A key marketing figure at Wolves has been talking up his side’s upcoming clash against Celtic.
It was announced on Wednesday that Brendan Rodgers’ men will face the Premier League team in Dublin on Saturday 29 July.
The game will take place at the glorious Aviva Stadium, with kick-off at 2pm.
The Hoops were originally meant to face Julen Lopetegui’s side in South Korea on July 26, but Wolves pulled out after issues with the tour promoter, with Celtic following suit soon after.
All seems to be well now though as we get set to face-off in Dublin. General manager for marketing and commercial growth Russell Jones gave some quotes to the official Wolves website after the announcement.
“We are really excited to be heading back to Ireland for the first time in almost ten years for this match against Celtic,” Jones said.
“Both ourselves and Celtic were extremely disappointed to have been forced to withdraw from our tour of South Korea this summer.
“But we are pleased that we have been able to rearrange this pre-season fixture – and couldn’t have wished for a better replacement venue than Dublin and the Aviva Stadium.
“Wolves have enjoyed some thrilling meetings with Celtic in the past and we’re sure that this game will be the same, as well as a great opportunity for Julen and his squad to prepare for our Premier League season.”
You get the impression that we have been in discussions with Wolves throughout the summer, with much of the communication probably slagging off the South Korean organisers.
Reading between the lines, it does seem like the organisation in Korea was pretty poor, and that both teams pulling the plug was the only solution.
After that, it makes a fair bit of sense to arrange another game in different surroundings.
The match at the Aviva is likely to be a costly one for supporters, and the 17 day notice is hardly ideal.
It’s hard to imagine the 50,000 stadium being jam-packed, but the match will hopefully still attract a decent crowd.
More than anything, it gives the two teams an additional preparation match ahead of the new season.
In other news, Daizen Maeda has given a rare interview to club media in Portugal
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