The summer transfer window will bring a multitude of stories linking Celtic to various players as Brendan Rodgers looks to strengthen the team for next season.
We have already discussed how Celtic have been actively searching for Joe Hart’s replacement as the majority of the headlines have been taken up with Rodgers’ goalkeeper search.
Indeed, there are likely to be a number of signings made by the club as they pursue Paulo Bernardo and Adam Idah so this this summer is going to hold a lot of interest for the Celtic fans.
But with the transfer window speculation also comes chatter about past deals that Celtic never managed to get over the line.
We all know the infamous John McGinn and Ivan Toney stories but this next one is likely to surprise the Celtic fans.
Jimmy Bullard regrets not moving to Celtic
Jimmy Bullard is remembered as a player probably more for his hairstyle and his no-nonsense style of football.
A bit of a journeyman, the former Premier League footballer signed for nine clubs over his professional career which included West Ham, Fulham and Hull City.
However, it was back in Neil Lennon’s first tenure as the Celtic manager that Bullard has shared how he almost signed, and clearly now regrets not, singing for the Scottish giants.
Bullard said [Open Goal], “They wanted to do a loan deal. So we went up there and in a loan deal we didn’t really know Hull paid half and Celtic paid half [of the salary].
“But we went up there and they sold the dream. Lenny sold the dream to me and the old man talked about the keeper that he was on this and that.
“They were going to give me the number 10 jersey and they put it on me heavy and my dad says, ‘If you’re paying the keeper that, why is Jim getting this? You don’t give him the number 10 to get less than the keeper. Let me do a deal with you and I’ll go back to Hull and do a deal with Hull’.
“And Lenny was like, ‘I don’t think it works like that Mr Bullard’. Anyway, the old man asked [for a salary] and the director fell off his chair.
“I asked for big chunks, it didn’t happen but I should’ve gone. I should have gone. I’ve never played for a huge club.
“I played for some good football clubs but never for that huge club that we always wanted to play for. It grates on me, I should’ve done it.
“My Mrs was pregnant at the time but there were a few things [why the deal didn’t work out]. I always like to use that money story but that wasn’t the huge crux of it.”
At that time (which I’m guessing was the 2010 season), Celtic had Scott Brown, Joe Ledley, Ki Sung-Yeung and Beram Kayal at the club. Where Bullard would have fitted in was anyone’s guess but I’m guessing that as Kayal and Ki joined that summer, then Celtic may not have signed either one of them.
Could Bullard have made it at Celtic? Well, he certainly is a confident individual and I am sure that he would have backed himself but Lennon did have a formidable midfield at that time that I think the former EPL midfielder would have struggled to break into.