Gary Hooper

I see that Scunthorpe's Gary Hooper is in talks over a move to Celtic for a £2.4 million transfer fee.
I've followed his career due to local connections, he started off at Grays Athletic during their glory years around 2004/6 and then followed Freddy Eastwood to Southend, unlike Eastwood his face didn't seem to fit despite several good performances and he was loaned to Orient and Hereford, he showed good form for both with 2 goals in 4 appearances for Orient and 11 goals in 19 for Hereford.
Both times he returned to Southend and was stuck on the subs bench? he was eventually sold to Scunthorpe for £125k where he has again managed to average a goal every 2 games.

I have no idea why he wasn't given a decent chance with a run in the Southend team in the years he was there and it seems wrong that Southend will now benefit if the deal goes through after treating him so shabbily.
One of the few things the Southend management seems to have done right was inserting sell on clauses in a few players contracts, they received 20% of the profit on the recent Nicky Bailey transfer to Middlesbrough and look to have hit the jackpot with a similar deal on Hooper which will hopefully pay off their latest tax bill.
Hopefully he will sign for Celtic and be a success, he's only 22 and still has time to come back to England and maybe sign for his local team that play in the same colours as Scunthorpe :)