SCOTT BAIN and his manager Brendan Rodgers spoke to the press today ahead of the resumption of interesting football after the dreaded international break.
The on-loan goalkeeper has jumped from emergency number 3 keeper to first pick in a few short weeks at the club and he’s raring to go when the action begins on Saturday against Ross County as Celtic look to take 3 points and another giant step towards 7 in a row.
Bain is clearly loving life at Paradise and clearly would love to be asked to sign a permanent contact when he becomes a free agent at the end of May. And that dream should become a reality judging by the comments made by his gaffer.
“I enjoyed having a few days off. I’m back feeling really good and raring to go. I’ve enjoyed the fact that I am here and I am at this great club but I never really thought about things too much, I just enjoyed the time off,” Bain stated.
On his next career move, Bain, who has interest from north and south of the borders, knows where he wants to be playing his football for the next number of years.
“I would love to be here,” he admitted.
“I’ve loved every minute of being at this club and the fans have been fantastic with me. Here I can reach my potential with the staff and the players I train with every day.
“It’s been such a strange season for me being out of games for a long time and not expecting to play. I would like it to be here as this club has got everything for me to improve.
“Working with the manager in terms of playing with the ball at my feet and having confidence and enjoying football again. I think I’ve improved and my performances have been quite high considering I hadn’t played games in so long, so it’s only going to get better.”
Bain arrived on the same day as his Dundee team-mate Jack Hendry and watched as his big pal made his fast-track debut for Scotland on Tuesday in the 1-0 win in Hungary. That’s certainly fueled Bain’s own international ambitions and he knows that playing at Celtic will put him in with a shout.
“I think being here has definitely given me an opportunity to be thought about for Scotland squad. But it’s not something that’s on my mind all the time, I’m just enjoying being here.”
Brendan Rodgers was clearly glad to have the squad back together again as preparations begin for the business end of the season, and noting the speculation concerning top scorer and current player of the year Scotty Sinclair, stressed that the 29 year old Englishman will NOT be departing in the summer.
“They’ve all come back, all enjoyed their times away with their international teams. All back healthy and some getting good match time in their legs,.” Brendan said.
There was praise from the manager for the on-loan goalie Scott Bain. “He’s come in and been fabulous really. Being thrown into the game he was thrown in, told you everything about his personality. Motherwell as well, he looked very competent.”
And for Scotland debut bhoy Jack Hendry. “I thought he was very composed and looked as if he had played more games than he has done, and he made a critical interception in the game, which I’m not sure many other Scottish centre halves could make.”
On Leigh Griffiths the gaffer had good news. “He’s back available and been training well the past couple of weeks, so he’ll be available for selection. He’s looked very good in training. He’s a very important player for us and having him back for the rest of the season is massive for us.”
But don’t expect Kieran Tierney to be involved ahead of Hampden next weekend. For Brendan though, we are now at the business end of the season with two trophies from last year’s treble there to be won all over again.
“We know we’re entering the real business end of the season now. We’re in a great position in the league, in a cup semi-final and a wonderful opportunity to again, rewrite the history books. It’s something we’re very focused on,” Rodgers admitted.
On Saturday’s visitors Ross County who are struggling at the bottom of the league and have recently parted company with Owen Coyle. “All teams are fighting for different reasons, and of course the teams at the bottom of the league will always make it difficult. We’ll prepare for a really tough game and our focus is on them only.”
The olayers need to focus on making history. Performances don’t matter now. wins do.