Former Celtic star Kelvin Wilson who was in the lineup that fateful night against Barcelona in 2012 had a short but sweet stint in Glasgow under Neil Lennon.
His tenure at Celtic, spanning from 2011 to 2013, was marked by considerable improvement and significant contributions, especially in European competitions.
Initially, Wilson’s performance during his first season received mixed reviews, but he quickly became an integral part of Celtic’s defence, shining particularly in UEFA Champions League matches. His defensive skills were pivotal in the aforementioned game against Barcelona, where Celtic managed a historic victory at home and strong performances away that ended in a very late defeat. Wilson was known for his reading of the game, work rate, and ability to recover possession. However, unlike Celtic’s traditional defenders at the time, he was not known for scoring goals.
Despite becoming a key figure in Celtic’s defensive lineup, Wilson left the club in 2013 to return to Nottingham Forest. It was surprise to many at the time who thought Kelvin would have stayed with Celtic for the long haul.
Speaking this week, in a one to one interview with Callum McFadden at World Football Index, the former defender revisited his departure and the reasons for it. Asked if it was personal reasons, he replied:
“Yeah, that was it in a nutshell and people say, do you regret going back to Forest, because when I came back six games into my second spell, I had a really bad injury, and I was out for a year. So, people always say, do you regret it?
“However, I do not regret it at all because the main reason I came back was for my daughter who then was two. I knew that she was going to start school in the coming years, and I wanted to do the school runs, I wanted to read the books with her at night. Things like this.
“All of that means more to me than football so I did not have a choice but to leave Celtic for those personal reasons.”
His departure was a significant loss for Celtic at the time. But nobody could begrudge him the move under those circumstances.
