
“Genk actually offered more money than Celtic, but we gave him the choice and he chose Celtic.
Looking back and knowing what we know now, he may have made the wrong choice.”
Who did Celtic have lined up for Shved and why was the deal pulled?
