SCOTT BROWN spoke to the media yesterday, signalling the end of the international break and the return of the Celtic and the pursuit of Ten-in-a-Row. Neil Lennon will be doing the same thing today.
The Celtic captain, reflecting on the new arrivals at the club in the summer transfer window, notably the £5m spent on both goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas from AEK Athens and striker Albian Ajeti from West Ham, the £3m spent on Midfielder David Turnbull from Motherwell and the recent capture of centre half Shane Duffy from Brighton on a season long loan deal, to begin with. That cost Celtic another few million and the word is we can expect a few more arrivals before the window closes on 5 October.
Sky Sports were speculating that Neil Lennon is looking at a left back, a winger and another central defender and that might tie into reports yesterday that the club were willing to accept a £15million bid for Kris Ajer, who apparently would welcome the move. We will have to wait and see how all that pans out but for now Scott Brown was happy to tell the media his own thoughts on the Celtic activity in the transfer window.
“It’s been a great transfer window for us,” Broony said. “We have signed four or five now and they have all come in and strengthened the squad. They just need some game-time to get themselves going. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone fully fit.
“It will be a great squad with great competition. That’s what the manager wants. He wants competition from the lads, whether it’s a goalie, a striker, a centre midfielder or a centre-half. He wants everyone to have competition so the standard of training is tip-top as well,” the Celtic captain said.
One aspect that is of concern so far this season has been the lack of return in front of goal that has already resulted in a costly Champions League exit in a game that Celtic could and should have won comfortably.
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“We can always do better,” Broony admitted. “We’ve had one bad result but when you look back at all the games, we’ve dominated but not scored as much as we’d have liked to.
“There’s a few improvements we can make but we’re looking good and in a good place now. There’s always going to be bumps along the way but it’s about how you bounce back.
“We’ve been unbelievable at it over the years. We have maybe been poor in a game but then won ten or eleven on the trot. We need to make sure we get back to doing that. We just talk about one game at a time. The main thing is Ross County on Saturday.
“We’ve not managed to put the ball in the net as much as we would have liked to. We need to start doing that more. We’ve got Odsonne back in training now, so we’ve got four fit strikers.”
That incidentally is the first official indication that Leigh Griffiths is back fully fit and ready to contribute to this, the most important domestic season ever. With Edouard, Ajeti, Klimala and now fit again Griffiths and with Neil Lennon looking to go back to the 3-5-2 system that drove Celtic on to 9IAR at the start of the year, there really should be goals galore coming our way very soon. Here’s hoping folks!
You can watch Broony’s full media conference below.