Ryan Christie reveals the “reason” he left Celtic for AFC Bournemouth | OneFootball

Ex Celtic and current AFC Bournemouth attacker Ryan Christie has explained he is set to realise a life-long ambition after winning promotion to the Premier League.

The Cherries finished 2nd in the Championship standings meaning they were promoted to the top-flight automatically along with Champions Fulham.

Christie joined AFC Bournemouth from Celtic last summer and went on to feature 38 times for the south coast club, scoring three times and assisting eight goals.

The 27-year-old has admitted that all his life, all he has wanted was to play in the Premier League, and that was the reason behind his exit from the Scottish giants.

“It’s really good. That was the whole reason I wanted to move down here – to try to get that success with the club.” Christie explained to the Daily Echo.

“After a long league campaign, it has finally come to an end and we are successful, which is nice.

“This team of boys, since I came in, I have noticed how much they kind of believe. To be honest, we probably wanted it done before last Tuesday night, we were hoping it would be but when you look back on it now in terms of that game being rescheduled and winning it here at Vitality, it all kind of fitted in nicely.”

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“But it isn’t until you get over that finishing line, you kind of look back and a lot of people in my family and stuff say now it’s the right move.

“All my life I’ve wanted to play in the Premier League and hopefully next season I get that opportunity.”

Christie was reportedly offered the chance to become a Premier League player last season before making the move to Bournemouth.

The 27-year-old held talks with Sean Dyche and Burnley, but instead opted for a move to the South Coast after meeting Cherries head coach Scott Parker.

The Verdict

It’s great to hear that Ryan Christie will be fulfilling a lifelong ambition when he steps onto the pitch for AFC Bournemouth next season.

With that being the case, it must have been really hard to turn down the reported move to Burnley last summer.

Clearly though, he didn’t feel the move was right for him and things worked out with his move to the south coast.

What a gamble that was though and surely promotion was a relief as much as anything for the 27-year-old.