Mancini confirms Celtic interest in Wayne Bridge

Roberto Mancini has confirmed that Wayne Bridge turned down the opportunity to join Celtic during the last transfer window.

With Emilio Izaguirre suffering a broken ankle against Aberdeen Neil Lennon was forced to look at other options at left-back with Bridge one of his options.

Celtic signed Badr El-Kaddouri on loan from Dinamo Kiev on the last day of the transfer window with Mancini puzzled by the attitude of Bridge who he is hoping to offload in the January transfer window.

“Sometimes I don’t understand why there are some players who have a good chance to play football, maybe not in the Premier League but in the Championship,” Mancini explained discussing the Bridge situation.

“For a player it should be important to play football. I don’t know why someone would want to stay at one club when they know they cannot play. When we are young and start to play football, we don’t play for money. We play because we like football and every player should have this target in mind: play football.

“Wayne is a good guy but for every other player it should be important to play. Wayne has had two or three chances (to leave). In the summer he had the chance to play for Celtic, and this is an important team. I don’t know (what he does on Saturdays now)- Golf?”

Manchester City paid Chelsea £12m for Bridge in January 2009 with the former England defender believed to be on wages of £90,000 a week. This season he has only played 78 minutes of first team football- against Birmingham City in the Carling Cup.

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