Scott McDonald reveals real story behind shock Celtic exit under Mowbray

Scott McDonald has lifted the lid on the breakdown in trust with Tony Mowbray that ultimately forced him out of Celtic Park in a shock £3.5 million move to Middlesbrough in January 2010, despite being at the peak of his powers as the club’s top scorer.

Speaking exclusively to Record Sport, the Australian striker explained how his relationship with Mowbray deteriorated even though the pair had never had an outright fallout, with the manager instead favouring new signing Marc-Antoine Fortune ahead of him up front.

Left out for the New Year derby

McDonald, who had struck 63 goals in two-and-a-half seasons after flourishing under Gordon Strachan, said being dropped for a New Year’s clash with Rangers was the moment that convinced him his time at Celtic was up.

“It culminated just in terms of the relationship with the lack of trust, probably within the manager and me at the time, and then everything culminating in Gordon taking the job at Middlesbrough,” McDonald told Record Sport.

“He was my ex-manager who I worked so well under at Celtic and the emotion of all that now that you’re a lot older was a big part in that. We signed Marc-Antoine Fortune and it was always the manager’s idea that he wanted to play him more.

“When you’re a young man at the top of your game and believe you are the best person scoring goals at the club, then it’s not where you want to be with your manager.

“It’s not to say we never got on because there was never a fallout, but it was just never there. The icing on the cake was we played Rangers in the New Year’s fixture and I wasn’t playing. It was kind of put to me after that that Tony didn’t want me at the club from others externally working their ways. So that set everything alight from there and triggered a lot of things that happened.”

A chaotic January window

Celtic’s January 2010 transfer window was thrown into chaos as Mowbray attempted to close the gap on runaway leaders Rangers under mounting pressure to save his job. Loan signings including Robbie Keane and Diomansy Kamara arrived at Parkhead, while stalwarts such as Stephen McManus, Gary Caldwell and Barry Robson departed.

McDonald, the club’s top scorer, was the last to leave, sealing his surprise switch to Middlesbrough on deadline day, 1 February 2010, having come off the bench to help salvage a draw against Rangers in what turned out to be his final Celtic appearance.

“It was quite chaotic because the manager made it chaotic because of his ideas. The board had to back him, they brought him in, you understand that as a player you get that,” he said. “Was it right? Over time, it tells you it wasn’t at that time. Every player has a sell-by date; some go before that date expires, some stay after it and rot. For me, it was probably before my expiry, but it was just a situation that you find yourself in at times in football that you fit, or you don’t fit for certain managers, and you move on.”

No regrets over leaving Celtic

McDonald’s departure came just two years after his infamous role in Helicopter Sunday and only three seasons after he had scored 31 goals to help fire Celtic to a title won in the emotional aftermath of Tommy Burns’ death.

“Should I have left? Could I have done things differently? Yeah, absolutely, in a bigger picture world, leaving Celtic is always a tough one for any player,” he added. “It was tough moving on from that period, but for me it felt right at the time and that’s why it happened. I’ll never regret it because it’s moments like that that define you, and you live with them. Pretty much everyone won out of it at that moment financially, so it was a win-win for everyone on that end, and then it was on to Middlesbrough from there and never looked back.”

In an ironic twist, McDonald was reunited with Strachan at the Riverside before the former Celtic boss was sacked within the year and replaced by none other than Mowbray. “It’s a good book someday, I’ll tell you that,” McDonald laughed. “I know that I wasn’t the easiest to g…”