OPINION
Robbie Savage confessed that even if Celtic had come calling for him during his Premier League career then he would have snubbed their interest.
The outspoken pundit was asked whether Champions League football would have tempted him to make the move north and he dismissed the idea that would have been enough to lure him.
“Jason I’m staying in the Premier League, well I wanted to get in the Champions League with the clubs in the Premier League like Blackburn who finished sixth,” said Savage on BBC Radio 5 Live, as seen in a clip uploaded to the radio station’s Twitter account.
“Listen I never got in the Champions League, but in my opinion, I might be wrong, you ask Hartson or Chris Sutton they will disagree.
“I was with Hartson today and the five years he had at Celtic were the best ever, they went to Anfield and won in the Champions League or Europa League, they got to a Europa League.
“But it’s my point of view that if I had an opportunity, which I did as a player, to play at Highbury, to play at Old Trafford, to play at Stamford Bridge on a regular basis or go and play against Hamilton, Livingston, Dundee or Falkirk…I’m taking the Premier League everyday of the week.”
While Savage’s remarks are sure to have some debating whether he really would have ignored the chance to play in the Champions League if it had emerged, it does seem like a view held by many.
Celtic are a massive club with a long legacy and given that they regularly qualify for the Champions League they should be attracting top-quality players in the transfer market.
However due to the view on Scottish football being less than glamorous, it seems they’re not attracting the type of players they should be.
Celtic have struggled in European competitions for the last couple of seasons with them crashing out in the early rounds, and the only way that is going to change is if a higher quality of player is recruited.
Yet given that Savage’s view is likely held among Premier League players in England to this day and other top leagues around Europe it shows the major hurdle Celtic face when it comes to getting the players they need.
It is an aged-old problem for the Hoops and if Champions League football isn’t enough to lure players, that just leaves them with the option of trying to throw money to attract stars.
However sometimes that attracts the wrong sort of player and it isn’t a healthy way for a club to be run that way, regardless of whether they can afford to chuck cash at their problems.
Therefore it seems Savage’s honest confession, if arguably a little bit disrespectful to Scottish football, just shows the aged-old problem for the Hoops isn’t going anywhere.