Shaun Maloney has revealed how close he came to joining Aberdeen.
The former Scotland internationalist held advanced talks with Derek McInnes during the summer about a move to Pittodrie.
With Niall McGinn and Jonny Hayes quitting the club Maloney seemed the ideal replacement but stalled on putting pen to paper.
Injury concerns held up the deal while the offer of a coaching job at Celtic proved too good to resist.
“I knew there was an issue with one of my hips and I just had to be honest with the Aberdeen manager,” Maloney told BBC Scotland.
“I’m really glad I told them. That’s my home-town, I still have family there so I couldn’t have gone up there and not told them.
“I’m not missing playing. The last couple of years it became quite difficult physically so I just threw myself into the [coaching] job.
“You have days where training goes really well or doesn’t go well, but the really great day is when you phone a 17-year-old and tell him he’s training with the first team.
“That’s what you dream of from the coaching point of view. As I player I did everything I could to be the best I could be, and I’ll do the same as a coach.”
Maloney is working alongside Tommy McIntyre with Celtic’s Development squad who last week enjoyed a 2-1 win over Anderlecht in the UEFA Youth League.
Ewan Henderson was involved in that victory and made the bench for the first team in the 2-2 draw with Hibs.
With their UEFA Youth League commitments Celtic have only managed two fixtures in the Development League while a number of clubs have played six fixtures.
Celtic are scheduled to meet Dundee at Cappielow next Tuesday in the Development League.