But Glasgow-born McGeady, who has chosen to represent the Republic of Ireland, wanted to play for his schoolboy heroes and now he is living out his dreams in the Celtic first team.

He has seen international team-mate Liam Miller leave Parkhead for Manchester United but, as he keeps World Cup-winner Juninho on the bench, McGeady believes he made the right choice despite this week’s exit from Europe.

McGeady said: “I definitely have made the right decision because I’m playing first-team football at 18 which is going to be a lot harder to do down south.

“I would have had to wait a lot longer – unless you are an absolutely incredible player like a Wayne Rooney.

“I have spoken to Liam a little bit when I was away with Ireland. He’s obviously not that happy just now because he’s not been playing a lot but that is just the way it goes. But if he keeps on playing the way he has been playing he will come again.

“I was down about five or six times. I was only about 11 or 12 – Arsenal, Blackburn and a few others were interested.”

But McGeady has promised supporters that he will not be the last of the talent to come through from the youth sides.

He added: “We have some really good players coming through like Rocco Quinn, Michael Lynch and Michael Gardyne.

“There are loads of them coming through at the moment. You can see that in our reserves which is a very young team.

“Obviously we don’t have loads of money to spend so we are going to have to bring players through. It’s quite encouraging when you see the young players we’ve got.”

Celtic are still down after bowing out of Europe but first team coach Steve Walford believes that will make them even more determined to retain the championship.

The league leaders travel to struggling Dunfermline on Sunday hoping to bounce back.

Walford said: “I think the boys are extremely disappointed at going out of Europe but at the end of the day it is our job to win the league. We have to go and get a result and the boys are up for it and ready for it.”