Charlie Austin has made the admission he phoned his agent after seeing a Neil Lennon interview on Sky Sports back during the Irishman’s first run as Celtic boss.
Celtic were in the midst of selling star striker Gary Hooper at the time, with the player being courted by Norwich City.
Austin was at Burnley at the time and was scoring regularly for the club.
When the striker heard Neil Lennon had a replacement in mind, Charlie phoned his agent to see if the deal would happen.
Asked on the Open Goal’s Keeping the Ball on the Ground podcast if he ever had the chance to come up to Scotland, Charlie said:
“Celtic when I was at Burnley.
“I think it was at the time when Gary Hooper was linked to leave six months before he went to Norwich.
“I remember coming into training and Neil Lennon did an interview on Sky Sports saying ‘he’s someone that we’re looking at’.
“I was on the phone to my agent saying, ‘look is this going to happen?’
“It’s something that I would have done. At the time, it was just me, my missus and my one child and I said, ‘let’s go’.
“But nothing ever materialised after that and nothing has since.”
Austin signed for QPR on a £4.5m deal later that year and Celtic signed Teemu pukki and Amido Balde to fill the void of Hooper. In the end, both weren’t ready for Celtic and Kris Commons became Celtic’s goal scoring hero that season.
