Celtic have been delivering regular video and social media content from the club’s training camp in Portugal; tonight it was Joe Hart’s turn to face the cameras and give supporters an update.
Hart was one of the players involved in Wednesday’s 0-0 bounce game against Portuguese top-flight side Portimonense and also took part in a 6-a-side intra-squad training tournament on Thursday afternoon.
The fact he sounded pretty gutted about not winning either event tells us he’s as focused as ever on delivering for the Bhoys. This is a very competitive group and it seems they hate giving an inch to each other in training, never mind to opponents in matches.
Hart told Celtic TV when asked how much he enjoyed today’s training: “Not very much, my team lost. No, we had a good competition today, and the game yesterday – everyone’s starting to get up to speed, especially the boys who came back a bit later. There was good competitiveness in training, it’s very enjoyable.
“I probably shouldn’t be such a baby right now in this interview, because it’s just training. But that’s got to be installed in you, that’s in all of us, it’s certainly in the manager. Why would you not want to win? We’re competing against each other, we’re trying to earn each others’ respect, we’re trying to build under the new manager. There’s so much up for grabs and so much to play for. Every training session is important.”
Joe Hart on Celtic friendly
On last night’s draw with Portimonense, Hart continued: “It was good. It was tough. We’re not looking for excuses but the fact is it’s flipping warm out here. The lads put a great shift in and did everything they could. We got the lungs burning for a few of the boys and we’re going to go again on Saturday.
“We’re just trying to build. I’ve got the privilege of experience knowing that you don’t have to be peaking right now, you’ve got to be building. We’re just trying to get better every day.”
There’s fantastic focus here and it’s exactly the kind of messaging we want to be hearing from the players at the moment. They’re undoubtedly not on a jolly in Portugal. It sounds like Brendan Rodgers is testing them and then some.
It bodes well for the start of the season and for the squad creating that foundation to build on as they head deeper into what will be a testing campaign on all fronts.
In other news, Brendan Rodgers states the achievable UEFA Champions League goal for Celtic this season.
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