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Fullname: Anthony Paul Watt
aka: Tony Watt, Anthony Watt
Born: 29 December 1993
Birthplace: Coatbridge, Scotland
Signed: 4 Jan 2011 (from Airdrie Utd for £80k)
Left: 28 July 2014 (to Standard Leige for £1.2m)
Position: Forward, Inside-Forward
Debut: Motherwell 0-3 Celtic, SPL, 22 April 2012 (scored twice)
Squad No.: 32
Internationals: Scotland [which international team played for]
International Caps: 1 [complete at end of career]
International Goals: 0 [complete at end of career]
Biog
| “He is the sort of player I would love to get a hold of and really smack around.” Scotland vice-manager (and ex-Celt) Mark McGhee on ex-Celt Tony Watt (Mar 2016) |
It was a dream for Tony Watt to play for Celtic, even though he had a one day trial at Rangers at one point and a short trial at Liverpool, but Celtic was always his first love and first pick, and he worked his way to the first team and repaid the club in full.
A dream debut for Tony Watt in the 3-0 win over Motherwell (match) shot Tony Watt into the limelight. He scored a double that day that won the match after the team had toiled for just anything prior to his substitution on to the field. He was a little lucky as he was suspended from the Scottish Youth cup final match the day after and so through that got his chance in the full team for this game and what a way to repay the faith the staff had in him.The youth team won 8-0 the next day in any case v QoTS.
If anyone doubted him, then he was to make his mark in the most incredible of manners. Amazingly he had scored around six goals for Celtic upto November 2012 but all of them were whilst playing away. So all queried when was he to finally score at home? Amazingly, it was against the highly lauded Barcelona side in the Champions League (what timing). A long ball from Forster saw Tony Watt lose his man get the ball carry on the run and bury it into the corner of the net to seal the second goal in a 2-1 win against one of the greatest sides of all time. He had written his name into Celtic folklore for that as we beat them to record one of our finest ever victories in Europe.
Remember that at this point he not long before playing for Airdrie in the lower tiers and was bought for peanuts. Now, he had just scored the winner against Barcelona in the Champions League. It was the week of the 125th anniversary of Celtic (St Mary’s meeting), and he had made it a magical time for all. A moment never to forget for anyone who witnessed it.
The dilemma was whether the goal v Barcelona gave everyone a distorted impression of his true ability and chances to reach the heights. Scoring a goal like he did was something every football supporter dreams about but that match is not the norm, and the bread and butter in domestic competitions is the first priority .
After the great Barca game, his form soon dipped and the goals dried up at Celtic. It was all too much too soon possibly.
Tony Watt, for the good of his own career, was sent out on loan to Lierse in Belgium for the 2013-14 season. Better to be on the park playing in competitive football than on the bench. The signings of Balde & Pukki had put him back in the line and he needed experience. Every Celtic supporter wanted him to succeed and come back to Celtic a better player.
Tony Watt made a great start to his loan spell at Belgian side Lierse SK as he came off the bench to score against Kortrikj, but manager Stanley Menzo said he just wasn’t good enough criticising him for being ‘lazy and unfit’ on his arrival. However after a stop and start time, he got into his stride and began scoring goals after confidence finally bedded in. Although Watt was happy when it was all over, as he and his Lierse manager had repeated spats.
On his return to Celtic in the summer of 2014, a fresh start and hopefully a more rounded character. Celtic was under new management, Ronnie Deila, and so old squabbles should have been water under the bridge. Tony Watt spoke about commitment and effort at Celtic and how he was ready for the season ahead.
He wasn’t to be given the chance. Standard Leige were mightily impressed with him and made a £1.2m offer which both parties accepted. It seems that the past errors were not forgiven or at least ignored, and the support was lukewarm to the situation. Had we just given away great potential? For a club paying over the odds for often risky projects, Tony Watt would have been an inexpensive addition to keep.
Some may complain he had a ‘Billy Big Shoes‘ mentality, but he had backed it up often enough on the pitch and he was still young. He was played mostly coming off the bench, which didn’t help him in his development.
The problem is that he had now gone through four managers in Scotland and Belgium at both club and international level, and similar complaints arose each time. He admitted to some bad attitudes and needed to readjust, so that admission was welcome.
In any case, he was gone and the Celtic support was left to wonder ‘What if?‘. Tony Watt may have played little for Celtic but he is immortalised with that special goal v Barcelona. That is something he will cherish for the rest of his life.
We wished him the best.
The fall from grace was sadly quite swift and cruel for Tony Watt. The hopes for a brilliant career, post-Celtic, were sadly in tatters. He struggled to settle in at a club, and struggled to convert his early form into being a top level goal scorer.
However despite that, he remained very chirpy on his career at the top, and for any critics he was not slow to remind them that what the few great moments of his time at Celtic were still far greater than even that of the long careers of many other players. Many would sacrifice all for even just that one experience he had on scoring that second goal v Barcelona to win in the Champions League at Celtic.
He finally settled at Motherwell, becoming a fan favourite before surprisingly moving to Dundee Utd in what was initially a mostly unsuccessful spell. Things weren’t to go well for either club in season 2022/23 with both fighting off relegation, and he ended up moving on loan to St Mirren for the second half of the season.
He returned back to Dundee Utd, and had a successful season there, scoring 15 goals in season 2023/24, helping them to lift the second tier title to bring them back to the top tier.
[….]
Quotes
“He’s still a young boy, there’s an immaturity about him which he will grow out of, but there was a lot of hype around him. He has the makings of a really good player, but there’s a rawness about him that needs polishing off. When he plays there’s a bit of gallusness about him. I wouldn’t say he’s a cocky kid, but I wouldn’t say he’s shy either. He’s not introverted. He’s just going through that phase where he’s growing into a man and is asking questions about himself. When you’re in the public glare, that can be a little bit difficult. Since that goal, people have been wanting a piece of him here, there and everywhere. That’s had a real impact on him. But the longer he’s here the more that will settle down and the more accustomed he’ll get to the glare of the spotlight.”
Lennon on Watt (2013)
“The first thing I said after the game [v Barcelona] that night was that I don’t want it to be a millstone around his neck.”
Neil Lennon
“Today I am glad we have him but tomorrow I might want to murder him! That’s just how it is with him.”
Stanley Menzo, Lierse manager (2014)
“People are judging me without playing games. I want them to be judging me when I’m playing games.”
Tony Watt on his struggle to get back into the top tier of football (2018)
“I remember saying to Tony when he was with us in a squad early in our tenure that I would love to work with him every day. He is the sort of player I would love to get a hold of and really smack around. He has got tremendous ability and I hope that we can throw down gauntlets to him, challenges and incentives to him for coming back again and being part of the World Cup campaign. Tony has been his own worst enemy in many ways but the word on the street is that he is starting to get the message, therefore Gordon has trusted that he could bring him here.”
Scotland vice manager (and ex-Celt) Mark McGhee on ex-Celt Tony Watt (Mar 2016)
“[Tony Watt used to enter the Celtic dressing room] “like he was the main man”… Jamesy [Forrest] wants to just learn the game, he wanted to do well. Tony [Watt] maybe wanted the limelight of a footballer kind of thing where Jamesy wanted to be a good footballer, a good professional.”
Kelvin Wilson (ex-Celtic colleague) on Tony Watt (2019)
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 2011-12 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Goals | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 2012-13 | 20 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 28 |
| Goals | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| 2013-14 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Goals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTAL APPEARANCES | 25 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 34 |
| TOTAL GOALS | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
Honours with Celtic
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Articles
Interview: Tony Watt, Celtic FC player
After his move from Airdrie to Celtic, Tony Watt is eyeing a tilt at Europe, reports Andrew Smith
NO young player is going to forget the trial game that wins them a contract with their boyhood heroes. But Tony Watt might have more reason than most to recall the November day he played for Celtic under-19s against Liverpool at Celtic Park, where he has previously been a season-ticket holder. It was memorable for Watt because he earned two penalties and in the process a 100,000 move from Airdrie United, the 17-year-old signing a three-year deal this month.
The encounter was part of a pilot scheme to establish what is being billed as a European youth league. The intention is that an under-18 version of the Champions League, given the billing the New Generation League, will begin in September. Featuring the likes of Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, the two Milan clubs, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Ajax and Bayern Munich among its 16 entrants, Celtic would be the only Scottish club in one of the four groups whose games would be staged in the autumn. The plan is that post-Christmas play-offs would be held in the Middle East, giving young players the experience of coping with the demands inherent in playing top-class competitive continental competition.
Watt admits the promise of playing in such a prestigious tournament meant Celtic could offer him something many of his suitors, such as Blackburn and Bolton, could not. “It is a step ahead,” he says. Frankly, though, the Coatbridge youngster didn’t need any extra incentives to commit himself where he has chosen to do so. “Celtic is where I want to be,” he says.
Watt had trials with Liverpool in September and spent a day with Rangers in December, adverse weather preventing him playing a trial game at Murray Park. His duties with Airdrie, and a repeatedly postponed Scottish Cup tie with Beith put the mockers on him going to Hearts and Hamilton for a week, as well as Fulham and Blackburn and Bolton. “It was nice to know that teams were looking at you and you might be good enough,” he says. Teams including Rangers. “They are a big club, so it was good to hear, but Celtic put in a bid and I would have chosen them over anybody.”
Not merely for starry-eyed reasons, says Watt, who went with his uncle to home games until last season, but for a pragmatic one, too. In Lennoxtown becoming his base, the forward has no concerns over homesickness. This is the sort of level-headed approach Watt exhibits often in conversation. A contrast, say those who have seen him play, with a hard-headed on-field approach, his physicality to the fore in the 15 games that have brought him three goals for Airdrie this season.
Watt knows what he might be worth and is honest enough to admit he wasn’t overly concerned about whether an offer from Celtic would be made after the Liverpool game. It came two days later, in a phone-call from the club’s head of youth development Chris McCart. “I was positive,” he says. “I thought they had liked what they saw and obviously they did. I thought I had done well and hadn’t felt out of place, or that I wasn’t near the standard. The two days waiting were long, aye, but I been told it wasn’t going to happen overnight, and obviously it came through. Because I grew up a Celtic supporter it was a joy to get it done. That had made it a great feeling to run out at Celtic Park too. There weren’t a lot of people there but there were important people I wanted to impress. Kenny Dalglish and Chris McCart and that and I did OK.”
Now Watt can reflect on a January wherein “there have been a lot of good things that have happened” to him. The latest is being awarded the Irn-Bru young player of the year of the month for December, the teenager bringing his time at Airdrie to a close with a last-minute winner away to Alloa. It seems he has a canny knack of grand exits and entrances. Watt picked up his Irn Bru award fresh from scoring on his signed debut for Celtic in auspicious circumstances. His goal was netted against Russian club Krylia Sovetov 3-1 on Sunday at the end of 14 days in a training camp in Turkey. Celtic, along with Rangers and Queen’s Park, were there benefiting from the Leonardo da Vinci Coaching Initiative, a programme funded by the European Union and which can be utilised by clubs who major on youth training and development.
“The weather was good, the food was good, then training was good, the game was good,” says Watt. “It was weird playing against a Russian team — I had never done that before. You can tell the coaches know what they are doing and the training was excellent. The attacking and defending, it was all done to a T. There were a lot of good players round me.”
And Watt believes his move, only 15 months on from him being on the books of his local boys’ club, shows that good young Scottish players are not all holed up in the academies of the elite clubs. “There is a lot of talent down the divisions,” says the player who cut his teeth in the second. “Guys at Airdrie and others I have played against. Rory McAllister of Brechin is not that young (he is 23] but he is scoring for fun. It is just about getting the opportunity.”
Watt has been given that at a tender age. And with the possibility of a Celtic B team in the lower divisions as well as an under-18 side playing heavyweight European counterparts, surrendering senior football to join Celtic’s youth ranks may not be the sacrifice it was in the past.
Celtic striker Tony Watt insists his long-term future is with Hoops as he aims to prove previous Belgium stint made him ready for first-team stardom
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/celtic-striker-tony-watt-insists-3924246?plckFindCommentKey=CommentKey:aa12e64d-6534-45d9-b371-c694b1168fc2&plcktb=M1EdWWkCZUN7fGVbampxVFdmag4A0
Daily Record
Jul 28, 2014 07:02
By Gordon Parks
12 Comments
THE 20-year-old striker, who looks set for another stint in the Belgian top flight, reckons he’s been getting a bad press which he doesn’t deserve.
SNS Group
Tony Watt in action for Celtic against St Pauli
TONY WATT is only just out of his teens and knows he has already been written off as a waster in some quarters.
But the Celtic striker has launched a staunch defence of his character, insisting he’s been the subject of a smear campaign.
Former boss Neil Lennon has lamented a talent which threatened to go off the rails due to daft-boy syndrome and incoming gaffer Ronny Deila has suggested signs of an attitude problem.
Despite the damning evidence the 20-year-old believes he’s been getting a bad press which isn’t deserved.
Watt also claimed he no longer wants to be remembered as the boy who scored the winning goal against Barcelona two years ago as he attempts to reinvent himself with the Hoops.
A nine-month loan spell at Belgian side Lierse last year helped Watt mature on and off the park and Record Sport can reveal Standard Liege have now launched a bid to sign him.
And despite Watt’s insistence he sees his future at Parkhead it’s believed he is keen on the idea of another stint in the Belgian top flight.
He said: “I have read a lot of things, such as my attitude was stinking, but I have never once been disrespectful to a coach.
“I have always treated them with respect. They are in charge, they are the people I need to answer to.
“It’s harsh when people talk about ‘the rise and fall’ and things like that.
“The goal against Barcelona happened. It’s one of the best moments of my life but that’s not what I want to be remembered for.
“I want to play for Celtic. Maybe the happiest moment of my life was making my debut for the club. I am a supporter and had achieved a target in my life.
“It was good to play in the Champions League and beat Barca but I want to play for Celtic for a long time. It’s just that nobody seems to realise that. This is the club for me.
“If the club don’t want me then I will need to look elsewhere but I am not interested in going anywhere just now.”
Watt freely admits he’s been too fond of fast-food takeaways and has sometimes lacked the discipline required to reach the top.
But the Coatbridge kid insists his experience of a new culture on the continent last season will stand him in good stead.
He said: “In football development, it was great. It was a different league, different culture and I worked on parts of my game. I was happy as I knew I’d be coming back to try to force my way into the Celtic squad.
“The language was a big thing. You are also away from your family and everything is different but I adapted well and enjoyed it.
“I went to Belgium last year to play games and ended up playing 17 or 18, which wasn’t as many as I expected.
“But I was happy with the way I performed and felt I gave a good account of myself.
“Did I feel I grew up? I didn’t think I needed to grow up. I was just there as a 19-year-old and needed to go and try new things.
“Sometimes in Glasgow you get too used to the same things all the time. You maybe get into bad routines, you stay up late during the week with your friends and such like.
“You do stupid things like maybe eating the wrong things. It’s too easy. But when you are away, you just think about football, football, football.
“I have changed in that respect but that’s down to my family as well.
“I moved out of my house before I went to Lierse. I thought I’d try to see what it’s like to live alone but I couldn’t cook. Sometimes I was too fond of takeaways. You don’t realise how important a diet is to your career.”
New boss Deila appears prepared to provide Watt with an opportunity to force his way into his plans and the powerful frontman was handed his first start under the Norwegian in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Bundesliga 2 side St Pauli.
Christopher Nothe’s first-half strike sealed the win for the Germans as a second-string Hoops side missed a late chance to earn a draw after a penalty miss by Bahrudin Atajic condemned Deila to his first defeat as Celtic manager.
Watt couldn’t be faulted for effort but too often the final ball or a poor touch let him down. However, he insists he’s been given nothing but encouragement from his new gaffer as he attempts to force his way into the team.
He said: “The manager has spoken to me and said he is impressed. He said I’m a good player. He has been brilliant with me and I am happy with what he has done for me.
“He gives you confidence and tells you what’s good and bad. It’s great to have someone like that to help. At times in my career I felt confident, at other times I didn’t.
“That’s maybe down to not playing games, not being fit or wee stupid things. I have been confident at times in my career, but I feel good now.”
Watt will have to content himself with a place on the bench at best on Wednesday night for Celtic’s Champions League qualifier against Legia Warsaw in Poland.
The youngster was at the centre of a scare yesterday when he escaped unhurt after being the passenger in a car involved in a serious smash in Coatbridge.
He’ll be ready if called upon in Warsaw and said: “There are good strikers in this squad, the likes of Teemu Pukki, Anthony Stokes and Amido Balde. There is a lot of talent in the ranks. My sharpness is still a bit away but that will come with games.
“Fitness-wise in training, my tempo is good. I just need to get my sharpness up. The pitch was a bit sticky but I could have done better against St Pauli. In the times I ran with the ball I made a few bad decisions but that is just down to rustiness.
“I don’t think I will start against Legia but even a run-out would be good. I hope to get back involved.”
Lack of commitment led to Watt’s failure at Celtic
by STEPHEN HALLIDAY IN WARSAW
Updated on the
30 July
2014
01:10
Published 30/07/2014 00:13
CELTIC manager Ronny Deila says a lack of commitment and professionalism cost Tony Watt the chance to fulfil his potential with the Scottish champions.
After just a month working with the Celtic squad, Deila decided Watt was surplus to requirements and the 20-year-old striker was sold to Standard Liege for £1.2 million this week.
Despite a fairytale rise to prominence which included the winning goal against Barcelona in a Champions League match at Parkhead two years ago, Watt was unable to command regular first-team football with Celtic.
A lack of maturity was cited as the problem by Deila’s predecessor Neil Lennon, while Watt’s attitude was also criticised by Lierse coach Stanley Menzo during the player’s loan spell with the Belgian club last season. It is an assessment Deila has also reached.
“You have no chance to achieve your dreams if you don’t work and sacrifice everything,” said Deila. “No player does. It is about commitment.
“If you want to be a Celtic player, then you have to commit and you have to make that sacrifice. You have to live like a top athlete 24 hours a day, seven days a week and then you can reach the top.
“Tony hasn’t progressed as we wanted so far and I think that’s because he hasn’t been getting into the right culture, realising the consequences and changing his mentality.
“I think now it’s good for him to start all over and to be the professional he needs to be to get to the highest level that he can.
“It is no co-incidence that Celtic’s three players at the World Cup finals were Fraser Forster, Emilio Izaguirre and Efe Ambrose. They are top professionals. They stay after training, they go to bed at 10pm, they do everything perfect. The culture they have is the one we want to give the young Scottish players.”
Deila has replaced Watt in his squad with Norwegian international Jo Inge Berget on loan from Cardiff City, the 23-year-old registered in time to be available for tonight’s Champions League third qualifying round, first leg meeting with Legia Warsaw in Poland.
Fate has decreed that Berget’s reunion with Deila, for whom he played at Stromsgodset in Norway, will come against a Legia side coached by Henning Berg, the man who handed Berget his first break in senior football at Lyn Oslo.
“Henning played a big part in my development and Ronny got the best out of me as a player,” said Berget. “So it will be fun to be in a game with these two coaches. I’m not expecting to start the game but I’m ready to be involved if that’s what Ronny wants.”
Having made just two appearances for Cardiff City since joining them from Molde in January, Berget would welcome the chance to secure a permanent move to Celtic.
“I never really got the chance to play for Cardiff so I hope this is the opportunity to show everyone that I’m as good as I think I am,” added the attacking midfielder.
“There is an option for Celtic to buy me if things go well and I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to play here.”
The Tony Watt conundrum: long struggle of Celtic teen who downed Barcelona
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/nov/23/tony-watt-demise-celtic-teen-barcelona-2012?CMP=share_btn_tw
Tony Watt had the world at his feet in 2012 but left Celtic six months after his famous goal with question marks over his attitude and has never settled anywhere since
Ewan Murray
@mrewanmurray
Wednesday 23 November 2016 10.59 GMT
Tony Watt lasted 80 minutes of the game between Hamilton Academical and Heart of Midlothian on Monday. The only surprise for the 2,339 in attendance was that the Hearts forward featured for that long. Watt could barely have been less effective, just as he could not have looked any less interested.
Watt’s struggle had sadly poetic timing. With Barcelona back in Scotland for a meeting with Celtic, memories are inevitably conjured of 7 November 2012. It was then Watt, as an 18-year-old substitute, burst through before blasting home the crucial second goal as Neil Lennon’s team defeated Barça 2-1. Even for a club so immersed in big occasions, this stood out as one of the finest in Celtic’s history.
Brendan Rodgers tells Celtic players not to live in past against Barcelona
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Watt left Celtic Park that night with a message from Lennon: “Don’t let this be all you are remembered for.” Lennon wanted the goal to be a springboard. Watt had pace, power and the uncanny ability to keep the ball attached to his boot that separated him from other Scots.
By the following August Watt was dispatched on loan to the Belgian team Lierse, never to return to the club he had grown up supporting and who had paid around £100,000 to sign him from Airdrie after only a handful of first-team games. Tellingly for a player who made such an impact, there was no sense of lingering disappointment in Glasgow when he left. One of Celtic’s experienced international players predicted Watt would be driving a bus within a decade.
If that insult owed plenty to exaggeration, the underlying issue has been a recurring one. It relates to Watt’s attitude. His approach to training at Celtic was such team-mates were said to resent his lack of application. Despite the Barcelona intervention, Watt had not produced nearly enough to merit special treatment. A lack of fitness often seemed apparent in the latter stages of games.
Javier Mascherano is powerless as Tony Watt smashes in Celtic’s second in their famous win over Barcelona in 2012.
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Javier Mascherano watches powerless as Tony Watt smashes in Celtic’s second in their famous win over Barcelona in 2012. Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images
The Lierse chapter never looked like being a happy one. Stanley Menzo, their manager, branded Watt “physically not good enough”. Nine goals in a season attracted the attention of Standard Liège, who paid Celtic £1m for Watt’s services in the summer of 2014. The striker lasted six months of a five-year contract before Charlton Athletic brought him back to the UK.
The most profitable spell of Watt’s career followed. And still, he was on the move again last November, this time on loan to Cardiff City. Russell Slade, who took Watt to Wales, typifies thoughts towards him.
“The fans took to him really quickly, as did the players,” Slade says. “And he did well for me. We knew he was a talent. He is one of those – he picks the ball up, turns with it, gets at centre-backs when he is in a real positive mood. He is unpredictable.
“I had no problems at all with his attitude. All Tony needs is communication – that is important to him. He needs to know where he stands in everything. He needs to feel wanted and part of something.
“It hasn’t quite happened for him, for one reason or another but he still has time on his side. A lot came to him early, which doesn’t always have the most positive effect. If Tony retains a hunger, he could still go to the highest level. It is in his hands.”
A Cardiff transfer embargo meant Watt’s stay was short-lived. Cue another loan, this time to Blackburn Rovers, before a wish to move closer to home alerted Hearts this summer.
Celtic’s Neil Lennon: I haven’t bettered this Barcelona win in my life
Read more
By Slade’s testimony, and those at Watt’s current club, he is immensely popular. John Robertson, Hearts’ record scorer, regards Watt’s ability as “incredible”. Nonetheless, a promising start in Edinburgh has petered out with Watt’s desperation to have the ball taking him to areas where he cannot hurt opponents and, surprisingly for one so apparently extroverted, a lack of confidence in front of goal shining through. He has scored once this season.
The 22-year-old has been spared the limelight, with Hearts deliberately keeping him from media duties. Robbie Neilson is the latest manager to try to solve the Tony Watt conundrum. “Tony gives you something different from anything else in Scotland,” Neilson says. “He can turn a game in a split second. In training we see him go by three, four, five players. It is just about getting consistency from him. That’s the key to his development.
“When the ball goes forward, he just wants to be on the ball. He is a great kid, one you can’t help talking to and liking. The boys all love him. He played games in the Championship last year where he dominated. People couldn’t get near him. He still has that huge potential.”
Watt will turn 23 at the end of December. If he remains far too young to be drinking in the last-chance saloon, there is a question over what establishments will continue to serve him, and at what level. If not yet “Where did it all go wrong?” the direction of travel is ominous.