James Forrest reached the magical 500 number on a Beautiful Sunday in Paradise as Celtic romped it with a 3-0 victory against theRangers, a scoreline that flatters the visitors despite the gaslighting that followed from the likes of the Belgian Waffler and Souness.
However theRangers fans are maybe not as daft at their current a former club’s old manager thinks and this time they saw right through the spin.
Just have a read at their forums or listen to their podcasts if you haven’t done so already. It’s glorious!
None of that though will have othered Celtic legend James Forrest too much as he looked back on the weekend where he came off the bench to make his 500th appearance for Celtic.
Afterwards Jamesy was as humble and grounded as he’s always been since making his debut 14 years ago. Jamesy works hard, keeps his head down, avoids the limelight and gives all he’s got to the Celtic cause. He’s had his chances to leave but never really fancied it and when his time at Celtic comes to an end then he’ll not bother playing for any other club.
He’s a one club man, a Celtic legend.
After the Glasgow Derby on Sunday, Jamesy got a nice mention from Brendan Rodgers as he addressed his players after their victory that opened up a five points lead over theRangers and put Celtic ahead of Aberdeen on goal difference. Jamesy explained what happened, as reported by Glasgow Times.
“A couple of boys were shouting for me to make a speech, but I managed to get away from that one,” Jamesy said. “It’s a great milestone. Obviously coming through the academy here and making a 500th appearance in front of your home fans in a victory against your rivals, it was a great day all round.
“Over the last few years, you see it less and less. You see a lot of players moving on from clubs after two, three, four years. That’s more the norm now. But being at a club the size of this for so long is a great achievement and I just need to keep working hard to try and add to that now as well.
“To be honest I only knew in the last couple of games I was close to 500. But I had a spell late January and February when I wasn’t in squads and I didn’t know if I was ever going to play for Celtic again.
“But when stuff like that happens it makes it even better when you do get achievements. It’s the same throughout your career, you maybe go through bad spells through loss of form or you’re injured, so it’s always good when you come back, win stuff and help contribute for this club.”
Brendan Rodgers admitted previously that he’d made a mistake in thinking that Jamesy didn’t have the legs to do the job last season, the tracking back and contributing offensively at the other end of the park. When given the chance Jamesy showed Brendan that on that one at least he’d got things badly wrong, and no-one was more pleased that the Celtic manager himself!
“In the changing room he spoke really well,” Forrest said. “He obviously spoke about the game first and foremost and how well the boys did defensively and attack-wise. And then he mentioned it at the end, he just said it was a great achievement.
“It was great for the boys making their debuts in front of the fans, you saw the atmosphere and how the boys played. I have been here a number of years and Cal as well, we have a good core group and that’s really good for the new boys.”
If others were doubting Jamesy back then he certainly wasn’t, neither incidentally was The Celtic Star as we continually called for him to be played and asked Brendan about it a few times. Indeed we also asked Ange about it a few times in his second season.
Jamesy never last the faith though and he explained why. “Maybe just belief in myself,” Jamesy said. “I felt I could still contribute. I know people say you’re getting older, and you are, but I was training every day with the players and I didn’t feel out of place.
“It’s not just me, we always have loads of players in our squad throughout the years and sometimes players can work hard and not get a chance. It’s just the way it is in football sometimes.
“I just wanted to keep working hard in training and then I knew if I did get a chance I was going to need to take it. Especially being an attacker at Celtic, your game is always based on goals and assists and contributing to the team.
“When I got my chance, I feel as if I didn’t look back, and that’s been it since then,” Jamesy said.
His great friend Callum McGregor retired from international football this season so will not be alongside Jamesy in the current Scotland squad for games against Poland and Portugal. Jamesy though had no such thoughts himself, even after failing to be given any minutes at all by Steve Clarke in that dismal Scotland showing in Germany at Euro 2024. When Scotland needed a goal, Jamesy with all his experience at the highest level of the game and goalscoring form at the last season was the obvious choice to everyone but the Scotland boss.
“Every player is different,” Jamesy said as he discussed Callum’s decision. “Obviously I went away to the Euros and it was the first time I had been away for years and I enjoyed it. But as a player you want to play, at club and international level, and I didn’t get the chance to do that.
“But while I am still feeling fit and healthy I’d like to try and contribute if I can. I understood what kind of role I was going to have before I went, but I thought it was a real good end to the season that I had here and I took that confidence into the Euros.
“But the manager took 26 players so you know, he needs to make the decision at the time in games, and there’s not much I can do about that. I just need to do what I did here, keep working hard and hopefully I get another chance.”
James Forrest is a Celtic legend, maybe we should appreciate him just a little bit more while he’s still playing for our club. After him and Callum, when will we see their likes again?
Well done Jamesy! Long may it continue!