The first Celtic match of the new era has been confirmed today with the Hoops scheduled to face Sheffield Wednesday in Wales.
The Hoops have announced that the game will take place on July 7th at 3pm. This will be the first match of Celtic’s pre-season schedule, with two more being played in Wales against Charlton Athletic and Bristol City. The match will be shown live on the club’s Pass to Paradise streaming service too.
Celtic will then return back to Glasgow with friendlies against Preston North End and West Ham United also on the cards.
But it all kicks off against Sheffield in only 41 days. This could mean that, should Eddie Howe be the next Celtic manager, this fixture will be his first game in charge.
It may also see the debut of new Celtic midfielder Liam Shaw, who arrives on a pre-contract agreement from Wednesday.
Celtic getting sensible pre-season plans in place as first match draws nearer
There’s something about Celtic’s pre-season plans this season that just reads well. Every game should have a strong element of competitiveness to it, from the first against Wednesday to the final fixture against West Ham.
It’s also positive to see Celtic take the sensible decision to stay in the UK for their pre-season trip. This hopefully shows that some lessons have been learned from the Dubai debacle back in January.
With Celtic putting dates in place, all eyes will now focus on the new managerial announcement. It’s essential that the new boss has at least some signings over the line before our pre-season training camp. He’ll want as many of his new players in as possible in order to find the best shape and system for his team ahead of the Champions League qualifiers.
Granted, there will be an understanding from the Celtic supporters that the rebuild won’t be complete in 41 days. It could even be the case, given the scale of the task ahead, that it takes more than one transfer window for us to cover every position. But some heavy work needs to be put in before we take the trip down to Wales.
Filling up our calendar with Championship and Premier League opposition is a promising step however. It puts us up against decent-quality opposition from a very early stage.
Here’s hoping the new Celtic managerial era starts off with a comfortable win and no injuries against the Owls!
In other news, Celtic have claimed an overwhelmingly positive response to season ticket sales.
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