Former Liverpool winger Adam Hammill has revealed that he was once prevented from joining Celtic on a permanent transfer by Anfield boss Rafa Benitez.
After rising through the club’s youth ranks where he was a part of the young Reds side that lifted the FA Youth Cup in 2006, pacy wide man Hammill caught the Hoops’ eye in a loan spell with Dunfermline in the second half of the 2006/07 Premiership season. The ex England youth international netted against Celtic in a 2-1 defeat against Celtic at Parkhead and also helped the Pars reach the Scottish Cup final, where they narrowly lost to Gordon Strachan’s team 1-0 at Hampden.
Hamill, 37, is now winding down the clock with English ninth tier side Maghull, and despite never making a first team appearance for Liverpool, went onto have a successful career with the likes of Barnsley, Huddersfield and St Mirren. But the ex Anfield kid has revealed that he still thinks about what could have been had he been allowed by Spaniard Benitez to make the move north of the border in the summer of 2007. Speaking on the Football Historian Podcast, he said: “I felt it was more beneficial for myself to be playing 30/40 games a season rather than a handful a season.
“I thought that was putting me in better stead for things to come. I was at Dunfermline and I went back to Liverpool I did go straight back on loan (to Southampton) but it wasn’t before Celtic tried to sign me. So they offered money, a million or two. they obviously tried to get me in there on the back of the loan deal I had there (at Dunfermline).
“But Rafa was like: ‘no’. But then rather than talk to me, he just sent me straight out. And you know, I always think to myself, If I would have went and signed there, would it have been different? What would have went on in my career? But you know it’s in the past and obviously I did go onto have a great career for myself.”