The 2023/24 season only finished last weekend, but football is a fast-moving sport, and many are already thinking about the upcoming 2024/25 campaign.
Fresh off the back of a hard-fought double in Brendan Rodgers’ first year back at the club, Celtic will be looking to truly kick on next season.
To progress on all fronts, though, recruitment over the next few weeks and months has to be spot on while a positive start to the new campaign would be beneficial.
In the opinion of Alistair Johnston, things will begin to click for Celtic next season because gaffer Rodgers will have had a year to work with the group.
The right-back compared the season gone by to Ange Postecoglou’s first, and how the new campaign will be like his second, where things were much more structured, settled, and on the whole, better.
He said: (Glasgow Times) “I think you saw it in the first season under Ange. It was a bit stop-start and then in the second year, all of a sudden, it was flying.
“I have a feeling that is kind of the plan for us as well. Obviously, when you get a new manager, there is a bit of a bedding-in period and it takes time. Obviously, injuries didn’t help and things along those lines. But I think we are pretty excited with our group with where we can take this.
“It is going to come down to a really strong pre-season going into, hopefully, a really strong Champions League campaign in a new format, so that’s exciting as well. Of course, you want to be pushing on all fronts, so we are excited for that.”
Set to play at the Copa America for Canada over the next few weeks, Johnston will want to build on his 40 caps and help bring some international success to his homeland.
Les Rouges take on the Netherlands and France in friendlies next week before they, in a similar fashion to Scotland at the Euros, kick the tournament off against Argentina.
