Celtic assistant manager John Kennedy says the hard work will start now as the club gear up for another season. On Tuesday, Neil Lennon’s side found out that their first two matches of the new campaign will be against FK Sarajevo.
Little is known about the Bosnian champions but Kennedy insists that won’t be the case for long as the Celtic backroom team get to work.
What did he say?
The 35-year-old told the official club website: “FK Sarajevo have had a good season last year, and will have their threats, so we’ve got to be aware of that and make sure that we do our work properly.”
“The analysis guys will be hard at work now, and we’ll be in straight away too to get our work started. The important factor now is getting the squad up to speed, getting all of the boys back from international duty, and then preparing the team as best we can.
“My experience of these qualifying rounds is that they come around very quickly. Before you know it, you’re away at the training camp in Austria and as soon as you come back you’re straight into it.”
The unknown
It must be extremely difficult for the Celtic analysis team to prepare for ties against the likes of Sarajevo. For a start, the Bosnians won’t play a competitive match between now and the fixture. Footage of previous games will be the only chance Celtic will get to see them in competitive action and even that will be hard to find.
The task is not a unique one though. In the past few seasons, Celtic have played the likes of Lincoln Red Imps and Alashkert who little has been known about.
While it’s always great to know who you’re coming up against, the most important thing is Celtic. If we approach the tie in the right manner and play like we know we can then Sarajevo will stand little chance. Our biggest enemy in these games is complacency. It’s refreshing to see the likes of Kennedy assure fans that won’t be an issue.
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