Marvin Compper has claimed that he knew from very on that his Celtic career wasn’t going to get off the ground.
In the autumn of 2017 Brendan Rodgers stated that he wanted to bring in an experienced defender after a run of injuries to Erik Sviatchenko, Jozo Simunovic and the retiral of Kolo Toure.
Compper was out of favour at RB Leipzig but seemed to fit the bill and was invited over to Glasgow where he had breakfast with the former Celtic boss and was introduced to the fans during a 2-0 win over Partick Thistle.
Things seemed to head downhill during the winter break in Dubai with the then 32-year-old picking up a knock that ruled him out of contention for the first match of 2018, a Scottish Cup win over Brechin.
Compper’s debut was delayed, eventually he appeared in a Scottish Cup tie at home to Morton but after 83 minutes his Celtic career was over.
“Basically, I did not fit at Celtic,” The Sun reports. “I was told very early on that I wasn’t in their plans. That was a pity for me but I kept on training and being professional. I still wanted to contribute and the way I did that was to pass on my experience to the younger players.
“I was under contract with Celtic until 2020 and I could have stayed and not played, but I didn’t want to do that. I would have been 35 by the time I left and I would have found it hard to find another club. I wanted to sign for a club where I could play football again. I wanted a club who needed my experience.”
Earlier this month Duisburg announced the signing of Compper in a player-coach role but as Celtic continue to look for solutions in defence his 18 months in Scotland become an even bigger mystery.