Celtic: Ryan Christie is thriving at Bournemouth | OneFootball

When Ryan Christie joined Celtic from Inverness Caledonian Thistle in what was a £500k deal back in 2015, few would have expected the versatile forward to go on and enjoy the career he did at Parkhead.

Indeed, over his 151 appearances for the Bhoys, the 27-year-old scored a highly impressive 41 goals and registered a whopping 44 assists, as well as winning three Premiership titles, one Scottish Cup and two Scottish League Cups.

However, despite these quite remarkable returns for the Hoops, towards the end of his stay in Glasgow, the Scotland international began to frustrate the Parkhead faithful after picking up a habit of shooting from distance – something which Frank McAvennie commented on in the summer of 2021.

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After being linked with a move to Southampton, the former Celtic centre-forward was asked whether he felt Christie could make it in the Premier League, to which the 62-year-old replied:

“I don’t think so. He’s a wonderful talent but I think he’s too light for the Premier League. If you touch him, he goes down. He’s a big lad, he needs to stay on his feet. It looks like he just wants to win free-kicks.

“There’s no doubting his ability or his talent. But he’s stopped doing the little things. He’s stopped chasing the ball, he looked so eager at the start of his career. Now he doesn’t look bothered.

“He’s lost his hunger, his appetite. He became a bit of a laughing stock, he was just picking the ball up and shooting but he deserved some slack. It will take a big job for the boy to make it in the Premier League.”

And, while Christie ultimately did not secure a switch to Saints, he did move to the South Coast, with Championship side Bournemouth paying Celtic an extremely reasonable £2.5m for the 27-year-old’s services – despite the fact Tranfermarkt valued the Scotland international at £6.3m at the time of his transfer.

Now, after making 26 appearances in the Championship for the Cherries, this fee appears to have been an absolute steal, as the £23k-per-week forward has been one of Scott Parker’s players of the season, bagging three goals, registering six assists and creating seven big chances for his teammates, as well as taking an average of 2.1 shots and making 1.6 key passes per game.

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These returns have seen Christie average an extremely impressive SofaScore match rating of 7.12, ranking him as Bournemouth’s third-best player in the second tier of English football.

And, with the Cherries currently occupying third place in the Championship standings – boasting four games in hand on second-placed Huddersfield Town – there is every chance that the 27-year-old will finally get his chance to disprove McAvennie’s claim he is not good enough for the Premier League next season.

Either way, considering Christie is now valued by Transfermarkt at £8.1m, Celtic’s decision to part with the player – whose move to England was dubbed “staggering” by Davie Provan – for just £2.5m last August is something that will have undoubtedly left the club red-faced.