TOMORROW morning we’ll find out who will be Celtic’s first pick keeper this season. Scott Bain’s injury, coming after that calamitous night against Cluj, has meant that he’s slipped down the betting and is now the outsider of three for this particular race.
The other two, returning hero Fraser Forster and mainstay Craig Gordon are neck and neck, and who gets the gloves will probably be the first choice for the season.
Craig Gordon has done very little wrong and had perhaps his best game of last season at Ibrox on 29 December when the rest of the team let him, and us, down pretty badly. He came in for the Europa League games against AIK Stockholm, the Swedish champions and was beaten just the once in the two games and that was from the penalty spot after a ridiculous refereeing decision.
Yet sandwiched between those games was the league match against Hearts and Fraser Forster, who has had goalkeeping performances that are legendary in his first spell at the club, returned from Southampton on a season long loan and went straight into the side.
The giant Englishman was ineligible for the match in Stockholm so it will be tomorrow at Ibrox before we find out who is going to be Neil Lennon’s first pick.
The arrival of Forster back at the club is something that Gordon has had to deal with on a professional level. Just when he thought he was getting his chance to re-claim the gloves from Scott Bain the news broke that Neil Lennon was bringing Fraser Forster back.
“It’s not been easy, I’ve got to be honest. It’s been a really difficult week personally,” Craig Gordon admitted, as reported by Scottish Sun.
“I found out the morning of the first leg Fraser was being brought in and he signed at the game. I still had to go out and play and put that out of my mind.
“We got a good clean sheet, but then I didn’t play against Hearts. I then had to come back into the team again for the AIK second leg and make sure we got through.
“I just wanted to do the best I could for everybody, but myself too, to show I’m still good enough to play and I’m not too old.”
Gordon was asked if he’d speak to Neil Lennon about his situation if he finds himself on the substitutes’ bench tomorrow.
I don’t know. Until Thursday night I was just thinking about the AIK game and it was difficult to do that. I’ve had a hard week, I just wanted to get that out the way. I’ll regroup and prepare for Sunday, but we’ll see what happens and take it from there.”
And if all that personal turmoil at Celtic for Gordon wasn’t enough, international manager Steve Clarke omitted him from his squad due to his age and even suggested that he was close to retirement. Gordon seemed baffled by this.
“I’ve not spoken to him. I don’t know what his thoughts are. I never actually saw the manager’s comments but I heard about them.
“Listen, I don’t want to fall out with him. I want to play in his team so there is definitely no fall-out. Maybe there are some crossed wires there. I just hope there is still a chance down the line for me to get back in his thoughts.
“We’ll see what happens. I’m not going to rule myself out of selection, but it’s amazing how things change.
“A week ago I was thinking I was going to be back in playing for Celtic, with a great chance of getting the No 1 spot for Scotland, while playing in European football. But those seven or eight days feel an enormous amount of time. It’s been quite a strange week. I don’t really know how to take it all.
“It’s been a real week of negatives for me considering I’ve not done an awful lot wrong.
“I’ve managed to play consistently throughout and hopefully I get the chance to keep doing that. I want to play as many games as I can — whether it’s here at Celtic or somewhere else.”
That suggests that Gordon isn’t really prepared to sit out the last season or two on the Celtic bench and may want to move if he’s not going to be the first pick keeper.
