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The National
2 days ago
- Health
- The National
Honest Scott Allan on heart condition, diabetes and East Kilbride role
Diagnosed with a heart condition at the age of 29 he entered a state of denial, battling his way back to play for Hibs and Inverness before spending some time going through the motions in front of small crowds at Arbroath. There was a loan spell with Larne in Northern Ireland and a season in League One with Kelty Hearts and only now can he can own up to the blunt truth. He'd known all along that the game was up. Playing football never felt the same again. 'I was determined that heart issue wasn't going to be the final word for me,' he tells Herald Sport over coffee in the Hampden cafe. 'But looking back now I wonder sometimes if I should just have come out at that time. 'I don't think I really enjoyed football after that, if I'm totally honest. 'But you grow up and there's a competitor in you and when somebody tells you something you want to say, 'no'' In September 2020 Professor Sanjay Sharma, one of the world's leading cardiologists diagnosed the then Hibs midfielder with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, a condition which thickens the walls of the heart and restricts the flow of blood. A contributory factor in the deaths of Motherwell midfielder Phil O'Donnell in 2007 and Cameroon international Marc-Vivien Foe in 2003, both lost their lives during matches. Fabrice Muamba's cardiac arrest at White Hart Lane in 2012 was another close run thing. 'He advised me to stop playing,' Allan recalls now. 'The news came at the worst time for me and was hard to accept. But we had come back for pre-season and I felt really breathless with dizzy spells.' Withdrawn from a game against Aberdeen breathless and exhausted after 53 minutes the former Celtic midfielder had coped with the effects of Type One diabetes for most of his life. Instinctively, he knew this was different. Read more: Referred to Hampden for heart screening the results prompted a visit to University Hospital Lewisham where Professor Sharma delivered the news which changed his outlook. The people who paid his wages began to view him differently as well. 'I took a year out the game and after that the narrative around me changed.' He returned after 146 days for Hibs' 3-0 Betfred Cup semi-final defeat against St Johnstone at Hampden. Where his passing ability and creativity had been the selling point for clubs in the past, they had insurance premiums and medical bills to think of now. 'I think by then the senior management at Hibs were a bit like….we'd better get him out the building. 'Doing that would give them one less problem. I definitely felt that at the time. 'Clubs became a bit wary of the health conditions, which I understand. And, looking back, I probably didn't enjoy my football after that.' Herald Sport reminds him of a text message seeking an interview after his move to Gayfield. Unusually, there was no response and he remembers finding it hard to speak about the sudden, unexpected decline in his fortunes. 'I probably felt in my head that once I went to Arbroath that it was pretty much it. 'Trying to motivate yourself when there's not a lot of people in the ground there isn't easy. 'I kind of knew that I was coming to the end and maybe then it would have been the right decision to say, 'enough.' 'Then again, if you do that you might have regrets and, when I look back now, I met some really good people.' He moved to Larne in Northern Ireland and grew close to Kieran Lynch, the title winning coach linked with the St [[Johnstone]] job. Lasts summer he dipped his toe into coaching, taking up a dual player role at Kelty Hearts under Michael Tidser. Tidser left for Dunfermline, he broke his wrist and it began to feel as if the footballing gods were ringing the bell for last orders. Announcing his retirement from playing last week he'll join Mick Kennedy and Si Ferry at East Kilbride, newly promoted to the senior ranks from League Two. He plans to dovetail coaching with media work for Clyde Super Scoreboard and BBC Scotland while looking after a new baby. For the first time in living memory the Allan family took a holiday in July. Punditry offers no guarantee of the kind of adulation he enjoyed during three spells at Hibs. Walking the tightrope between honest analysis and upsetting old friends in the game is tricky and, when he gets the balance wrong, he'll deal with the flak because he's used to it. 'If people want to have a go at me as a pundit I'm used to that. 'When I joined Celtic I grew used to being slaughtered anyway. Every time I left the house I was getting it.' In 2015 Allan, a boyhood Rangers fan, moved to Parkhead after Hibs refused to sell him to their then-Championship rivals. Some took the news a little better than others. 'I'd drive to training and I'd be getting grief at the traffic lights or a look of disgust in the supermarket. 'That gives you a thick skin. You become immune to it after a while. 'Is it normal to reach a point where you just take it? Maybe not. 'But listen, that's the life I chose. And I was grateful for every day I played the game. 'I grew up supporting Rangers, absolutely. But you have to think as a professional. 'And when you look at the health challenges I've faced along the way I can be proud of what I did because I know some amazing footballers who didn't have the career I had.' The *challenges* began when diabetes became an issue while coming through the ranks at Dundee United. Condemned to a life of syringes and eating at certain times of the day life became easier when he moved to [[Celtic]] and became one of the trailblazers for Free Style Libre, a sensor system which allows diabetics to track their glucose levels without the need for finger prick tests. 'Danny McGrain was the only player I knew of at that time who had diabetes. He was a man I looked up to so much. I'd go into Lennoxtown in the morning and he'd be on a treadmill keeping fit. 'I've no idea what age he was at that time but we had a natural bond because of the diabetes. And I'd go and make sure Danny had checked his blood sugars. 'I actually remember his daughter messaging me once thanking me for getting in her dad's ear about fitting the sensor. 'I'm not sure that the diabetes ever held me back, but it had its challenges. 'If your blood sugars were high during the night you would be fatigued the next day. 'That's probably why Jack Ross used to take me off after 60 minutes at Hibs all the time….' Even now dextrose tablets and digestive biscuits are a permanent, monotonous feature of his life. 'I had to take everywhere with me from the age of three. Just incase I went hypo. 'I still have them, they're in my car actually. But you get to a stage where you can't even look at digestives any longer…. 'I've had 30 years of digestives and you get your fill after a while.' His playing career finally over the 33-year-old Scott Allan wishes he'd listened more when he was younger. An early protégé at [[Dundee]] United he joined West Bromwich Albion too soon. When Roy Hodgson then left for the England job Steve Clarke was his replacement and Allan owns up to making bad choices. A move to Crystal Palace collapsed on deadline day after chairman Jeremy Peace moved the goalposts and, when he returned to the WBA reserve team, he threw the toys from the pram. Upbeat and likeable he tries, now, to dwell on the good bit and park the regrets. 'I would drive Nicholas Anelka to training at West Brom and when I think back to that it's nuts. 'He'd say to me, 'I'm going to tell Steve Clarke to play you… 'That didn't work out obviously, but experiences like that are great things to pass on to my son Zac. 'He's a left footed version of me. He's a killer pass type of player and gets up and down and up and down….'' Six years later Allan is still remembered for a pass he made at Ibrox. A sublime through ball sent Daryl Horgan through on goal for the only Hibs goal in a 6-1 thrashing for the slightest of consolations. 'I still get a lot of stick for that and the fact folk still flag it up,' he laughs. 'But Steven Gerrard spoke about it in his post match interview and at the time he was somebody I idolised from my playing days. 'The one thing I will say….I played better during my career.' As a coach at East Kilbride he'll make the transition from thinking only of himself to improving others. On Thursday he conducted the draw for the KDM Evolution Trophy at the National Stadium. Revamped to complement the new SFA Cooperation System, ten Premiership B teams will take part and, as Dundee United swell the number of different nationalities in the Tannadice dressing room to 17, he wonder if he'd have got a game in the Tannadice first team these days. 'The number of Scots coming through to play first team football now is disappointing, there's no getting away from that. 'I never looked past playing for United's first team. 'These days the mindset of kids is completely different. 'At 16 now they're told, 'you'll get a move here or there… 'All I ever thought at that age was, 'can I get into United's first team and get my name on the back of a top with a Clydesdale Bank badge on the sleeve?' That was all I wanted. 'Now it's totally different. So much emerging talent goes straight down south now without playing a first team game.' He has high hopes for East Kilbride prospects like John Robertson and Jack Healy and plans to use his new role as a learning ground for striking out on his own in future. 'I'd like to manage one day but I need to do the work first. I need to make my mistakes and be around people like Mick Kennedy and Si Ferry who can show me a thing or two. 'East Kilbride is an exciting project. Everyone is on the same sheet over where they want to take the club. 'If I was starting out again as a player and you asked me to go and play for any team outwith the Premiership then – in terms of style – it's a no brainer. My answer would be East Kilbride.'
The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- Health
- The Herald Scotland
Honest Scott Allan on heart condition, diabetes and East Kilbride role
There was a loan spell with Larne in Northern Ireland and a season in League One with Kelty Hearts and only now can he can own up to the blunt truth. He'd known all along that the game was up. Playing football never felt the same again. 'I was determined that heart issue wasn't going to be the final word for me,' he tells Herald Sport over coffee in the Hampden cafe. 'But looking back now I wonder sometimes if I should just have come out at that time. 'I don't think I really enjoyed football after that, if I'm totally honest. 'But you grow up and there's a competitor in you and when somebody tells you something you want to say, 'no'' In September 2020 Professor Sanjay Sharma, one of the world's leading cardiologists diagnosed the then Hibs midfielder with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, a condition which thickens the walls of the heart and restricts the flow of blood. A contributory factor in the deaths of Motherwell midfielder Phil O'Donnell in 2007 and Cameroon international Marc-Vivien Foe in 2003, both lost their lives during matches. Fabrice Muamba's cardiac arrest at White Hart Lane in 2012 was another close run thing. 'He advised me to stop playing,' Allan recalls now. 'The news came at the worst time for me and was hard to accept. But we had come back for pre-season and I felt really breathless with dizzy spells.' Withdrawn from a game against Aberdeen breathless and exhausted after 53 minutes the former Celtic midfielder had coped with the effects of Type One diabetes for most of his life. Instinctively, he knew this was different. Read more: Referred to Hampden for heart screening the results prompted a visit to University Hospital Lewisham where Professor Sharma delivered the news which changed his outlook. The people who paid his wages began to view him differently as well. 'I took a year out the game and after that the narrative around me changed.' He returned after 146 days for Hibs' 3-0 Betfred Cup semi-final defeat against St Johnstone at Hampden. Where his passing ability and creativity had been the selling point for clubs in the past, they had insurance premiums and medical bills to think of now. 'I think by then the senior management at Hibs were a bit like….we'd better get him out the building. 'Doing that would give them one less problem. I definitely felt that at the time. 'Clubs became a bit wary of the health conditions, which I understand. And, looking back, I probably didn't enjoy my football after that.' Herald Sport reminds him of a text message seeking an interview after his move to Gayfield. Unusually, there was no response and he remembers finding it hard to speak about the sudden, unexpected decline in his fortunes. 'I probably felt in my head that once I went to Arbroath that it was pretty much it. 'Trying to motivate yourself when there's not a lot of people in the ground there isn't easy. 'I kind of knew that I was coming to the end and maybe then it would have been the right decision to say, 'enough.' 'Then again, if you do that you might have regrets and, when I look back now, I met some really good people.' He moved to Larne in Northern Ireland and grew close to Kieran Lynch, the title winning coach linked with the St [[Johnstone]] job. Lasts summer he dipped his toe into coaching, taking up a dual player role at Kelty Hearts under Michael Tidser. Tidser left for Dunfermline, he broke his wrist and it began to feel as if the footballing gods were ringing the bell for last orders. Announcing his retirement from playing last week he'll join Mick Kennedy and Si Ferry at East Kilbride, newly promoted to the senior ranks from League Two. He plans to dovetail coaching with media work for Clyde Super Scoreboard and BBC Scotland while looking after a new baby. For the first time in living memory the Allan family took a holiday in July. Punditry offers no guarantee of the kind of adulation he enjoyed during three spells at Hibs. Walking the tightrope between honest analysis and upsetting old friends in the game is tricky and, when he gets the balance wrong, he'll deal with the flak because he's used to it. 'If people want to have a go at me as a pundit I'm used to that. 'When I joined Celtic I grew used to being slaughtered anyway. Every time I left the house I was getting it.' In 2015 Allan, a boyhood Rangers fan, moved to Parkhead after Hibs refused to sell him to their then-Championship rivals. Some took the news a little better than others. 'I'd drive to training and I'd be getting grief at the traffic lights or a look of disgust in the supermarket. 'That gives you a thick skin. You become immune to it after a while. 'Is it normal to reach a point where you just take it? Maybe not. 'But listen, that's the life I chose. And I was grateful for every day I played the game. 'I grew up supporting Rangers, absolutely. But you have to think as a professional. 'And when you look at the health challenges I've faced along the way I can be proud of what I did because I know some amazing footballers who didn't have the career I had.' The *challenges* began when diabetes became an issue while coming through the ranks at Dundee United. Condemned to a life of syringes and eating at certain times of the day life became easier when he moved to [[Celtic]] and became one of the trailblazers for Free Style Libre, a sensor system which allows diabetics to track their glucose levels without the need for finger prick tests. 'Danny McGrain was the only player I knew of at that time who had diabetes. He was a man I looked up to so much. I'd go into Lennoxtown in the morning and he'd be on a treadmill keeping fit. 'I've no idea what age he was at that time but we had a natural bond because of the diabetes. And I'd go and make sure Danny had checked his blood sugars. 'I actually remember his daughter messaging me once thanking me for getting in her dad's ear about fitting the sensor. 'I'm not sure that the diabetes ever held me back, but it had its challenges. 'If your blood sugars were high during the night you would be fatigued the next day. 'That's probably why Jack Ross used to take me off after 60 minutes at Hibs all the time….' Even now dextrose tablets and digestive biscuits are a permanent, monotonous feature of his life. 'I had to take everywhere with me from the age of three. Just incase I went hypo. 'I still have them, they're in my car actually. But you get to a stage where you can't even look at digestives any longer…. 'I've had 30 years of digestives and you get your fill after a while.' His playing career finally over the 33-year-old Scott Allan wishes he'd listened more when he was younger. An early protégé at [[Dundee]] United he joined West Bromwich Albion too soon. When Roy Hodgson then left for the England job Steve Clarke was his replacement and Allan owns up to making bad choices. A move to Crystal Palace collapsed on deadline day after chairman Jeremy Peace moved the goalposts and, when he returned to the WBA reserve team, he threw the toys from the pram. Upbeat and likeable he tries, now, to dwell on the good bit and park the regrets. 'I would drive Nicholas Anelka to training at West Brom and when I think back to that it's nuts. 'He'd say to me, 'I'm going to tell Steve Clarke to play you… 'That didn't work out obviously, but experiences like that are great things to pass on to my son Zac. 'He's a left footed version of me. He's a killer pass type of player and gets up and down and up and down….'' Six years later Allan is still remembered for a pass he made at Ibrox. A sublime through ball sent Daryl Horgan through on goal for the only Hibs goal in a 6-1 thrashing for the slightest of consolations. 'I still get a lot of stick for that and the fact folk still flag it up,' he laughs. 'But Steven Gerrard spoke about it in his post match interview and at the time he was somebody I idolised from my playing days. 'The one thing I will say….I played better during my career.' As a coach at East Kilbride he'll make the transition from thinking only of himself to improving others. On Thursday he conducted the draw for the KDM Evolution Trophy at the National Stadium. Revamped to complement the new SFA Cooperation System, ten Premiership B teams will take part and, as Dundee United swell the number of different nationalities in the Tannadice dressing room to 17, he wonder if he'd have got a game in the Tannadice first team these days. 'The number of Scots coming through to play first team football now is disappointing, there's no getting away from that. 'I never looked past playing for United's first team. 'These days the mindset of kids is completely different. 'At 16 now they're told, 'you'll get a move here or there… 'All I ever thought at that age was, 'can I get into United's first team and get my name on the back of a top with a Clydesdale Bank badge on the sleeve?' That was all I wanted. 'Now it's totally different. So much emerging talent goes straight down south now without playing a first team game.' He has high hopes for East Kilbride prospects like John Robertson and Jack Healy and plans to use his new role as a learning ground for striking out on his own in future. 'I'd like to manage one day but I need to do the work first. I need to make my mistakes and be around people like Mick Kennedy and Si Ferry who can show me a thing or two. 'East Kilbride is an exciting project. Everyone is on the same sheet over where they want to take the club. 'If I was starting out again as a player and you asked me to go and play for any team outwith the Premiership then – in terms of style – it's a no brainer. My answer would be East Kilbride.'
NZ Herald
10-07-2025
- Sport
- NZ Herald
Herald Hat-trick am sports quiz – Friday July 11
All Blacks coach Scott Robertson said his side would focus on improving their finishing in the days before the second test in Wellington. Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech. Get all three sports-related questions of varying difficulty (easy, medium and hard) and you claim the Herald hat-trick. Quiz compiled by Cameron McMillan. Want more quizzes? Test your knowledge in the Herald's Morning quiz and Afternoon quiz or take on the latest Sudoku or crosswords. For the latest sporting news head to the Herald Sport page - to keep updated on the All Blacks, Super Rugby Pacific, Black Caps, Silver Ferns, Warriors and other Kiwi athletes.
The National
21-06-2025
- Automotive
- The National
Ford determined to tap into Livingston's Detroit mentality
'Detroit vs Everybody' is more than a slogan on a billboard. More than a mural painted on the wall of a locker room to psyche out nervous quarter-backs. On the streets of the Motor City defiance has become a state of mind. Tommey Walker, a local designer, launched a 'Detroit vs Everybody' fashion brand in 2012. Two years later rapper Eminem produced a song by the same name on his Slim Shady XV album. The phrase is a symbol of the underdog spirit which helped Michigan's industrial capital survive a government bail out of an ailing automobile industry in 2008. Located 15 miles west of Edinburgh, Livingston has no history of producing cars. Outwith a bewildering number of roundabouts, there is no real history of building anything at all. Yet, when the great great grandson of Henry Ford began casting around for a football club to buy, he looked at the east of Scotland and found a scaled-down version of Detroit. Livingston FC were punching above their weight. Their support base was low, their artificial pitch was unpopular, their style of football was unloved, they'd been embroiled in expensive legal disputes with shareholders, cash was short and their only government bail-out came during Covid. Calvin Ford studied all of this and, the more he looked, the more he liked it. Here was a club which could have slotted straight in to his native city and fitted in perfectly. (Image: SNS Group)'We have taken a lot of heat in Detroit for being this nasty place,' Ford tells Herald Sport in his first lengthy interview since taking charge. 'The reality is that Detroit is an incredible place. A phoenix continuing the rise from the ashes and I am an incredibly proud Detroiter. 'I love this city and when I look at Livingston I see the exact same mentality. 'I see it as Livingston vs Scottish football. It kind of all plugs into us being the bad-boy team. 'This gritty, hard-working blue collar club led by a team like Davie Martindale and, you know what? That's what attracts me most. I love it.' The Livingston vs Everybody spirit helped Martindale's team to fight back from two goals down and overcome Ross County to secure promotion to the SPFL Premiership via the play-offs. After a season in the Scottish Championship there were no flags or banners or fireworks to celebrate their return to the top flight. When other teams speak of Livingston they do so through gritted teeth and Ford, for one, hopes they never change. 'We are gonna come in and we are going to have this blue-collar mentality and I think we are going to surprise a lot of people back in the Premiership,' predicts the new owner. 'I love the grit, I love the hard nose. We are going to be that team that's going to come and track some mud on your nice white carpet and leave some nasty stains.' His great great grandfather Henry introduced the first Ford assembly line in 1914, revolutionising automotive production and paving the way to mass production. While Detroit never claimed to be part of the wild west, Calvin – son of Edsel Ford II, Henry's great grandson – paints a picture of Lee Van Cleef chewing on a cigar to extend his vision of the New Livingston. 'It's like when you find yourself in this old western saloon. 'Somebody comes through the swing doors and makes everybody stop and look and think. 'And they're going, 'who the hell is that?' 'I kind of see Livingston being that guy at the doors and I like that. 'I like being the disruptor and whether it's social media or wherever there is this phrase that goes around saying that Livingston are not liked, not wanted, not bothered. 'I love that. That's what we represent and I want us to embrace that.' Calvin Ford with Livingston CEO Dave Black (Image: Alan Harvey - SNS Group) When fans of Celtic, Rangers, Hearts or Hibs think of Livi it tends to be in unflattering terms. An awkward, hard-working, physical nuisance with a worn-out pitch, bigger clubs with more money and trophies walk through the doors of the Set Fare Arena and hold their nose. Snapping up a majority shareholding from Baycup Ltd – some shareholders still contend that it wasn't Baycup's to sell in the first place – Ford has agreed to replace the old, outdated artificial surface in time for the new season. This time next year he could be forced to rip that out as well, rendering this summer's outlay an expensive waste of money. Premiership clubs have voted to ban plastic pitches and show no sign of relenting, despite talk of a challenge. Undeterred, brimming with enthusiasm, Ford could really use more hours in the day. A father of three – the youngest is just 20 months – his day job is heading up Pentastar Aviation, the aircraft charter and maintenance operation purchased by his father from Daimler-Chrysler. He also serves on the board of the CATCH charity, working with two local children's hospitals and is a director of Henry Ford Health, a notfor-profit healthcare organisation in Michigan. With all this going on it comes as a surprise to learn that he ever found the time to watch Succession, HBO's saga revolving around Scots expat media magnate Logan Roy and his squabbling offspring. 'I loved that scene in season two,' he laughs. 'Logan's son Roman buys Hearts and of course Logan Roy was a Hibs fan, so that was a terrible mistake by Roman. 'But, you know, I don't think I'm another American making a terrible mistake at all. 'One of the things that was most attractive to me about Livingston is that you have this club west of Edinburgh sandwiched in between behemoths like Hearts and Hibernian and Celtic and Rangers. 'Livingston are right there kind of in the middle and all I ask myself is, 'what can this become? 'How do we disrupt Scottish football in a really cool way? 'What do we need to do to stay in the Premier League and really be a disruptor? 'Historically speaking that's challenging because you have these traditional classic big Scottish clubs on either side. 'But why can't we disrupt? Why can't we be a club that does something and I think there is a real opportunity there for us to do that.' Consolidation in the top division is the first target, Europe the next. He texts David Martindale day and night and Livi have been busier than any other Premiership club in the opening days of the transfer market, snapping up Stevie May, Graham Carey, Cammy Kerr, Connor McLennan, Zak Rudden and Shane Blaney. 'I think the Europa Conference League is something that we can do and I think becoming a top-five team is something that we can do. 'I have said that to Davie and he understands that and believes it too. 'Year one I want to be competitive in the Premiership. I want to make sure that we are back there next year and I think we are putting together a team right now that can absolutely do that.' Read more: He has a vision of a sust ainable club, standing on its own two feet and that's easier said than done when the average attendance can be less than 4000. Plans to draw sell out crowds to a small town where fans leave for Edinburgh and Glasgow on a fleet of buses every week pose the kind of challenge his great great grandfather might have baulked at. 'There is this enclosed stadium and I immediately thought, 'what's this going to look like when we fill this place with 9000 Livingston supporters?' 'I think we can get there. I really do. 'It's about giving the Livingston community a football club that they can be a proud of. 'A team that can combat the Hearts and Hibs bits of Edinburgh and Rangers and Celtic in Glasgow. 'I'm a realist. I understand that it's going to take a while to build that back but we have the foundations in place.' The battle for hearts and minds is already underway. His father Edsel is close friends with a legendary Formula One champion who is now the proud owner of a Livingston home shirt. 'Sir Jackie Stewart is obviously a very famous Scot and I think he has a history of being a Rangers fan. I want to convert him into being a Livingston fan. 'I don't think it will ever happen. But I did send him a Livingston jersey as a birthday present...' The family firm's blue oval is one of the most readily recognisable corporate emblems on the planet and, as a younger man Ford admits to taking his background for granted. His 11-year-old son has woken up to the fact that being a Ford in Detroit is a little like being a royal in Windsor. The name comes with expectations and responsibilities and scrutiny he once wore with a casual indifference. Older and wiser, he now cares too much about the family reputation to start throwing silly money at Livingston. 'Back in the day I thought my surname was neat and said, 'that's wonderful.' And probably didn't give it much of a second thought. We all grow up, we all mature, we all evolve. 'I understand now that when you grow up in Detroit and you are a Ford that does that comes with some subjective expectations. I guess it does. 'I was an employee of the motor company for a while but now I find myself an advocate of the company and the family and I am very proud of what Ford does and what we stand for. 'And, when I look at what we want to do at Livingston, I keep Ford Motor Company in mind. 'This is an evolution. I'm not going to come in and pump billions of dollars into it, but I do think that we can create and build and sustain something at Livingston much like Ford has done for the 123 years it has been around.'
Glasgow Times
19-06-2025
- Sport
- Glasgow Times
Callum Osmand Celtic transfer edges closer after sighting
Herald Sport sources understand the Fulham forward has been spotted at Lennoxtown on Thursday, as he finalises his move. The former Wales U17 international is on the cusp of completing his move to the Scottish Premiership champions from the Premier League club. Due to his contract expiring, despite Fulham offering him an extension, Celtic will only have to pay Fulham a development fee, similar to what they did when signing Moussa Dembele from the same club back in 2016. In 22 appearances last season in all competitions for Fulham's U21 side, Osmand made 22 appearances, scoring 11 goals and assisting a further four in all competitions. He will join Kieran Tierney in arriving at Celtic Park from England, with his return from Arsenal officially completed last week. With the transfer of Benjamin Nygren from FC Nordsjaelland seemingly nearing completion, as well as talks with Royal Antwerp's Michel-Ange Balikwisha, the Scottish champions are busy in the early stages of this transfer window.
