BEING third choice at Manchester City is a bit like being a first team regular at just about any other football club.

The Abu Dhabi royal family, who own the team, are not short of a pound or two, or an estimated one trillion of them as it happens, so they possess the resources to pay bench warmers astronomical wages and don't place any burden on them in terms of these players taking part in any actual games.

Everything is taken care of. You travel the world, train with top class players in the best facilities known to man and receive the finest coaching.

For some, this is the life. For Dedryk Boyata, it was a situation that was driving him mad, or to be more precise, pushing him all the way to Celtic Park.

This is a man who just wants to play football - a good sign for Ronny Deila - and you could tell he fancies himself to prove a few people wrong now he's in Glasgow.

He didn't really get a proper chance at City where competition for places can verge on the ridiculous. But not making it at The Etihad does not mean that such a player is in any way not good enough.

The 24-year-old spoke well when meeting the press at Celtic Park yesterday afternoon. He made it clear that any career decision was his to make and that he didn't need advice from anyone, and that this move was as much Manchester City's loss as it is Celtic's gain.

We shall see. Anyway, the first impression of him was of an intelligent man who thoroughly believes he is at the right club. Not that he was previously at the wrong one for someone of his considerable talents.

Boyata said: "I have always told myself in my head I was good enough to play where I was (at City). I had my opportunities but the issues I had were that whenever you play, you can play as well as you like, but if you are at my stage you are not going to play all the time.

"I thought that by showing my qualities I would show the people at City I could play every week, but obviously that wasn't the case.

"There is a point where you need to think and say to yourself; 'I need to go somewhere to play games.'

"I cannot say I regret my time there because I learned a lot. But obviously I regret I didn't play as many games as I wanted.

"City had players with quality, however, I think I'm good enough to play at that level. But the manager is the one who takes the decisions and it was frustrating for me. Hopefully this year it will be a chance for me to live my dream."

Which is why this highly-rated if rarely seen central defender is now a Celtic player.

The word is that like Jason Deneyar a year ago, the club have found a gem in Boyata and that £1.5 is a steal for such a talent.

"I am a good centre back who is strong and quick and can win headers," he said when asked to describe himself as a player. So that's a few pretty important boxes ticked.

The Belgian has something about him. He has a bit of arrogance, no bad thing, and unless he was putting on one hell of an act, he's a calm big lad - with emphasis on big. Put it this way, you would not want to go into 50/50 with him.

He knows his own mind, that's for sure.

Boyata was asked whether he had asked his captain at Manchester City and fellow countryman Vincent Kompany his advice when he first became aware of Celtic's interest. That was met with a hard stare.

Boyata said: "Did I ask advice about my move? I'm old enough not to need to ask advice.

"He was a help to me in my youth career and Vincent is a good friend. He plays my position too and I think if he had the same decision to make as me he'd have done this."

For all that Manchester City, even when you are a fringe player, is now a massive club, this is going to be a step for up Boyata.

He has managed just 53 first-team appearances in his career and while he does come highly recommended - a very pleased Peter Lawwell looked on as he spoke to the press - being a decent player on loan at Bolton Wanderers and FC Twente is one thing, being a Celtic player is quite something else.

But believe it or not, he is up to this challenge.

Boyata said: "I haven't only played Under 21 football but it's the first time the season stars so early for me. That will be different and I will need to change my pre-season and work harder than I'm used to but I'm sure I'll be ready for it."