Former agent William Glavin has talked about Gary Hooper and the fact that he could’ve returned to Celtic later in his career.
Glavin talked about Hooper when he appeared on an episode of the Celtic Now & Forever podcast and the panel discussed a lot of issues involving the Parkhead-based outfit. They also talked about Hooper and his time at Parkhead. Glavin said that the former striker could’ve returned to Parkhead even after he’d initially left Celtic to join Norwich City.
Hooper had joined Celtic from Scunthorpe in the summer of 2010 for a fee of £2.61 million. After three seasons at Parkhead, the striker left to join Norwich (as per Transfermarkt).
Were Celtic right to try and bring Hooper back?
Yes
Glavin also revealed Hooper loved his time at Parkhead and Neil Lennon had a liking for the Englishman and even tried to bring him to Bolton.
The ex-agent said (47:14): “Gary loved his time at Celtic. There’s been a couple of occasions over the years when he could’ve been back but it just didn’t quite work out. Some people tried to do [it] I remember a few years back actually. And it didn’t quite work out. Neil Lennon was always a big fan of him. Neil Lennon tried to get him at Bolton, when he was there – just couldn’t do it at that time.”
TIF Thoughts on Gary Hooper…
Currently playing in the Indian Super League with Kerala Blasters, Hooper made as many as 138 appearances for the Hoops and Celtic was the club he played the most at.
He scored as many as 82 goals for the club, even picking up 30 assists for them. He won as many as two Premiership titles for the Hoops, winning a couple of Scottish Cup titles too.
Considering how the £720k-rated Englishman has performed in New Zealand and India over the last two seasons, it isn’t a surprise to see why the Hoops wanted him back.