Luke McCowan recalls deadline day Celtic fears before Hoops transfer pivot
Luke McCowan has revealed his fears when he was told on deadline day that Celtic were NOT coming for him.
The former Dundee captain recalled the moment boss Tony Docherty called him early that morning to explain how the Hoops were not one of the clubs chasing his signature on the last day of the transfer window. It came as a major blow to the 26-year-old who'd already had his heart set on his dream move.
Celts, at the time, were considering a deal for Alvyn Sanches, as we at Football Scotland revealed, before they spent a record fee on Arne Engels to bring their sizeable spending to an end.
That's when they returned to the table for £1million player McCowan and the midfielder has now detailed how Docherty then broke the exciting news.
"There was interest as we went back for pre-season, but it was only mutual interest; I didn’t know what to say at that time, and I was just hoping that it could actually happen. I said, it’s not something you think about, you just try and do the best you can for the club you’re at," he told the Celtic View.
"Then it was the final day. I got a phone call from Tony Docherty at about half seven in the morning, thinking, ‘What have I done wrong here!’ He said to come in early. I went in early and he told me that Celtic wasn’t there, so I was devastated obviously, I had that idea that right down to the last day, it might happen.
“I went and trained, and when I came back through from training, he pulled me straight into his office and held out his hand and shook my hand and went, ‘You’re going to be a Celtic player’, I was a mess, but then he was like, ‘I found out before training and I seen you diving into tackles in training, I wanted to pull you out.’ But no he was really good in breaking that news to me, and before you know it, I was speaking to Gordon Strachan and people like that who are involved heavily in the club.
“It didn’t go really smoothly, but my heart was going like mad, and we managed to get it done.”