Anthony Ralston spoke at a Celtic Media Conference today ahead of Celtic’s return to our natural habitat at Parkhead. The Bhoys face-off against theRangers conqueror Jon Dahl Tomasson and his Balckburn Rovers side tomorrow afternoon in what promises to be an exciting occasion. The fans will be eager to see the group perform again after their pre-season camp in Austria reached it’s conclusion.
The Scotland international revealed the relief of having the opportunity to properly gel and bond this summer as the club avoided the treacherous Champions League qualifiers this time around, courtesy of being champions. He admitted that the Champions League group stage is where we want to be and that everyone in the camp is buzzing to get started this season.
Ralston, who this time last year was the only recognised right-back on the books at Celtic Park, said: “It is a good change to be able to get more training sessions under our belt, to come together as a team, get the friendlies in and focus on the start of the league campaign. Rather than playing the qualifiers, automatically qualifying is brilliant.
“We have all had a good bit of training under our belts, a few games now, a few games more to go and we are all in a good place, we are all fit. We have a bit to go but we want to keep improving and not just now, the start of the season as well. We are all looking forward to it.
“It is where you want to play your football, at the highest level, which is the Champions League. We will all have a part to play in terms of on the training pitch and also when it comes to the games. So we need everyone ready and fit and I am sure we will be.”
After an incredibly successful year last campaign, Anthony echoes once again the words of his captain Callum McGregor and manager Ange Postecoglou, citing that previous glories mean nothing and that we must be diligent with our performance level and strive to improve every single week. He added: “We’ve done what we done last season, we hit good heights but it is important that we improve again and as a collective that is what we aim to do.
“We are in a good place, we have had good training and games under our belts but going into the season we want to not only do what we did last season but improve on it. They (fans) definitely should be excited to get going, we all are. We had a great season together last season and we are looking for the same again. But that is behind us, what is done is done, we are ready to start a new chapter.”
Watch Anthony’s full press conference below:
Paul Gillespie
