Tom Rogic Was A Great Celtic Servant. It Is Sad That He Has Not Found A New Home.

The news last night that Tom Rogic is being released from his contract at West Brom is sad but somehow inevitable. He never settled there, he drifted in and out of the team. He made 23 appearances in all.

He scored only a couple of goals. At 30, he is unlikely to find himself out of the game for too long; there will be interested parties.

I loved watching Tom Rogic. He is one of my all-time favourite Celtic players.

He was stylish and aggressive and knew where the net was.

He was prone to scoring big goals in important games. I was gutted when I realised we were losing him, especially when he went in what are supposed to be his prime years. But for what he gave us, I had the utmost gratitude.

I really hoped that he would find himself a good home at West Brom and go on to be a fantastic success, one of the driving forces which got them back to the Premier League.

It’s all gone wrong. Cutting him loose after one year is a real surprise. I think it’s even a mistake. I hope that some club in the EPL takes him on. He would be an asset to a good attacking team.

There will be some whispers about him “coming home.”

That would also be a mistake, for him, if not for us. I can see the logic.

I can see the sense. I can see where he would fit in and do tremendous things with Ange at the helm. I think he played his best football for the club last season with the boss running the show. I don’t doubt he could hit those heights.

But he wanted a change of scenery and it’s not his fault that it hasn’t worked out. Players can return to their previous clubs, and sometimes even succeed, but Rogic will not want to do that. He left because he recognised that it had become a comfort zone of sorts; going back to Celtic would be an admission of defeat. He’s 30. He isn’t beaten yet.

Tom Rogic needs to get the next move right, one that challenges him and reignites that fire he had at Celtic Park.

I don’t think he could find it returning to our club, which means we’d get a lesser player and he would have a lesser experience. I sincerely want him to get it from his next contract, because he deserves it for the years he gave to us.

Of course, if he were to call Ange and Michael Nicholson and tell them that the reason it didn’t work out is that he missed what he had, realised how good it was and wants to come back … well, in those circumstances, we’d be getting a top talent and that would be a no brainer, wouldn’t it? A guy can dream.

But I think he dreams different dreams now.

I hope he can realise them.

We will always have our great memories.