Peter Grant reckons that Brendan Rodgers is already impressed with some of the Celtic young stars.
The former Hoops hero was on co-commentary duty during Wednesday’s 6-4 defeat at the hands of Yokohama F. Marinos.
Rodgers started with a strong line-up at the Nissan Stadium, but gave second-half opportunities to several young prospects.
The likes of Ben McPherson, Ben Summers and Daniel Kelly are all in Japan and got minutes against the J1 League champions. Grant doesn’t think that’s a coincidence.
Speaking on the Celtic TV coverage (74 mins), he said: “It’s the most important thing. If they went to Portugal and didn’t do themselves justice, and I mean in every way, around the dressing room, small details that the manager looks at and is impressed.
“Then the football becomes part of that. That’s why he’s taken them over to Japan with him. It would have been quite easy to leave them at home.
“If they don’t impress all round. How do they mix with their team-mates? These small details are so important and I’m sure Brendan must’ve been impressed to take them around the world with him.”
It’s very early days with the likes of McPherson and Kelly, but they do seem to have something about them. The pair were both thrown in to the action against Marinos and looked keen to impose themselves on the match.
As always, opportunities will be far harder to come by when the competitive action starts, especially with a number of injury returns and signings likely.
But in Rodgers the players have a manager who will give youth a chance if he feels it is deserving. Just ask Mikey Johnston, Anthony Ralston and Calvin Miller from his first spell.
Rodgers has said that he will use the squad differently on Saturday against Gamba Osaka. It seems like our young talents may get another 45 minutes to show what they can do.
In other news, Odin Thiago Holm didn’t feature for Celtic in the game
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