Alexandro Bernabei made his competitive Celtic debut this afternoon despite his recent setback, signifying he will have a role to play in Ange Postecoglou’s team during upcoming matches.
Bernabei arrived from Argentinian side Lanus back in June and was involved in the team’s pre-season trips to Austria, Poland and Czechia but had not been used in Scottish Premiership action.
The left-back got 12 minutes at Tannadice in the 9-0 win over Dundee United. That’s not enough to form an opinion on his display nor get a sense of what kind of impact he can make, but it is positive he remains involved and ready to come into the team.
Postecoglou confirmed earlier in the month that Bernabei had been involved in an incident that required internal and external processes to come to a conclusion. This was reported by the BBC to be an alleged road traffic offence, which the Celtic defender was said to have been charged for.
It’s unclear what the timescale on the resolution of all of that will be, but clearly, the manager is happy enough to rely upon him at the moment and that’s good news heading into a busy period of football.
Greg Taylor has started every match of the season so far with great success. He’s been in fantastic form. However, he can’t play every fixture, and Bernabei will be needed to ease the load on the Scotland international.
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Bernabei could even get more minutes in a Celtic shirt as early as Wednesday, with the Bhoys travelling to Ross County on Scottish League Cup duty.
Taylor is almost guaranteed to start against both Rangers and Real Madrid over the next ten days, so it would make sense for him to sit the Dingwall trip out or even be named on the bench.
In that scenario, handing 21-year-old Bernabei his first start in the Highlands wouldn’t be the worst idea.
Everyone is still eager to see what he can offer, with initial opinion from Argentina suggesting he could be an exciting, attacking addition to the Celtic left flank. Hopefully, he’s back on the pitch sooner rather than later!
In other news, Ticket rush in Poland for Shakhtar vs Celtic as locals buy into Champions League hype.