SCOTT BAIN touched down in Lyon this afternoon with his Celtic teammates and he is sure to be rather busy over the next week with the not insubstantial task of attempting to keep clean sheets against a decent and emerging Nice side, a very competent Lyon – with firepower provided by the ex-Celtic star Moussa Dembele then the Champions League heavy-weights and French Champions PSG.
🇫🇷 Bonjour! 😃
The Bhoys have arrived safely in sunny Lyon 🍀 pic.twitter.com/MhTViWuxCu
— Celtic Football Club (in 🇫🇷) (@CelticFC) July 14, 2020
The former Celtic keeper Dorus de Vries was perfectly correct at the weekend when he noted that Bain was a talented keeper who had never let Celtic down.
What a stage that is for any goalkeeper to shine and in Bain’s situation to make his own case for Neil Lennon opting for him as his Number One Number One for the Ten-in-a-Row season. With all the talk centred around the Fraser Forster will he won’t he sign drama, Bain has seen the big Englishman return to Southampton and stay there – for now. He’s also watched Craig. Gordon knock-back a new more modest contract extension, preferring to see out his playing days on the pitch for Hearts rather than warming the Celtic bench as the ten-in-a-Row pursuit reaches its conclusion, hopefully with a very happy ending!
And even if Bain was browsing on his phone at the airport he’d have read that the interest in bringing another former England goalkeeper to Celtic – the one Leigh Griffiths loves playing against – was increasing. It’s all water off a ducks back though to the goalie who you will remember was thrown in at the deep end at Ibrox in March 2018 on what was the first Beautiful Sunday.
So if he can cope with that he’ll figure that he can handle anything Nice, Lyon and even the superstars at PSG can aim at his goals over the next seven days.
“The players have shown that they’re more than capable of handling any pressure that gets put on them,” Bain told the official Celtic website before leaving Scotland, as he looked beyond the tour games and onto the Premiership in this the most historic of domestic seasons for Celtic. “For us as a squad, we don’t read into what’s anyone else is saying. We just know that, if we do the job we set out to do, and do it to our full ability, then we can come away with three points.
“It might sound like a cliché but it’s a marathon, not a sprint. We always focus fully on one game at a time, and, if we can play the way we’re capable of, we can ignore the outside noise.”
“The boys are really chomping at the bit to get back into it, given the way last season ended,” Bain said. “Right now we’re all really focused on getting back into it and excited to get on the pitch and start the season off as well as we possibly can.
“We’ve been back for a few weeks now and it already feels back to normal, as if we’ve never been away. Everyone’s been really excited to be back and that’s made for a great atmosphere every day. Even just getting out the house every day for several hours and having that routine back is something we all really appreciate.”
Earlier this evening we previewed the three games in France and mentioned that there was set to be a suspiciously familiar Onion Seller in the crowd…Celtic are Back! Selling his Onions, bet you it’s “Paul le Lyonnaisstim” in Disguise…SEE HERE.
