MARIAN SHVED has revealed his Celtic regrets and the fact he turned down a more lucrative offer to sign for the Glasgow club two years ago.
Genk were very interested in the Ukrainian at the time but the feeling was Shved could get more game time and more exposure playing for Celtic.
The deal almost seemed doomed from the beginning when Brendan Rodgers didn’t even know Marian was signing for the club and commented he had enough wingers at the time. The Irishman obviously disgruntled with what was going on behind the scenes.
Shved was signed and loaned back out to Karpaty for the rest of that season, by the time he came in, Neil Lennon was the full time boss. However, it became clear quickly Neil Lennon wasn’t over enamoured with the young midfielder.
The Celtic manager making it clear the player had to do more in training.
In hindsight, it looks like the winger is pretty introverted and it’s taken him being called out by loan boss at Mechelen for him to integrate better and become a success.
He is now firing for his loan side but asked about Celtic, the Ukrainian believes in hindsight he should have gone to Genk
Confirming a deal was on the table from the Belgian side.
“That’s right yes.” Shved told RecordSport.
“They even made a higher offer than Celtic. But after consultation with my brokers [agent], we ultimately opted for Celtic.
“In retrospect, that may not have been the right choice. If I knew what I know now, I might have chosen the Belgian league and signed with Genk.
“I would love to be here and I also want to help the club (Mechelen) to continue their rise in the rankings but it is too early to talk about a definitive transfer.
“If the clubs can make an arrangement, then I’m definitely willing to listen. I don’t rule out anything.”
“I don’t want to talk about Celtic. I am sitting here now and I am good here. We will see what happens.”
It remains to be seen if Shved could still have a future at the club. It all depends on who is the manager come next season.
Will be written off as a flop when he never got a chance.
Add to Liam Henderson, Ewen Henderson, Karamoko Dembele young players starved of first team chances so we never got to see if they had a long term future.
No wonder our top prospects can’t wait to bail out to Man City or Bayern Munich.