Goalkeeper Joe Hart was asked about Celtic’s clutch of new January signings today and how the squad go about settling them into life at Lennoxtown.
The Bhoys have recently brought Alistair Johnston, Tomoki Iwata, Yuki Kobayashi and Hyeongyu Oh into the squad.
It’s another group of additions who come from a range of different cultures and backgrounds, joining an already eclectic mix of personalities in the Celtic dressing room.
Joe Hart leading with actions not words at Celtic training
For Hart, it’s not really about becoming best friends with his new teammates from the start. It’s about contributing to the collective and demonstrating what’s required as a Celtic player, following Ange Postecoglou’s philosophy.
Speaking in a media conference ahead of Sunday’s trip to St Johnstone, Hart said [Celtic FC]: “It’s all action here. It’s not like we’ve went out the cup and can get away with the team for a couple of days and get to know people that way. There’s not much free time or spare time.
“You can welcome people. Some people want to talk, some people don’t. We’re all different. But the club are recruiting people who want to be part of a team that works hard and puts the team before themselves. That’s what we’ve got here in the squad, that’s quite a strong message that we give.
“There’s the niceties and the human side of it, finding out about people’s families and if they’re comfortable. But that’s just down to being a good person. From the football side of it, you can really let people know the standards here by how you conduct yourself.
“The constant message from the front, from the manager, is to always want more and to always keep pushing. For the guys that we’ve signed, I think that’s music to their ears and that’s what they want from themselves.”
At this stage, we don’t know how successful this latest group of signings will be. But as Hart says, the club are recruiting a specific type of personality that the coaching staff have confidence will complement the rest of the group well.
Johnston, Kobayashi, Iwata and Oh have all already shown to varying degrees that they can fit in nicely to what this team are trying to do. With more minutes, we’ll start to see more and more what they can offer as individuals too. That will be crucial in determining their long-term Celtic futures.
If they can stay in tune with the Postecoglou mantra of constant improvement, they have a great chance of becoming a big hit.
In other news, Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic comparison one year on from Rangers demolition should worry rivals.
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