Scott Bain has lifted the lid on the frantic deadline-day move that took him to Celtic, admitting he effectively volunteered for the transfer after seeing the club linked with Trevor Carson on Sky Sports News.
The goalkeeper, then on loan at Hibs from Dundee, recalls spotting Celtic’s interest in Carson and immediately getting in touch with his representative.
“I saw it on Sky Sports News that they were going to sign him, so I just texted my agent. I said, ‘I’ll come,’” Bain explained. [Open Goal]
His agent initially thought the move was impossible because Bain had already been registered with two clubs that season, but the keeper hadn’t actually played for Hibs at that point.
Celtic’s pursuit of a new goalkeeper dragged on, prompting Bain to push again. “I think they were hung up on the fee, so it was taking a wee bit of time. So that’s when I texted my agent and said, ‘Tell (Stevie) Woodsy I’ll come,’ just as a brass neck,” he said.
What followed was a chaotic deadline day as Bain tried to prepare for a Hibs home match against Motherwell while his future was being thrashed out in the background. “The next day, it was on, it was off. I was on my phone all day,” he recalled.
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“I’m at pre-match, and I’ve not got a clue what’s going on for the game. My phone’s going, I’m answering the phone. It’s off, it’s on.”
Neil Lennon eventually called him into his office at Easter Road and effectively waved him off to Glasgow, telling him he couldn’t stand in his way because it was Celtic and insisting he would love it there.
Still wearing his Hibs tracksuit, Bain jumped in the car, met his agent on the motorway and headed straight to Celtic Park, where he turned up in his Hibs gilet to a waiting media pack.
The switch itself was part of a complex three-way deal that saw Bain return to Dundee on paper, Simon Murray move from Hibs to Dundee, and Scott Allan go back to Celtic before joining Hibs.
The paperwork, Bain says, wasn’t completed until just before the deadline – and he is convinced that if he had gone home to get changed, the transfer might never have happened.
He would go on to spend around seven and a half years at Celtic, admitting he was “pretty nervous” on the drive through but insisting he loved his time at the club despite a difficult final year.
