The Celtic battle between Maryan Shved and Daniel Arzani is an interesting one

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One of the most exciting prospects next season is the potential battle between Daniel Arzani and Maryan Shved.

James Forrest has a firm grip over the right-wing position at Parkhead. The triple Player of the Year winner this season won’t be getting dropped for anyone next term. At least certainly not anytime soon. If Arzani or Shved want to change that, they’re going to have to battle each other first.

Both of the exciting young talents play down the right. Shved, to his credit, can also play down the left or even up front. But he’s most certainly at his best when deployed as a right winger.

And this exciting battle has kind of come up through sheer coincidence. Arzani was actually signed in the summer of 2018 by Brendan Rodgers. The Australian international played in the 2018 World Cup for his country. After sealing a big move to Manchester City, the winger was then farmed out to Celtic for a two-year loan.

The youngster certainly made a decent impression last season too. Not in terms of how many appearances he racked up of course, as his only one outing came at Dens Park on Halloween. But he showed he had something before injuring his ACL and being confirmed as sidelined for the season.

At the very least, Celtic fans were able to get a sight of him. Arzani, despite us not seeing much, seems to have something about him, and his return is an exciting prospect.

Can’t ignore Shved either

But Shved’s reputation in Ukraine is hard to ignore too. He finished his time in Ukraine as the third top goalscorer in the Ukrainian Premier League. Shved also managed to win the Player of the Month award for March too. He was almost single-handedly keeping Karpaty Lviv out of the relegation fight.

For those who also didn’t see his individual showreel that Karpaty Lviv posted on social media to announce his departure, you can view it here.

Shved arrives having done it all with Lviv. He has a wicked left-foot, and looks like he can go in the inside and outside with his dazzling footwork.

Both of these players have huge reputations, and it looks as though we’re going to see them slug it out for a first-team spot. It’s going to be an intriguing battle, and it will be interesting to see what Neil Lennon thinks of both.