Celtic player banishes transfer myth and makes one thing clear in pointed Rodgers message after Hoops woe

Marco Tilio says he was more than ready for his move away from the A League as he opens up on why his first six months at Celtic fell flat.

The winger arrived from Melbourne City last summer but is back on loan with the City Group club. He suffered injury early in his Parkhead career and struggled to make inroads into the plans of manager Brendan Rodgers.

Before being loaned out, he made just two Premiership appearances off the bench but has featured for Australia too at U23s level. Now speaking with The West Australian, Tilio was asked if he had left City too soon, something he flatly rejects as he sent a message to Rodgers over his bulging wingers department.

The 22-year-old said: "No, I believed I was ready. I'd done my time here, and I thought I'd done really well and the build-up all the way until then when I made that decision to go there, I thought I was ready.

"You can't tell in football obviously. I went away with the under 23s and got injured. I then thought it was a week (long) injury. I signed the contract and obviously I was injured and out for three months.

"So it doesn't help, and then you're competing with eight or nine other wingers that are just as good as you, if not better, and it was always going to be a difficult road trying to get into that team of Celtic. But no, I don't think I left too early.

"The first few months, I felt I got to the speed of what the other boys were at and probably deserved to play, have an opportunity to play. But there's a lot of players there, a lot of quality, and it's never going to be easy.

"So it was a tough six months for my football. But it's always a learning curve for me and we'll see what happens in the future."