RYAN CHRISTIE has suggested his eventual move to Bournemouth was meant to happen after deciding to join Celtic despite interest from the Cherries in 2015.
Scotland international Christie moved to Bournemouth last summer and helped Scott Parker’s side to promotion to the Premier League.
It was a dream first season for his new club – but if things had turned out differently “seven or eight years ago”, Christie could have been lining up in red and black for several seasons already.
Christie burst onto the scene with Inverness and quickly won England admirers with Bournemouth making a bid early in his career.
The creative midfielder has been invited to tour the facilities ahead of a potential move – but he rejected an offer to seek more playing time from ICT before any transfer talks.
Christie excelled in the Highlands and in 2015 moved to Celtic where he would enjoy a trophy-laden spell after loans to Inverness and Aberdeen.
Speaking to the Bournemouth Daily Echo, Christie recalled: “I was very young, just starting out at Inverness. I think I made a few appearances for the first team.
“I haven’t really been told about it. I was still quite young and just focused on my football.
“My dad kind of said they made an offer to Inverness and I was invited to see the training ground and the setup and everything.
“But at that time I had barely started playing for Inverness. It was my boyhood club and I just wanted to make a mark with Inverness before looking elsewhere.
“I said no at the time and I stayed to play first-team football, to put myself in football properly.
“Even from little things like that, you just feel you have a bit of affiliation with a club moving forward and over seven or eight years later – here we are.
“It was good when I signed and a few people upstairs brought that up and said ‘seven years later, but we finally got over the line’.
“So that’s good, it feels like it was meant to be a bit.”