A former Hearts loan signing has linked up with a former Celtic team-mate at a Championship club.

Former Hearts and Celtic forward Tony Watt has completed a move to Championship club Partick Thistle - and immediately revealed a former team-mate was the driving force behind the deal.

After breaking into the senior setup at Celtic following a move from Airdrie United in 2011, Watt famously scored a winner in a Champions League victory against La Liga giants Barcelona just over a year later. However, his time with the current Premiership champions was relatively underwhelming and he joined Belgian side Standard Liege during the summer of 2014 after impressing during a loan spell with league rivals Lierse just months earlier.

A move to Charlton Athletic followed before Watt joined loan spells with Cardiff City and Blackburn Rovers before making a similar move to Hearts in the summer of 2016. After scoring one goal in 17 appearances during his time with the Jambos, an initial season-long loan agreement was cut short in January and Watt has gone on to spend time with the likes of St Johnstone, CSKA Sofia and Motherwell since leaving Tynecastle.

After leaving Dundee United earlier this summer, the 31-year-old has now put pen-to-paper on a two-year deal with Partick and revealed former Celtic team-mate and current Jags boss Mark Wilson was key to bringing the move to fruition.

He told the Jags official YouTube channel: “I am excited, it’s an exciting one. I’ve known about for a while now and I am just glad it’s done and over the line. My agent spoke to the manager and I think they had a few good conversations and naturally it progressed. I spoke to the manager last week and we’ve just been dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s ever since but we had a very good conversation. I know him and I know him a lot more as a player. He was a top player and I am excited.

“It’s a good club, a really big club in Scotland. It’s an exciting club and it’s obviously going through a wee bit of a transition in terms of a new manager, squad but it excites me and I had really good conversations with the manager and he pushed me towards it.”

Head Coach Wilson told the club website: “To secure a player like Tony is a real coup for the club. I played with him briefly when he was a youngster at Celtic and he’s gone on to have a distinguished career since then. He arrives here as a very experienced player who had an excellent season the last time he was playing at this level and we want to give him the platform to perform like that again.”

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