David Turnbull’s return to a Celtic shirt this preseason and for the SPFL curtain raiser has been a sight for sore eyes for this Hoops supporter.
All summer I have been advocating for Turnbull to get an opportunity at Celtic and with his contract going into its last year, I am also keen on him being offered a new deal.
Brendan Rodgers has already intimated what Turnbull must do to earn that deal and here, Celtic midfielder, Matt O’Riley details the strengths and options that the Hoops midfielder offers the team which show just how important he can be to the club.
O’Riley said [Daily Mirror print edition page 43], “I think he can be a big player for us this season. People can say what they want, that they don’t care about praise from people.
“But, when it comes from the manager, it’s very important because it shows that he does believe in you and has trust in you. When you know that it frees you up to go on the pitch and express yourself.
“I think we have seen that in the last couple of games. He just has a calmness in his game, he is a very good finisher and gets himself into positions to score.
“I’m really happy for him because he didn’t play as much football as he would have liked last season. He is a major goal threat any time he plays now. Outside the box, he gives us a different element where he is very effective with long-range shots as well.
“We are quite used to playing intricate football into the box and sometimes it’s a good option to have when teams are sitting quite deep.”
O’Riley is bang on the money here. Turnbull has shown us in previous seasons the threat he can give Celtic as an attacking midfielder.
In his first season at the club, Turnbull scored nine goals and created eight in 34 appearances. And when you consider that was during the COVID season, that makes those stats that little bit more impressive.
Although he made 38 appearances last season, the majority of those were from the bench. In fact, Turnbull only made the first eleven on nine occasions in Ange Postecoglou‘s final season but did still manage to find the net five times.
There is no doubt that given the opportunity, Turnbull will do a job for us. It seems like he will get that under Brendan Rodgers and I am excited to see how he will contribute to the team moving forward.
In other news, Young Celtic prospect Josh Clarke praised despite emergency loan debut defeat
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