Derek McInnes made Ryan Christie 'desperate' to sign for Aberdeen

Ryan Christie has joined Aberdeen on loan until the end of the season

New Aberdeen loan signing Ryan Christie says manager Derek McInnes made him "desperate" to move to the club.

Christie, 21, has joined until the end of the season having made just 13 appearances for Celtic since his transfer from Inverness CT in 2015.

"I look at Aberdeen as the second biggest team in Scotland right now," said attacking midfielder Christie.

"In terms of all the other clubs in Scotland, Aberdeen were probably the only other one I would have joined."

Christie could make his debut for his new side at Pittodrie in Friday's Scottish Premiership meeting with Dundee, where a win would move the Dons above Rangers into second place.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers also helped sell Christie on a move to the north-east.

The Scotland Under-21 international said: "He [Rodgers] told me about Aberdeen and he didn't so much as say that he was forcing me out the door, but he gave me his opinion and said he thought it was a good idea, and to be fair I agreed with him completely.

"It was good to get his thoughts on it and he heard my thoughts, and after speaking to the manager [McInnes] as well, all of a sudden I was really excited and desperate to be here.

"It's been almost a full year without a proper run of game time, so it will be a nice feeling to have that back.

"Also I want to prove to myself as well that I can still fit in and show people I'm a good player.

"I can't say anything bad about it because I have had such an enjoyable year at Celtic in every aspect of it. Training is brilliant. Every player wants to play as much as they can so I was always going to get frustrated.

"But at the same time I knew I was going to have to stay patient when I first signed for Celtic. It's been about a year now and I think it was just about time to not go too long without game time and that's one of the reasons why I had to come here."

Celtic manager Rodgers revealed he had rejected an approach from McInnes in summer to take Christie to Pittodrie.

"I said Ryan was a player I wanted to see at close hand, I didn't want to see him go out," he told BBC Scotland. "He's contributed well in the first part of the season, but I felt in the second part of the season, with a few less games to play in, he might not be used so much and I don't want to hold back a young players' development.

"He can go to another big club with expectancy and under a good manager. I'm confident he'll come back as a better player."

McInnes is still hopeful of having Norwich midfielder James Maddison back for the second half of the season, while he wants "at least one more" signing before the end of the transfer window on Tuesday.

"There were other clubs asking about a potential loan move and he [Christie] has chosen us, and I think that says a lot about us and how he views Aberdeen.

"We haven't heard from Norwich, it was indicated we would hear from them at the start of the week.

"James did very well and I made no secret of the fact I wanted to keep him but I can't sit back and hope."