MARIAN SHVED seems to have made a favourable early impression on Wouter Vrancken, the manager of Mechelen. The Celtic winger joined the Belgian side last week on a season long loan deal after the Ukrainian winger failed to break into the Celtic side last season. Shved was also surplus to requirements this season at Celtic and joins a growing list of fringe players such as Bayo, Jack Hendry and Lee O’Connor who have gone out on loan to get more first team football.
Signing the Celtic wide-bhoy seems to have pleased Vrancken, who has been speaking in glowing terms about his new signing.
“Let’s be honest here, Marian Shved is an outstanding talent who would not normally choose to play for a club like Mechelen,” the Belgian side’s manager told Daily Record.
“But because he hardly played at all last season, he wants to relaunch his career with us. He will bring us a real injection of quality to this club.
“He’s a shy guy and we are going to have to take him under our wing a bit, but he will soon get to know his new team mates. He will need time though because he’s barely played at all last season and was training on his own.
“But I can immediately see that the boy can play, he can speed up play when needed or hold onto the ball.
“He’s an excellent addition to the squad and we are lucky to have him.”
The headline on Daily Record reads “Marian Shved transfer surprise as Celtic flop hailed as an ‘outstanding talent'” but everyone who has watched the player on those impressive YouTube videos knows he’s a decent player.
What is perhaps more telling is that Wouter Vrancken made particular reference to Shved being ‘a shy guy” and accepts that they will have to fork on that and try to integrate him into their squad. Only then will they get the best out of the player.
Do you think Celtic didn’t try to do this? The difficulty that Shved had in integrating into the Celtic squad was a constant source of frustration for the Celtic coaches and eventually the decision was taken to send him out on loan to see if that can help. If Vrancken can succeed in doing that he could be doing Celtic a massive favour.
Neither Hendry or Bayo look like having any future as Celtic players, while the jury is still out on Irish international Lee O’Connor who yesterday completed his move to Tranmere. Shved might find his way in Belgium and come back ready to play at Celtic next season.
Fingers crossed.
