Former Celtic assistant boss John Collins failed to persuade Bhoys goalkeeper Logan Bailly to join Raith Rovers on loan, despite the Scottish champions being willing to allow the Belgian to leave.
Raith are currently in the grip of a goalkeeper crisis and had wanted to sign Bailly on an emergency loan deal as the solution to their problems.
The Championship side were in contact with Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers, who was willing to allow the shot-stopper to make the loan switch as he has fallen to third choice in the goalkeeping pecking order at Parkhead.
But Bailly was not keen on the switch and Raith even roped in ex-Celtic assistant Collins in a bid to persuade the Belgian to make the move.
"Our preference was to find an over-21 goalkeeper with experience and [manager John Hughes] was on the phone to Brendan Rodgers during the English League Cup final game, he was talking to Brendan and then talking to me", Raith club secretary Eric Drysdale explained to the side's in-house TV channel.
relatedNewsStory
"Celtic were very helpful to us. A player was put our way.
"That was to be done on Monday, but we were, meanwhile, making enquiries of other clubs and other agents to see, in case this deal fell through, we had somebody else to come in – but the main focus was on this Celtic player.
"Everything was tied up, but suddenly the Celtic goalkeeper was non-contactable", Drysdale said.
"John Collins was acting on our behalf trying to speak to the player, trying to persuade him to come down to the Championship.
"But ultimately the player decided he didn't want to do that."
Bailly has only managed to make five senior side appearances for Celtic since he switched to the club in 2015 to act as backup to Craig Gordon.
Rodgers signed Dorus de Vries from Nottingham Forest last summer, something which pushed the 31-year-old down to third choice at Celtic Park.
However, despite a lack of football, Bailly did not want to play in the Championship for Raith.
