West Brom striker Charlie Austin has revealed that Celtic have shown an interest in him in the past and admitted he would move to either one of the Old Firm giants if the opportunity arose in the future.
The striker joined Albion from Southampton and was expected to be a key figure for Slaven Bilic’s side in their quest for promotion. However, he has only scored eight goals and many of his 26 appearances in the Championship, particularly over the past few months, have come from the bench.
So, whilst there’s no speculation surrounding his future right now, that could change if Austin doesn’t receive more minutes. And, he told Open Goal Sport that moving north of the border to one of the Glasgow giants and sampling the ferocious derby would certainly appeal.
“The Old Firm derby is the pull isn’t it to play in Scotland. You want to win things as such too. If the opportunity came up would I go? I think so yeah.”
Would you sell Charlie Austin in the summer?
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The 30-year-old also explained how that may have already happened, with current Celtic chief Neil Lennon registering an interest in the ex-Swindon Town man during his previous spell in charge at Parkhead, when the attacker was at Burnley.
“I remember coming into training and Neil Lennon did an interview on Sky Sports saying ‘he’s someone that we’re looking at‘.
“I was on the phone to my agent saying, ‘look is this going to happen?’ It’s something that I would have done. At the time, it was just me, my missus and my one child and I said, ‘let’s go’. But nothing ever materialised after that and nothing has since.”
Austin has enjoyed a good career since leaving Turf Moor though, initially moving to QPR where he scored a hugely impressive 49 goals in 89 games, with 18 of those coming in one season in the Premier League. That brought a switch to Southampton, although the striker only managed 20 goals in 81 appearances on the south coast. He will now hope to take Albion back to that level though, with Bilic’s side second in the Championship and six points clear of Fulham in the race for automatic promotion.
