The 2023/24 Scottish Premiership campaign has not entirely been a great one for Celtic and manager Brendan Rodgers, and we have more than had a few ups and downs since the 51 year old returned to us for his second spell in charge.
We established a great advantage at the top of the Scottish table earlier on in the season, but then injuries hit, Rodgers did not – by his own publicly stated desires for the January transfer window – get the kind of business he had been hoping for, and we went through that period when our advantage was totally lost and we were playing catch up.
As injuries eased a little bit, the squad dug in, and with a decent uptick in form, we finally managed to re-establish our dominance at the top of the table and with 34 games played, we now have a three point advantage, that is basically once again, ours to lose. Match day odds available at offersbet.co.uk for the remaining matches of the year will probably be of interest to those fans who like a flutter, but we have to be clear favourites in most of them.
Boosting the hope and optimism of many fans though was the eventual return of James Forrest in more recent weeks. We have missed the services and talents of the 32 year old Scottish international attacker, since he was sidelined back in the game against Livingston towards the end of December, but having started to make his return as March’s fixtures progressed, he is really playing himself into some good form now. Two goals in his five games since his return, saw him better explode to life in the most recent clash with Dundee, and his two goals on the day took us to victory.
With him continuing to find his form as his fitness improves even further, there has even been talk of a return to Steve Clarke’s Scotland squad, and given his versatility he could very easily provide a solution to Clarke’s potential headache, and should he get the call, it would be his first return to international duty since 2021. The player himself insisted that he had not even ‘thought about’ a possible international return as his full focus is on Celtic and himself right now given his previous lay off, but he did admit that early holidays had not been booked for the off season, so if he did get the 2024 European Championships call, he would gladly answer it, but for now he knows he just has to concentrate on finishing the season on a high.
With the Euro squads staying at the 26 man limit as a number of head coaches objected to reverting back to the 23 man format, it is very likely that Forrest will be one of those players that makes up the numbers, and he would certainly have his part to play given his experience.
For now though, it is all eyes to our own campaign and hopefully finishing that with good success and even more silverware as we look to a far more consistent 2024/25 campaign.
That, of course, begins this coming weekend when we welcome Heart of Midlothian to our home soil and we kick off the first of our final four games of the year.
May is going to be another busy month for us, but all we have to do is get ourselves over the line and surely next season, we will have a little bit more luck when it comes to the injury front.
