Nicolas Kuhn a no-show for Buckie Thistle debut

Celtic’s new signing Nicolas Kuhn will NOT make his debut for the club in Sunday’s Scottish Cup match at Celtic Park against Highland league side Buckie Thistle on Sunday afternoon. The Celtic support are desperate to get their first look at the £3m flying German in action after competing his move from Rapid Vienna earlier this week.

However at his media conference at Lennoxtown today, Brendan Rodgers revealed that Kuhn will have to sit this one out but will instead look to be involved next weekend in the Scottish Premiership match at Celtic Park against Ross County, with the Celtic manager explaining why his new signing won’t be involved this weekend.

“Nic will not be involved at the weekend as he has had a period out and then had an operation on his teeth so he has had a loss of strength in that, but he will be okay for Ross County,” Brendan Rodgers revealed.

And on the likely look of his team to face the Highland league side on Sunday, he added: “We will take the chance to be strong because we need to get the players back into a rhythm again and also I will take the chance to involve some young players as well.

“But we will have a strong team because the players have been training hard at Lennoxtown and you can see the confidence and speed of everyone which is great but now we need to take that into the game. We have to get up to speed quickly.”

The Celtic manager also explained what he believes Nicolas Kuhn will bring to the Celtic squad and insists that the German fits his criteria of looking to sign quality players.

“I mentioned before it was really all about getting players to come in and help us become a better squad. In all my time here if it was just about numbers we could have had people in here on January 1st but it’s not.

“It is about getting quality in and that takes time. Nicolas has had that big club experience before. He is a young, gifted and talented player and as a young player, he experienced those moments at clubs like Ajax and Bayern Munich.

“He is at an age where he has done well at Rapid Vienna and now he can take it to the next stage. He fits the profile in terms of how we work. He’s super-quick, he’s direct, he’s dynamic and we feel that we can continually improve his game and we are absolutely delighted to have him here.”

But we’ll all have to wait until next Saturday to see Nicolas Kuhn in action.

Brendan Rodgers was speaking at Lennoxtown today ahead of Sunday’s Scottish Cup tie against Buckie Thistle at Celtic Park. Watch his media conference below…