DERRY CITY midfielder Pat McCourt completed a surprise move to Celtic last night. The 24-year-old agreed personal terms with the Scottish Premier League giants and passed a medical at Glasgow's Ross Hall hospital before signing a three-year contract.
The deal follows a late move by the Scottish champions for the Northern Ireland international who had been in the latter stages of signing with West Brom. Talks aimed at finalising his move to the Hawthorns had been nearing a conclusion on Wednesday when Celtic made their interest known. The player left almost immediately for Glasgow.
McCourt's change of destination is good news for City who, having resigned themselves to losing their most naturally gifted player whose contract ran only until the end of the current Irish league season, have been trying to maximise their return on his departure.
Though the player had negotiated personal terms with the newly-promoted English club, Derry officials had been deeply unhappy with the £50,000 (€64,000) they were due to receive. Both are now set to do considerably better as a result of Celtic's intervention.
In City's case, the initial fee involved has doubled to around £100,000 (€128,000) plus a similar amount when he plays 10 first team games. In addition, Celtic have agreed to play a two friendly matches in Derry, one on October 7th and one in July of 2009.
Those are potentially worth more than £250,000 (€318,000) to the League of Ireland outfit. McCourt is also believed to have been offered significantly better terms.
Former Northern Ireland boss, Sammy McIlroy, who managed McCourt during his time with Rochdale expressed the hope that the move to Scotland would enable the 24-year-old to fulfil his immense potential.
"I had him as a young boy and, when he played at Rochdale, you could see the ability and skill he had straight away," he said. "It was a matter of sticking at it and I was shocked he didn't kick on, to be honest.
"People were talking about him going on to become a big international player at that time. Maybe it all just came too soon for him. But Gordon Strachan is at Celtic and hopefully he can get him playing to his strengths again."
