Celtic began pre-season training on Monday at Lennoxtown.
As we reported earlier, around half of the first-team squad were put through their paces by Brendan Rodgers for the first time.
Jota wasn’t part of proceedings but ‘Head of Performance’ Glen Driscoll was back amongst the action.
The first session spells the end of the summer break for much of the playing squad, with our international stars set to join up over the next week.
After that, Celtic will head to Portugal for more training and some friendly matches.
While news on the latter has been scarce, some recent reports have suggested that we are due to face Portuguese top-flight side Portimonense.
ZeroZero say we will take-on the Algarve outfit twice, on July 12 and 15.
Fixture websites like Tribuna have the July 12 game down for a 5pm kick-off (Scottish time) and the game the following Saturday at 11am. Reputable outlet Soccerway have the same match details on their site.
It is worth noting that this hasn’t been confirmed yet on the official Portimonense website or by Celtic. However, these matches are often low-key affairs not deemed worthy of much fanfare.
In December, we faced Rennes in a post-World Cup friendly. Few knew anything about the game before, during or afterwards.
Our subsequent matches in Asia should be a little more high-profile.
We are due to face Yokohama F. Marinos on July 19 and Gamba Osaka on July 22, both in Japan. Wolves were also down as opponents for the South Korea leg of the trip but they have since pulled out.
There had been suggestions about a match against local side Incheon United, although those plans seem to be dead in the water as well.
As reported by the Daily Record, the K League 1 side said: “Sadly, it will now be practically impossible to arrange any friendly matches this month against European opposition at this short notice.
“It is highly regrettable we are not able to please our supporters with a game against a big club and we apologise to those who were awaiting such a prestigious game.”
With time moving on, it seems most likely that Celtic’s Asian tour will consist of just two matches. That shouldn’t make it any less enjoyable though.
The main thing is that the team are preparing in the best way possible for the new campaign.
In other news, the return of Glen Driscoll to Celtic was confirmed on Monday
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