Charly Musonda

I remember Lustig's first game, think it was against hibs, he looked skin and bones to what he is now. No doubt Brendan will have Musonda working on his strength, would be great to see him play a bit more as i reckon he can make stuff happen on the pitch. We dont need any wingers, but if he can rotate with Rogic he can show us more of what he can do.

 

Forrest is a * beast these days.

 

Yeah Forrest looks like he’s in the shape of his life, as do a few of our players since Rodgers took over.

 

Musonda will never have legs like oor Jamesy

 

Aye a lot of our players are noticably bigger now than they were when they first started playing/arrived.

Ajer, Eboue, Bitton and Lustig like Musonda looked anorexic when they arrived but now all them are quite solid except Musonda who is still very slight. Tierney also compared to 18 months ago is massive, Griffiths, Forrest, Armstrong, McGregor, Roberts, Ntcham and Dembele are all much more muscular and leaner than they were - although Roberts could probably improve more but he was injured for ages so has been held back.

Almost all our players are now excellent athletes.

Jack Hendry should turn into a beast, he looks to have a great physique and should rapidly improve his fitness with us as he was probably a bit out of shape and soft only training with diddy clubs like Dundee and thinking his career might not come to much but now hes possibly on £5/6k a week and looking forward may have a 10 year career at Celtic with the possibility of doubling and eventually tripling his wages if he makes it here he will be looking to get into the shape he must see guys like Boyata, Tierney, Forrest and Dembele are in.

 

Mate, look at the pins on him and wee Tierney, * must be battering out the weighted squats like no *'s business!

Also worth noting that Forrest (as far as I'm aware) hasn't had much hamstring injuries in recent years, if any since probably Deila came in.

I remember off the top of my head when Lennon was in charge that they looked at Forrest's horrendous hammy injuries, and put it down to the way he was driving every day to and from training or something like that.

Either way, this is a totally different James Forrest we have seen the last two seasons - went from being a promising wee petulant winger to one who is totally committed, doesn't always get the game time but puts in effort and tries like * everytime he's on the pitch.

* love the wee man now, the sight of him dancing in and out between defenders before scoring that goal genuinely was Jinky-esque.

 

The injuries they were also saying about the way he ran - and there’s a difference in that as well.

 

Mate, I was literally just about to post this before I say your post:


From march 2015


For much of the past four years, James Forrest has been damaged, both physically and mentally. Ronny Deila, the Celtic manager, describes him as a 'frightened' footballer.

Self-belief was never an issue until a relentless series of muscle injuries began.

To some, Forrest is the best player Celtic have. An £8million star-in-waiting. Reduced to the role of a walk-on extra in each of the past four seasons, however, it’s hard to be certain.

‘It’s been a long time since James Forrest has been consistently good,’ said Deila. ‘But, touch wood, that’s six months without a pulled muscle and he is moving in the right direction.

‘We have been unbelievably patient with him because we have had to build him up from the bottom.’

Deila might have been describing ’70s TV character Steve Austin, The Six Million Dollar Man, rather than a winger recently rated in an altogether higher bracket.

Stripped down and carefully rebuilt in a painstaking quest to get to the heart of the injuries that have rendered him a Parkhead bystander at times, there is cautious optimism from Deila that — this time — Forrest might just be ready.

A second-half substitute and the scorer of the second goal against Dundee United, the winger was close to stealing the show in Sunday’s League Cup Final win. Yet his efforts were not appreciated by everyone.

John Guidetti’s feelings on the spot-kick Forrest won and missed were embarrassingly public.

Knocking the desk before him, however, Deila welcomed signs that the physical frailties in the Forrest make-up are healing.

‘It has been hard work building his self-belief back up, so that he won’t get these injuries,’ said the Celtic boss.

‘It has been slow. I was happy for him to score on Sunday and win a penalty.

‘But, you know, he is not even close to what he can be as a footballer.

‘I am happy he is going in the right direction — but we know there are still things to work on.

‘He has the right people around him and we know that, if we get it right, he will be a very important player for us.’

Arriving from Stromsgodset, Deila expected Forrest to be one of his key players.

A coach who revels in the relentless quest for physical improvement, the Scotland international has become his pet project. According to Deila, the balance of his body was all wrong, his running style placing strain on vulnerable muscles.

James has been worse than he is now,’ he said. ‘He was afraid because he had been out for two of the past four years with a lot of pulled muscles.

‘You get frightened and we need to get his confidence back and believing in himself. It has been psychological, but it has also about getting the balance and control of his body.

‘He has a great attitude and is working hard. So far, we have managed to get him out of the cycle of pulled muscles — but he has had other things, as well.

‘When you get a sore knee or twisted ankle, it affects your way of running.

‘He’s in a very good place now after 30 minutes on Sunday and 90 minutes last week, plus full training on Monday and Tuesday.’

Forrest is available for selection against Dundee United in their Scottish Cup quarter-final replay.

‘I can see he will get better and better,’ said Deila, who can call again on Adam Matthews at right-back.

‘It’s about strengthening his core, getting balance to change direction at high speeds. The medical staff have been working hard at getting it right, but now he needs more time on the pitch.

His body is not nearly where it should be. It takes him five days to recover from playing 90 minutes.

‘We have to be careful because, when you are tired, that’s when you get pulled muscles.

‘We have to build him up step by step. Hopefully, in six months we will be sitting feeling excited about James Forrest.’

 

* chelsea ! Not that I think there anything in this surprisingly negative Celtic story right after we smashed sevco to clinch 7in a row but * chelsea.it seems someone is trying to make Rodgers and celtic look weak when this story pops up about him needing more game time ,with the league wrapped up if say there a much better chance of him getting a game anyway and it will seem we are under chelsea's command he gets a couple of starts now.

 

I know I do worry about his mentality and work-rate though, if he was at Chelsea and expected to break into the Chelsea team then how did he really think he was capable when he was so physically weak? he must notice that all the other Chelsea players are in far better condition than him. So it does raise question marks as he is 21 also, nearly 22. If he was 17 or 18, maybe even 19 you wouldn't think much of it and just assume he will get bigger and fill out as he reaches his early 20s(Like Mikey Johnston who actually improved lot from last season to this) but theres no reason he should really be as thin and weak as he is.

You can be as technical as you want but if you've got legs like match sticks and no upper body strength either and can't really take a light bump or tug without being knocked off balance then you're going to be harmless most of the time unless you get in behind someone with space to run into. You need to be able to build up speed as you run if you want to play on the wing to get away from people and if you want to play in the 10 then you need to be able to turn guys at close proximity and take a hit from behind and shrug guys off if theyre holding you, neither of which he can do really and thats the two positions he plays in.

 

Want to see him get a run in the team until the end of the season.

I know he is pretty slight and would benefit with bulking up a bit but he is clearly a very talented player that can still make an impact despite his small frame.

 

Former teammate who plays for another team in England now, was up as a guest of one of our players who played on Sunday as used to play with him down in England, he wasn’t slagging Musonda off but more expressed a frustration in him as he’s a great talent

 

I did think he'd be more involved after Zenit at home but game's like Killie they basically kicked and pulled * out of him at Rugby Park and probably Brendan wasn't willing to risk him with his physique just in the door..

He does need to add some beef to his self to gain that upper body strength. No one's expecting miracles but even the likes of Paddy Roberts are noticeably more solid and can't be too different in height and stature when they both arrived..

Hopefully we'll see the best of him after a good pre-season..

 

BRENDAN Rodgers admits he is powerless to prevent Chelsea from recalling Charly Musonda this summer, just six months into his 18-month loan spell. Reports from south of the border suggest the Stamford Bridge side are concerned about the Belgian’s lack of playing time and are of a mind to rip up the agreement with the winger which is currently set to run until May 2019. Since arriving on January deadline day, the 21-year-old has started just two matches and failed to make the matchday squad for either of the recent meetings with Rangers.

While Rodgers said he had heard nothing from the club where he once served as a youth coach and defended his record when taking loan players from them, he admitted nonetheless that a clause in the 21-year-old’s contract exists where the Stamford Bridge side could bring him back down south this summer. The newspaper report alleged that the Northern Irishman’s chances of succeeding Antonio Conte as Chelsea manager had been compromised by the affair, but as far as Rodgers is concerned his established stars have simply been playing too well for him to break into the team.

“They may well do [call him back],” said the Northern Irishman. “There is an agreement in place which is fairly relaxed. He’s probably not played as much as he would have liked to, but there are obviously reasons for that. If you saw the game last week, there’s probably good reasons. I’ll always bring players to develop them and, in the main, that’s normally what happens when they are in my environment.

“At times, there are things off the pitch that people won’t understand,” he added. “It’s difficult for players when they move to different cities and areas, that settlement. Everything can be tough. But I think if you saw Charly last week when we won, he was happy. I haven’t heard anything [from Chelsea], but every club when they send a player out understand that the player goes to play as many games as they can.

“If you look at ourselves, it’s been difficult for Charly, but equally, it’s been difficult for Patrick Roberts since he’s been out, while young Odsonne Edouard has come in from PSG. Gradually, they work themselves through. I’m relaxed with all of that. There are stories around these things, but I’m experienced with working with players.

“I’ve seen some snippets of it [the story], Ryan Bertrand was mentioned. I took Ryan to Reading and he did fantastic. Played. I took Victor Moses with me to Liverpool. He didn’t play as much, but [Philippe] Coutinho was playing one side and [Raheem] Sterling the other and they were doing great. He still had games in that season.

“I’ve taken Jack Cork and Liam Bridcutt from Chelsea, who did great. Across the board, I’ve taken lots of players from lots of clubs and given them opportunities. But ultimately, it’s down to the players.”

“Of course, the idea for all players is to play. I have Mark Hill on loan at St Mirren. He’s hardly kicked a ball, but I understand. I send them to the club where I think they can develop and improve.

“I sent Ryan [Christie] to Aberdeen and he’s done great, earned his right to play. Mark has gone to a team that was winning. He hasn’t played as much, but he will have learned. That’s how management works.”

 

what a * waste of time and money

 

* knows why we only pushed for a 6 month deal

 

18 month.

 

Clearly something is lacking with the boy!

He got recalled from another loan period also if memory serves me right!

 

Everything about this deal right from the start has been nothing but a joke. The hype surrounding him, when he was only coming on loan was pretty silly looking back. If he returns to Chelsea this summer, then this would be up there with the worst signings for us ever. This does not do our reputation any good at all, and it looks like its cost us a right few quid in the process. We are actually stalling his career and also Paddys for that matter. We need to get our finger out in the transfer market or things will go downhill quickly.