PRESTON advisor Peter Ridsdale has laid out the incredible couple of hours which took Ben Davies from almost becoming a Celtic player to a Liverpool signing.
The Englishman who was available on a pre-contract was deep in talks with The Hoops all this week and Preston had been notified of Celtic’s intentions.
Sky Sports went as far as confirming the deal between Celtic and Davies, saying it was concluded.
Fast-forward to Sunday afternoon and Preston get a phone call from an injury-ravaged Liverpool asking about Davies status.
Preston, at that point, had to contact Davies agent to check if a deal had been signed between the defender and the Scottish champions. They were told nothing was done but they had just two hours to sort out a deal or Davies would be signing with Celtic.
“Because it was a pre-contract with Celtic, we weren’t really involved.” rISDALE TOLD SUNSPORT.
“They had, out of courtesy, told us at the start of last week that they were trying to get the deal done.
“But looking at all the media last Friday and Saturday, it was suggesting the deal had been signed.
“So when Liverpool enquired yesterday I had to check the status first.
“We had a window of opportunity of a couple of hours to try and get the deal done with Liverpool before it looked as if he was going to finally sign for Celtic.”
With no deal in place and when Liverpool come calling with much better terms then there’s only one winner. However, had Celtic done their business early because Davies has been available since January 1, this would never have happened.
Our inability to get deals over the line in a timely fashion has proved our undoing plenty of times.
Absolutely disgraceful yet again