Celtic are back in action on Wednesday evening against Portuguese side Portimonense.
It’s 39 days since we clinched our latest treble with a 3-1 Scottish Cup final victory over Inverness Caledonian Thistle at Hampden. To say that a lot has changed since then would be an understatement.
Ange Postecoglou has departed the club and been succeeded by Brendan Rodgers. Jota and Aaron Mooy have also left the scene while Odin Thiago Holm and Marco Tilio have been recruited.
Tonight the team returns to action. However, information about the fixture has been scarce. The club haven’t confirmed that a match is even happening but most football apps and websites have it down as a 5pm kick-off Scottish time.
It’s not being televised by the club and no fans will be inside the ground to watch the game against the Primeira Liga outfit.
Regardless of all that low-key stuff, let’s ponder what Celtic players could start tonight’s match. In the past, the club have used the first match of pre-season for players who have at least a week’s training under their belt. We can see similar happening this evening.
Joe Hart has been in pre-season since day one at Lennoxtown so there is no reason not to play him this evening, for the first 45 minutes at least.
Stephen Welsh could play at right-back with the fitness of both Alistair Johnston and Anthony Ralston unclear. In the centre we could see the returning loan player Liam Scales as well as Yuki Kobayashi with Alexandro Bernabei at left-back.
In midfield James McCarthy, Matt O’Riley and David Turnbull have plenty of training under their belt. That seems a possible midfield and it would be interesting to see how they would perform together.
James Forrest and Rocco Vata could feature on the wings while Hyeongyu Oh may need to play up front if Kyogo Furuhashi isn’t ready.
Expect to see plenty of changes with the likes of Daniel Kelly, Bruno Davidson and Ben Summers in line for an opportunity at some stage.
More than anything, it’ll just be nice to have Celtic back. Even if we can’t attend the match, watch or listen to it.
In other news, Furuhashi has been seen back in training with Celtic in Portugal
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