Gary Mackay-Steven has claimed that he had no divided loyalties as he watched Celtic beat Dundee United to lift the League Cup.
The winger made his last appearance for United at Hampden- helping Jackie McNamara’s side to a dramatic 2-1 win over Aberdeen.
Two days later he was completing his move to Celtic having earlier agreed a pre contract deal to join uo with Ronny Deila’s treble chasers.
After experiencing the high of signing for Celtic and playing against Inter Milan in the Europa League GMS had to return to Hampden to watch his new club put his old team-mates to the sword.
Sitting in the Celtic end in his club suit with Stuart Armstrong was a strange experience, but after six weeks at the club there was no emotional roller-coaster as he watched Scott Brown raise the trophy.
“I couldn’t feel guilty about it because United’s in the past in terms of my career,” the winger said.
“It was nice to see the boys but I’m a Celtic player now and I never really look back, just look ahead. I’m really enjoying it and I’m glad to be here so while it’s nice to see the United lads and wish them well I’m a Celtic player.
“When we won the League Cup Final Stuart and I did go down and congratulate the lads for winning and obviously kind of consoled the United boys a bit as well.
“It was a strange situation for us because we played the whole competition with United and for Celtic to win was great. We want to win the Treble here and that was the first step to doing that.
“So it was just a case of going down and congratulating the boys while being in the background. I didn’t really speak to an awful lot of the United boys too much.
“What can you say really? You’re trying to say ‘keep going and keep positive’ but it’s kind of difficult but after the last game on Saturday I caught up with a few of them and it was just nice seeing them and wishing them all the best for the season.
“There are a lot of them I’m close ?with and I’m sure I’ll see them outside of football but so far it’s been quite busy, I haven’t had a chance.”
Mackay-Steven scored against United on Saturday as Celtic won 3-0 but will have to sit out the semi-final of the Scottish Cup against Inverness Caley Thistle after appearing for United earlier in the competition.
