Dundee midfielder Paul McGowan has recently revealed that former Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers had failed to sign Steven Caulker at Parkhead.
McGowan was recently talking on the Open Goal’s ‘Keeping the Ball on the Ground’ podcast and during this, he told that Caulker and Rodgers had fallen out with each other and this led to the former England international not coming to Celtic.
McGowan said that this happened in 2017 and it was Caulker who had rejected the chance to go to Parkhead.
The midfielder said: “Easy. He said, open book, that Rodgers fell out with him. Dunno how true it is, it’s coming from Steven but Rodgers was raging with him.
“What he was getting here [at Celtic] wasn’t making a year of what he was getting at QPR.
“He told Brendan he wasn’t signing and Brendan was fuming at him.”
Now in Turkey
Caulker was at Queens Park Rangers until late 2017, prior to which, he had a brief loan spell at Rodgers’ former club Liverpool, as well as stints at Welsh rivals Swansea and Cardiff City. He was also previously at Tottenham and Bristol City. During his time at Swansea, Caulker was described as someone who was ‘going to be a real star’ by then-Newport County boss Anthony Hudson.
Currently, Caulker is at Turkish club Alanyaspor, joining them in the winter of 2019 after a spell at Dundee, where he joined forces with McGowan.
Would Caulker have been a good signing for Celtic?
He would have been fantastic
I'm glad we didn't sign him
The Englishman has been a regular for his current club, having made 22 appearances in the league. He has scored one goal, picking up five assists as well.
TIF Tactics
During his six months at Dundee, Caulker made only 17 appearances for the club. He had been a regular fixture for them in the second half of the 2017-18 season, playing a total of 12 Premiership games and missing just one outing following his debut.
This suggests that if Celtic had signed him, he could have been a decent squad player for the club. Considering he is a regular at his current club as well, that should be enough to prove that Caulker wouldn’t have been a bad addition to Celtic at all.