James Forrest

Boy is as thick as a black guy's *.

 

Tony Watt has nice eyes, surprisingly.

 

Finny?..

 

No. He really does, but I don't want him back at Celtic, or for us to sign that other guy that used to play for St Johnstone. I'd never have thought it, but they look all deep and soulful.
Just goes to show that appearances can be deceptive.

He could be pretty gorgeous if he tidied himself up a bit.

 

Whoops, meant to edit my post, not quote it.

 

Brendan Rodgers has James Forrest firing after hard Celtic pre-season






The transformation in James Forrest over the space of six months has been so dramatic as to
almost defy all logic.

A broken, dispirited figure under the stewardship of Ronny Deila, the Celtic winger’s metamorphosis into the balletic flying machine so far witnessed under Brendan Rodgers gives rise to the theory that the Parkhead club may recently have taken possession of a cloning machine.

But the reasons behind a welcome return to form for the 25-year-old are far more prosaic.



‘I’ve really had the benefit of a hard pre-season,’ Forrest said. ‘I think we all have.

‘The games have come thick and fast as well so it’s really helped in terms of building the fitness. This is the fittest I have felt in my career.’



‘I’ve really had the benefit of a hard pre-season,’ Forrest said. ‘I think we all have.

‘The games have come thick and fast as well so it’s really helped in terms of building the fitness. This is the fittest I have felt in my career.’


The question – indirectly posed by Scott Brown earlier this week – is now glaringly obvious. If a tougher pre-season programme was so important in transforming Celtic’s fortunes, why did Deila not think of it first?

By ensuring largely the same group of players are far better equipped to go about their work this season, Rodgers has inadvertently exposed his predecessor and his Norwegian backroom staff as being second-rate.




Common decency will preclude Forrest from putting it in such blunt terms now. His football since the Irishman took charge makes the point more acerbically than any words ever could.

‘It’s been a great start to the season. It couldn’t have gone better, to be honest,’ he added. ‘It’s been brilliant since day one. The manager has been a big influence on me. I’m sure a lot of the Celtic boys would say the same. He’s come in and given us a lot of confidence.

‘We’ve been working hard and I think it has showed. Hopefully we can keep it going.

‘I spoke to him when we came back for pre-season. He just told me that he’d seen me play before and he told me what he expected.

‘I think he spoke to all the boys and it was clear he wanted us to work hard.

‘It turned out to be a really good pre-season and we kept that going into the campaign.’

At the turn of the year, you wouldn’t have put bad money on Forrest talking in such terms. As his contract wound down under the previous regime, the odds on him seeing Deila off looked remote. Patrick Roberts, a £12million-rated loanee from Manchester City, was the diamond in the rough for an increasingly disgruntled Celtic support.

Yet when Roberts’ parent club came to town last week on Champions League business, tellingly it was he who replaced Forrest late in the game and not the other way around.

‘There’s a lot of competition,’ Forrest said. ‘There are a lot of good players in a lot of positions. When you are at a big club like Celtic there is always going to be competition for places.

‘I just need to keep working hard and hopefully I can stay in the team.

‘Is this the best I’ve played? Definitely.

‘I’ve played a lot of games and it’s been a great start to the season for me and the team.’



The relationships between international managers and their club equivalents can be difficult, fraught affairs. Seeing a bunch of feted, highly-remunerated footballers being dragged around the globe several times a year – even in the name of defending the honour of a nation – is hardly a source of joy for those whose employment prospects are underpinned by making a league table pleasant reading for their chairmen.

But you suspect that seeing Forrest give his all to see off Lithuania and Slovakia over the next week will further gladden Rodgers’ heart. When a player is in the kind of groove the winger currently finds himself, no challenge could be considered unwelcome.

‘At Celtic, we’ve really kicked on since the last international break so it’s great to be away with Scotland now after such a good start to the campaign,’ the player added.

‘You can take that into the international scene.

‘All the boys will tell you, if you are feeling confident then you come here with a spring in your step and it can only be good for the national team.

‘There are a lot of good players here who have been playing well for their clubs. It’s a major boost for us.’

There’s a degree of payback at play here, too. Frankly, over the past couple of years, Forrest’s inclusion in the national squads was based more on hope than expectation of him delivering for his country. Form doesn’t come from a tap that can be switched on and off.


So having stood by the player during the lean times, who could begrudge Strachan now licking his lips at the prospect of a reborn Forrest being let loose as his side seek to turn three points into six on Saturday?

‘The manager has really helped me a lot,’ Forrest added. ‘He played a big part in helping me during that time.

‘He spoke to me a lot, he had me involved in a lot of squads, even when I maybe wasn’t playing every week at club level.

‘It was great for me, joining up with great players the whole time, training with boys who are playing down in England and working with top coaches as well.

‘I really appreciated what he did for me and that support is not something I’ll forget.

‘I just want to keep working hard for him and playing well any time he gives me a chance.’

It can be taken as read that another opportunity will come his way on Saturday. Lithuania may sit so deep at times their defensive line might hold up the traffic on Aikenhead Road. It’s a day when fleet-footed wingers may make all the difference.

‘We’ll do our homework on them this week but we’d expect them to come here and try to sit in and frustrate us. It will be up to us to be patient and break them down,’ Forrest continued.

‘We’ll study them but I believe it will be more about how we perform and what we do. We know if we play the way we can we can get the result we are looking for.’

 

Fantastic today

 

Ayrshire Garrincha

 

MOTM for me.

 

I thought that early doors after a good dtart but as more came down the left thought KT just oozed class. Hey,it's good that we are debating who had the better game though!

 

Told yee's aw he was a player

 

Brilliant again today, was consistently getting in behind them and playing in dangerous balls.

Long may it continue.

 

Another excellent display, amazing what a dose of confidence can do to someone's ability. Just beating that first man makes all the difference to his effectiveness.. Brilliant to see.

 

In the form of his life at the minute.

You know he must be playing well when he's keeping Roberts out the team.

 

Absolutely outstanding first half and still going, but even better than that, his tracking back is now second to none..

 

Defo mate. Always a threat these days but puts in some shift as well.

 

100% bud..

Joy to watch now..

 

Mental but he actually is. Showing his true potential.