The Grass Is Sometimes Greener

Scott Bain delighted to make the loan switch from Hibernian to Celtic.

- Paul Cuddihy

IT’S become a common sight to see players arriving at Celtic Park late into the night on transfer deadline day, ready to commit their futures to the Hoops, but it is altogether rarer for them to turn up wearing the kit of the club they’re leaving.

In Scott Bain’s case, however, there were extenuating circumstances as to why he was wearing his Hibernian tracksuit when he turned up at Paradise late last Wednesday night to seal a six-month loan deal.

It also illustrates the sometimes unpredictable nature of professional football and how circumstances can change with barely a moment’s notice.

The 26-year-old goalkeeper, having joined the Easter Road club on loan at the start of January from Dundee, was with his Hibs team-mates for their pre-match meal ahead of their Premiership game against Motherwell that night when he got the call to head to Celtic Park.

So he headed along the M8 to Glasgow, still wearing his Hibs tracksuit, but very much focused on swapping the green and white of the Edinburgh side for the green and white of the Scottish champions.

And having sealed the move, which is a loan deal from Dundee to Celtic until the end of this season, Bain was able to reflect on how he’d gone from being on the Hibs bench for their game against the Hoops at Celtic Park to being part of Brendan Rodgers’ squad.

Speaking exclusively to the Celtic View, the new Celtic goalkeeper explained: “It’s an opportunity I couldn’t pass up and it’s the chance of a lifetime to come to a club the size of Celtic and work with a manager as good as Brendan Rodgers and a goalkeeping coach like Stevie Woods. This is biggest club in Scotland and one of the biggest clubs in the world, so I just can’t believe that I’m here.