Steven Fletcher has revealed that he came closest to joining Celtic in 2020 before opting to make the switch to Stoke City. 

Many Hoops fans will have been happy to see the former Hibs player head to Tannadice so the club don’t get linked with the striker yet again.

For many years during any transfer window Fletcher and Celtic would be linked but it’s now time for the 35-year old to show his stuff in the SPFL Premiership under Jack Ross after a 13-year stint down south.

Before Fletcher made the move to Burnley in 2009, it is believed that Gordon Strachan wanted the front man at Parkhead but the bids were rejected.

“Earlier on in my career when I was linked with Celtic I didn’t have much to do with it,” said Steven Fletcher speaking to [Football Scotland]. 

“At that age you just leave it to agents and all that, only finding things out when they’re pretty much done.

“So I don’t know how close it came back in the early days, but before I signed for Stoke that was the closest a move to Celtic came.

“It didn’t happen in the end and I’ll tell that story one day.

“But I was linked with Celtic a lot over the years.

“So much so I think their fans were sick of hearing about it!”

It is probably just as well for Fletcher that he didn’t make the move north in 2020 as everything around the club started to go badly wrong.

In the grand scheme of things the striker would likely have made little difference to Celtic’s quest for 10 in a row as the Hoops capitulated as nothing went right.

Fletcher will link up with former Hoops defender Charlie Mulgrew at the terrors next season and it will be interesting to see how Jack Ross’s side get on having managed a fourth place finished last season.