Having signed for Celtic in a £1.5m deadline day deal back in January 2018, there was a great deal of excitement regarding the future of Jack Hendry.
Indeed, upon the Scotsman’s arrival at the club, Brendan Rodgers was clearly of the belief that the centre-back had a huge future in the game, stating of the then 22-year-old: “He’s 6’3, he’s super quick and good one v one defender. I think his potential is huge. That’s what I said to the board when I first saw him play, this is a player I think can be a big player.”
Rodgers continued: “When you come to Celtic you have to deal with expectation and pressure. If he can deal with all those things then you’ve got a Scottish centre half who has all the attributes of a top-class footballer.”
However, after making just 11 Premiership appearances in the second half of the Bhoys’ 2017/18 campaign, and being handed a mere four league outings the following season, the defender was subsequently sent out on loan to Melbourne City in January 2020, before joining KV Oostende on a season-long temporary deal last season.
After highly impressing in the Jupiler Pro League, the Belgian side chose to activate their option to buy the Scotland international last summer, with Celtic waving goodbye to Hendry for a reported initial fee of just £990k.
As an indication of just how much the 25-year-old impressed with Oostende, Club Brugge immediately made a move for the centre-back upon his permanent signing for KV, securing a deal worth up to £8.6m for the defender.
It is not difficult to understand why Brugge decided to sanction such a big-money move for the former Dundee starlet. Over his 23 Jupiler Pro League fixtures this season, the £9.1k-per-week colossus has been in imperious form for the reigning Belgian champions, helping his side to keep five clean sheets, along with making 1.3 interceptions, 1.1 tackles and 2.8 clearances per game and winning 66% of his duels.
These returns have seen the player who Alexander Blessin dubbed a “weapon” average a SofaScore match rating of 6.97, ranking him as his club’s 12th-best performer in the league.
As such, considering Hendry’s meteoric rise, and that he is now valued at a whopping £5.4m by Transfermarkt, Peter Lawwell’s agreement to sell the centre-back for next to nothing last summer looks to have been a catastrophic error by the former Celtic CEO. Not only have the Bhoys missed out on a potentially huge payday on the defender, they have also lost a hugely talented option in the heart of their defence.
In other news – Imagine him & Kyogo: Ange can form “dangerous” duo as Celtic plot bid for £20m machine