Luke McCowan says he burst into tears when he found out his move to Celtic was a reality.
The midfielder joined the Hoops from Dundee on transfer deadline day after weeks of speculation over the £1m move. He was announced right at the death and has settled in already, scoring against Hearts in just his second appearance. As a boyhood Celtic fan it was a lifelong dream fulfilled for McCowan and speaking at a JD Sports fan event, he opened up on the day the move came to fruition.
And he says when Tony Docherty pulled him into his office to tell him, he couldn’t help but break down in tears. McCowan said: “I knew about the interest going back for pre-season. I didn’t know what to say at that time, I was hoping it would happen, but you don’t think about it, you just try and do the best you can for the club you’re at.
“On the final day, I got a phone call off Tony Docherty at 7.30 in the morning. I’m thinking ‘what have I done here?’ He told me the Celtic move wasn’t there, and I was devastated, I thought that right down to the last day, it might happen.
“I went and trained, then when I came back from training, he pulled me straight into the office, he shook my hand and said ‘you’re going to be a Celtic player.’ I started greetin’ and everything, I was a mess.
“He told me ‘I’d found out before training, then I saw you diving into tackles, I wanted to pull you out.’ But he was really good in breaking that news to me. And before you know it, I was speaking to Gordon Strachan and people heavily involved with the club. I wouldn’t say it went smoothly, my heart was going like mad, but we managed to get it done.”