The American’s Dream and his Queue Jump Task at Celtic

CELTIC’S Andrew Gutman is set to spend all of 2019 out on loan after agreeing to return to MLS side FC Cincinnati for another loan spell.

The left back signed for Celtic from Charlotte Independence last year before immediately returning Stateside for a loan period at the club.

The 23-year-old spent a few months in the USA with Cincinnati making 10 appearances and impressed the coaches enough to get him back for the upcoming MLS season.

Gutman told fccincinnati.com that he is looking forward to getting back to playing and hopefully showing Neil Lennon what he has to offer at Celtic.

“It’s been good. It was a big step in my career obviously.

“I played in the USL and did well there, then went back (to Celtic) and did well in pre-season there. Coming here was a good opportunity for me to get games at a high level, and I think I’ve done pretty well so far,” Gutman told fccincinnati.com.

“They’re in season, but they have such a big squad, so the guys that aren’t rostered for games will have training sessions.

“I’ll have a good stint of training over there with them just to get back in front of their faces and show them my qualities again.”

Gutman’s problem looks likely to be that Celtic now have three players all competing for the left back spot. Boli Bolingoli and Greg Taylor were both signed in the summer by Neil Lennon and Jonny Hayes hs put forward a strong and compelling case for keeping the jersey with his recent excellent performances against Lazio in Rome and Motherwell at the weekend at Celtic Park, where the Dubliner was named Man of the Match by the club’s sponsors and also by Sandman who in his unmissable Player Ratings had this to say about Jonny…

“As somebody who’s fought in every war on the planet, world or civil since .. Well, time has no meaning to quantum-leaping Jonny. It was fitting he took his place on such a Sunday.

“And he started like he’d been sent over the top. Again. Though the foe today was distinctly more ugly than he’s seen. Good support up the left all game, creating and filling danger zones – cracked a shot off the keeper’s fists on half-time to remind us all he was potent in attack when wearing the red woolies of the Sheep.

“Then he fires in the second off Tait – well, let’s give it to Tait for the finish off Jonny’s cross; he may be our January signing to backup Eddy…But let’s give the MOTM to Jonny for being the tireless ordinary soldier who stepped up today and became the brigada leader who drove us to a crucial victory. Partisan Hayes, we salute you.”

That’s some queue that Andrew Gutman has to jump if he’s ever going to get a look in at Celtic. Stranger things have happened though so he’s going to have to Keep the Faith.

ALSO ON THE CELTIC STAR…

‘It’s now all about the money,’ Celtic criticised for putting Cash before Supporters

For the games at Ibrox Celtic adopted a policy that if you were lucky in previous visits you didn’t get put in the ballot next time.

Some questions a season ticket holder wants Celtic to answer after yesterday’s Ballot…

1. How many tickets did Celtic get?
2. How many tickets were balloted to qualifying supporters?
3. What criteria is used in the ballot i.e is this an open ballot or is it more of a points system?
4. Why isn’t the ballot system known before the ballot?
5. Supporters would still be disappointed at not getting tickets however if we believe the allocation of tickets to the ballot is fair and the ballot is open we would be more accepting of the situation.
6. Why has there been a lack of openness and transparency from Celtic regarding ticket allocations since as far back as I can remember (I’m 58)?

Read the full article HERE and if you are a STH on the HCTS and meet Celtic’s criteria please take two seconds to tick the relevant box to tell us how you got on in both Cup Final Ballots this year.