Manager Ange Postecoglou has talked up the welcoming and supportive environment within the Celtic dressing room, insisting that the club have done a great job of integrating foreign talents.
Postecoglou has signed six Japanese players since arriving in Scotland, with players from many other countries and cultures also landing at Lennoxtown.
It’d be easy to determine from the outside that cliques in the dressing room form around nationalities, but Postecoglou has dismissed that notion, believing there’s a good mix of lifestyles and attitudes interacting with each other.
As quoted by The Scottish Daily Mail [14/01 print edition page 118], the Bhoys boss said: “I can understand why people would think they [the Japanese players] would all stick together but you’ve got to remember that they are all very different people at different stages of their lives. Some of them have got kids. Others are single. They are very different personalities. While they do hang around together, they also gravitate towards people who are at similar stages in their lives. The ones with kids tend to hang around with the others who have kids, that kind of thing.
“We have tried to create an environment that is very welcoming but also supportive. We understand that whether it’s the Japanese boys or someone like Liel Abada, who has come from Israel, we need to provide support on and off the field and that’s what the club has done really, really well, so that the boys feel comfortable.
“I know it’s a unique situation [six Japanese players] but look at any Portuguese side this week and they’ll have half-a-dozen Brazilians. It’s just that we’ve done it in a market where it’s not usual to be done. I’ve always looked at them as all different people with different characteristics and our job is to provide support. But we have a fantastic dressing room and that’s a credit to the players. It doesn’t matter where a person comes from, they fit in really well.”
Last season, most of these players were thrown together in trying circumstances and came through those tests with an excellent bond. Many a member of the squad has talked up the family feeling of the group.
That kind of chat has lessened a bit this term with much more reporting about individual ambitions of some squad members, but the group itself looks as close as ever.
Callum McGregor, Greg Taylor, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Joe Hart and others are all considered leaders within the dressing room and clearly whatever they are doing to keep bonds strong is working, regardless of the perception that cliques could be forming.
It’s great to see and provides the background for the team click on the field as well as off of it.
In other news, Ange’s midfield call, another big test for Johnston; Celtic Predicted XI vs Kilmarnock.
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