Ryan Christie

And then when it clicked for him, I was at that game, he came on at Murrayfield against Hearts and ran riot. Within 10 games he was doing it to Leipzig in Europe to be decisive for us beating them… Christie had a bigger, quicker rise and impact than anyone else I can think of. More than Ralston Anges first season or Scales last season.

Christie at one point was a makeweight afterthought for a swap with… can’t mind who, was Hibs though.

Then he was romping it in Europe. Was wild. That was all under Rodgers that btw, and it was always said BR loved his attitude and work rate. But that ended up him upfront himself in qualifying rounds due to injuries and our lack of preparation.

 

Talent was obviously there, as was arguably the experience. He'd arrived at an age and point we dream of our development players being at. Then we stalled his development and career for 2 years.

Can understand why his dad thought he should go. Made a smart move going to the Championship first too for a team with ambition.

 

I have him as one of they examples that we actually done right, had him straight back on loan to the club we got him from impressed by how he was developing there, then let him go to a team with more expectations he should be getting games for in Aberdeen, so he had a year and a half odd of loans in our league rather than rotting away on the bench. We tried to use him as bait in swap deals (for John McGinn it was infact!) and when it didn’t, he worked his way onto the bench, we played him in a pivotal game and by * he grabbed that chance.

Thats almost perfect example of what we usually don’t do.

 

Agree the loan back was a good move. But after that if your Christie and you've played first team football in the SPL for 2+ years suddenly being in the stands, not even the bench, is going to feel like your career is done.

Move to Aberdeen was a good one, pretty sure his dad made that happen more than the club.

 

It was when he was back from Aberdeen, and had a couple months in the stands after we refused him to go with us not getting McGinn and Hibs wanting him after that us being like * you Hibs. But it was maybe 3/4 months in the stand before he won a place, and he got into the squad and Rodgers turned to him due to what he showed in training. The full way we handled Christie into being a top player for us and how he handled sitting in the stand by working his way into the squad in training. Honestly the way I’d like out of so many wasted talents we’ve seen, who thought they didn’t need to work like that, and didn’t seize any chances they got.


Tierney’s story for us another example of what I want from youth players breaking in. Although his one annoys me with us waiting that long, we used * Ambrose at LB, that useless CB on loan from Man Utd there before finally deciding what we’d seen from Tierney was worth a shot.

 

I mean he moved to Aberdeen as part of the Johnny Hayes deal. That's got to hurt. So can't have been in favour before. Sure we cut his Inverness loan short too. Can't quite remember why but must have been to come back and play.

Christie's like Armstrong for me, obviously a very professional approach to the game and tons of talent, with an envious career playing consistently in the EPL but loads of fans still talking about them like complete duds, even though they showed plenty when here.