New signing at Celtic of Scotland, Osaze Urhoghide has opened up on the chain of issues and factors that accounted for his decision to snub offers from a number of English Premier League clubs and make the move up north instead, megasportsarena.com reports.
The Nigerian-born youngster, who was until last week on the cards of Sheffield Wednesday of England, declared that he already had an inkling of the kind of atmosphere and environment to expect at Celtic, hence his decision to make the switch to Parkhead.
Urhoghide, who joined Celtic as The Hoops’ new coach, Ange Postecoglou’s first signing and is set to feature against his former club in a friendly, added that he was also thinking about playing regularly and developing faster.
Postecoglou says the centre-back has the credentials to become a top player, especially after his performances reportedly attracted interest from Crystal Palace and Leeds United in the English top flight, and Urhoghide’s new manager is expecting the youngster to grow pretty quickly.
The 21-year-old lad, who was born in Netherlands to a Nigerian father, moved to the Scottish Premiership side on a four-year contract last week from Sheffield, following an impressive campaign with The Owls where he made 16 appearances in the English Championship.
Ahead of facing his former club at Dragon Park in Newport, Urhoghide conceded that, although Wednesday were relegated to League One last term, it was nonetheless a difficult decision for him to depart Hillsborough, but still feels he made the correct call concerning his future.
Urhoghide told Sky Sports News: “The Premier League would have been nice but it’s also about playing and developing. It was a hard decision to leave Sheffield Wednesday.
“It was disappointing last season to go down. I had to weigh up my options to see what would have been best for my career and I ended up choosing Celtic.
“I believe it’s going to be a good move with the culture of the club, the expectation, the manager coming in and with what he wants to do and helping develop the players.
“It’s a good fit for me. It’s about the manager and the culture of the club. It’s that environment that will help you develop and improve as a player. Celtic had all those options for me.
“All the players are really good, supportive in training and with showing me around the place. It’s great to be here with the new manager, everyone from the team is back basically.”
