David Turnbull has given a remarkable insight into the breakdown of his summer move to Celtic.
The midfielder was approaching his 20th birthday after making the breakthrough at Motherwell, the club that he had spent half of his life with.
Different versions of events emerged in public as Motherwell announced a deal with Celtic while his agent, Liam O’Donnell arranged talks and a deal with Norwich.
In less than a month Turnbull went through every emotion possible as he cut short a holiday, held talks with Norwich, was pictured in a Celtic shirt, trained with his ‘new team-mates’ then found himself in Belgium and London having his knee examined before undergoing surgery that took eight months out of his career.
Normally that sort of detail would be reserved for an end of career autobiography but on You Tube last night Turnbull spilled the beans on virtually every aspect of a summer that he will never forget.
Turnbull explains:
After the season has finished I knew there was interest. It was just kind of rumours, and I went on holiday with a few boys from the team and then when I was over there I started hearing a few bits and bobs about Celtic, how they were going to come in with a bid.
When I was away on holiday there were Celtic fans coming up to me every night, it was a bit too much really. I didn’t fancy it and came home a few days early. That’s when everything started kicking off.
My head was all over the place really but it was an opportunity you can’t really turn down, especially as a young player. It went on for a few weeks, that.
Norwich came in out of the blue as well, I went to the Norwich training ground on the Thursday. My heart was kind of set on Celtic at the start, because they’d been in for so long.
Then I was talking to Stuart Webber from Norwich and he was really good, he was promoting what they’d done with the academy, what they’d done with the first team. He was telling me everything, it was really good. He was making my head turn a little, my head was all over the place.
Me and Liam had agreed that we were choosing that day whether it was going to be Norwich or Celtic. We were sat in an office, just me and him, and Celtic came back with another offer. It something I couldn’t turn down, really.
I drove in with my mum and dad, we went in the back door. I had to sign subject to a medical. I did a few photos about the stadium with the Celtic kit on.
I don’t think there were any spaces in Edinburgh available for any scans and the scanner at the hospital was broken so I had to go down to Manchester that day. I came back up that night for a medical and texted Neil Lennon. He said: ‘come in and do some training tomorrow’. Just some light stuff, get me moving.
So I went in to Lennoxtown on the Saturday. Got my new boots, new running trainers, looking forward to training. I went in, had a meeting with Lennon, spoke to the physio after my medical. He said that something had come up on my left knee but he didn’t think it would be much to worry about. But obviously it was in the end.
That was the Saturday, on the Sunday got a phone call that I had to go to Belgium on the Monday to see a specialist on my left knee. My dad was alright but I was trying to get my mum not to panic about it, and I’m obviously panicking about trying to keep her calm.
Monday morning, I think it was about 6 in the morning, I got to the airport and met Tim, the Celtic physio. I found out just before the flight to Brussels that actually I was going to need an operation. Tim told me, because he’d heard from the specialist.
That was obviously gutting, that was the first time I heard. He just kind of explained everything, showed me the scans compared to my other knee and what was up. I was obviously gutted, it was hard to take in. It was just crazy, really.
I’ve never had any injuries in my life really, no long-term injuries. I’ve trained every day, not missed a day’s training last season. Nothing was hurting either, so it was obviously a shock.
Motherwell wanted a second opinion from another specialist, so I went down to London and saw Andy Williams, the surgeon who operated on me. He was just saying the same stuff really that Peter Verdonk, the boy in Belgium, was saying. That I would need to get an operation, and just try and get it as soon as (possible) after that.
The surgeons told me that I could play on for another five or 10 years and it couldn’t hurt me, but I could go into training and it could go as soon as that. Just snap off really.
What was wrong with me, they said it could happen whenever and it could end my career. That was really hard to take obviously, and once I heard that I knew I had to get the operation.
I was obviously gutted; it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. Getting the operation and that. My agent was still working on it, and I’m sure Motherwell and Celtic were still working on it to try and get something sorted. It was just really down to them, so it was a waiting game.
I found out that I had to get an operation and the deal was kind of done. It wasn’t a great feeling to be honest. It was a hard one to take. It was tough to get my head round, the first few weeks were tough. I didn’t want to speak to many people.
Then obviously coming back to Fir Park, and you know the place well and know everyone, it feels like a home. I saw a few tweets and the Motherwell fans were really great with me.
They were all buzzing I was staying, so that was a good thing to see. It was really good to see all the Motherwell fans coming together, it was really great the support they gave me as well. I’ll never take a day’s training for granted again, I’ll give it all, 100 per cent.
Turnbull is under contract with Motherwell until the end of next season.