Pundit says he ‘begged’ Celtic to sign 29-year-old who is better than Olivier Ntcham and Scott Brown
Every time John McGinn performs for Aston Villa, it wouldn’t be a surprise if many Celtic fans from across the world are thinking ‘what if?!’.
On Saturday, the Aston Villa captain scored the only goal of the game as Unai Emery’s side beat Arsenal 1-0 to break a club-record and win their 15th consecutive Premier League home game.
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It’s an astonishing record for an Aston Villa side sitting third in the Premier League table and now two points behind leaders, Liverpool.
But it could have been oh so different for John McGinn had he moved to Celtic instead – the all-action midfielder wanted the move.
The 29-year-old signed for then-Championship side Aston Villa in 2018 from Hibernian, only after Celtic seemingly refused to put the money on the table for the midfielder’s services – McGinn slammed the ‘nonsense’ he was hearing about Celtic recently.
Tam McManus was sure to bring that up after John McGinn’s winner yesterday, as he claimed on Twitter that he ‘practically begged Celtic to sign him’.
Well, the former Hibs star couldn’t help but stick the knife in because he added that John McGinn is a far better player than Olivier Ntcham, who was at Parkhead at the time of the transfer links.
And he also feels, at the age of 23, John McGinn was better than Celtic hero Scott Brown at that very same age.
John McGinn at Aston Villa
The Scotland international has been on some journey over these last few years and he probably wouldn’t change it for the world.
Only three Villa players, who were part of the club’s promotion to the Premier League, remain in the side today – McGinn himself, Tyrone Mings and academy product, Jacob Ramsey, who was a teenager, at the time.
But McGinn during that period has helped Villa survive in England’s top-flight, stabilise themselves, get into Europe and now possibly challenge for the title.
Not only is he a great asset to Villa, but for Scotland also because he is one of Steve Clarke’s most important players ahead of Euro 2024.
Perhaps that move or transfer to his boyhood club will come one day, but just not yet.
