In January 2011 Kris Commons was brought to Celtic Park from Derby County by his former teammate Neil Lennon for just £300k. I remember being told by a good friend of mine, who supports The Rangers, telling me how good a player we had signed. I wasn’t so sure as he was hardly prolific for Derby and to be honest I didn’t know much about him other than he was predominantly left footed and a bit greedy.

Kris had a real impact in his first five months scoring on his debut against Aberdeen in League Cup Semi Final at Hampden Park. Kris continued this form and went on to score 14 goals in 21 matches. By the end of his first season I had realised that at £300k we had got ourselves a real bargain.

He has a real eye for goal and is just three goals short of the one hundred mark for Celtic. Kris scored many big goals in all competitions including in the Champions League. A particular goal that sticks in the mind is his penalty that took us into the last 16 of Champions League. He also scored a stunning opening goal against Shakhtar Karagandy at Celtic Park to help get us into the Champions League group stages.

Kris became a real fan favourite with the Celtic support when he stepped up to be our talisman after Gary Hooper left. If Kris wasn’t scoring then it felt that no one was! He carried the team in his best season scoring 32 goals and winning the PFA Scotland and Scottish Writers Association Player of the Year Awards.

The midfielder has been frozen out the Celtic team by Brendan Rodgers and I can only guess why. He seems to be a difficult character, he fell out with Neil Lennon early in his Celtic career and he was very vocal against Ronny Deila and his management team. This came to a head when he was caught on camera screaming at John Collins after being subbed in Europe.

A lot of Celtic fans wouldn’t have had him in a Celtic strip again after the incident however Ronny was weak and under pressure to win the league and he played the next week. Brendan is a different animal altogether and told Kris when he arrived that he wasn’t in his plans. Kris hasn’t made the bench all season and even found himself on loan at Championship form team Hibs for a short period this January.

We are currently three points from our 6th League title in a row. Kris has played a big part in those six titles and it is clear that this will be the last season that Kris will wear the green and white of Celtic.

I personally hope he gets the chance to say goodbye. I also hope he is remembered for his five League Championship medals, one League Cup and two Scottish Cup medals and not for falling out with two of the three managers he has played under at Paradise.

Thanks for the memories Kris. Hopefully we get to say cheerio.

Let us know your favourite Kris Commons goal in the comments below.

Hail Hail

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