Celtic youngster completes Scottish Championship loan move
He will now spend the season with the Honest Men and is on the bench for their Premier Sports Cup tie against St Mirren this afternoon.
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He joins fellow Celtic starlet Jude Bonnar in the squad, who also recently joined Ayr on loan.
Bonnar made an impression on his debut, scoring in a 4-0 win over Arbroath last weekend.
He told the club's media after the match: "Right from when I came in, all the boys and the staff have welcomed me very well.
"When I heard I had the opportunity to come here, I agreed straight away.
"It's good to be here, getting professional games under my belt.
"My goal, I just dropped to the edge of the box, seen I had a lot of space."
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BBC News
11 minutes ago
- BBC News
What are our pundits' Premiership predictions?
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Willie Miller, former Aberdeen centre-half 1st: CelticThe reigning champions still have the strongest squad, with a top-class, proven manager.2nd: RangersWith a new head coach, new owners and new investment, the Ibrox side quite simply have to be at runners-up at worst.3rd: AberdeenIf they can cope with European football, the Dons have a cup-winning squad, a proven, successful, experienced manager and a chairman who will back him Dundee With a whole host of players departing, a new coach in the form of Steven Presley who was not the most popular choice as far as their fans are concerned, and a poor start to the League Cup, the pressure could come on early at Dens package: Falkirk They have a coach in John McGlynn who likes to play the game in a cultured fashion, which he won't change, so they will be easy on the eye and successfull with it. 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Scotsman
41 minutes ago
- Scotsman
Willing spy Derek McInnes lays out plans with Hearts given weekend off amid 'long week'
Jambos boss plots intel work on opponents as boss waits patiently for own big kick-off Sign up to our Football newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Hearts don't kick off their Premiership campaign until Monday night when Aberdeen visit Tynecastle. It doesn't mean head coach Derek McInnes will have the weekend off, though. McInnes has already spent a decent chunk of July swotting up on this season's opposition, even if he is well-versed in Scottish football. This season is different for the 54-year-old in that he is in charge of new club. After swapping Kilmarnock for Hearts earlier in the summer, he can't wait to get the league up and running amid heightened expectations for his team this term. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Tynecastle will be packed to the rafters for the visit of the Dons. By that point, every other team will have been in action. McInnes plans to take in some matches in person. Hearts boss Derek McInnes will be peering over the shoulder of other teams. | SNS Group 'It's been a long week,' admitted McInnes. 'It's one of these unusual weeks when you have to wait to the Monday. We're all getting out to watch games this weekend. I've seen Motherwell, picked them up this season, picked St Mirren up this season, already. 'You always like to see what teams are doing, new signings and whatever. Like last season, what teams are playing a back five, what teams are committing to a back four. You try and kind of get a flavour of how they're going to be. And you always see what the new signings are like. That kind of interest to see what players are bringing to different clubs 'But I think tactics and systems can sometimes be a bit overplayed. I think it's all about whoever makes the good signings, I think that can be key, because I think clearly there's a lot of people doing it their own way and a lot of people are investing money. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Seventh just wasn't good enough for Hearts 'We've just got to assume that everybody's doing their job well, but we've got to be doing our job as well as we can. If we're doing the job as well as we can with the budget that's afforded to me, with the resource that we've got, with the facilities and everything else, we should be expecting a lot more from ourselves than we did last year. There's no doubt about it.' Finishing seventh last term wasn't good enough and fell beneath minimum expectations. Many have Hearts down to finish third given the strength of the squad and the presence of McInnes, who has them purring already. They scored four goals in all of their Premier Sports Cup matches and defeated Sunderland 3-0 last weekend. 'The game itself [against Aberdeen] is everything you want from the first game of the season,' continued McInnes. 'Home game, live on Sky, sell-out, up against a good team, good players. There'll be a lot of good players on the pitch on Monday night. We just want to make sure we're as prepared as we can, which I think we are. 'Come Monday, we've just got to be ready to go. And I'm pretty sure that through the close season, what we've had, I think we look ready. We look fit, we look competitive, we look motivated. We look as if we've got good options. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad
BBC News
41 minutes ago
- BBC News
Are Celtic ready for fight on all fronts?
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Participation on that stage this season will be determined by a play-off in just under a month and missing out would be a significant just one year left on Rodgers' three-year contract, what happens over the coming weeks may go a long way to determining if he believes he can continue such despite saying he is "very happy" at Celtic, the 52-year-old Northern Irishman stressed he is "not the type of manager" to stick around if a club is merely treading water and that there was "no update" on a new contract. Tale of two Rodgers tenures With Rodgers entering a third season in charge of Celtic for the second time, it has been almost undiluted domestic success across both domestic trebles in his first two seasons came alongside challenging Champions League Cup victory in 2018 meant a seventh straight domestic trophy, but a perceived frustration that he had hit a ceiling with Celtic and the lure of the English Premier League sparked fury among a previously adoring support as Rodgers left for Leicester return four years later was met with a lukewarm response. He stated he would be there for the full three-year contract and quickly started winning trophies again to win over the support. He has won two league and cup doubles in two seasons, but it is the clear improvement at Champions League level that showcases Celtic's progression under that to continue, he has repeatedly stressed the need for quality additions to his squad. That need has become acute with the exit of Nicolas Khun, the long-term injury to fellow winger Jota and the lack of a direct replacement for Kyogo Furuhashi since the Japan forward left in January. The question is whether Celtic's recruitment ambitions match Rodgers' desire to continue driving the club forward and what that means moving forwards? Reluctance to spend a fair accusation as Celtic seek quality? Rodgers has repeatedly used the word "quality" when describing what his squad needs. He's also been clear that he wants more firepower and is short on natural wingers. Scotland defender Kieran Tierney's return adds undoubted talent and Sweden winger Benjamin Nygren appears to be good business on early evidence. Other new faces appear to be mainly for is clear is a significant section of the Celtic support feel a reluctance to spend significant sums is putting not only European ambitions at risk but also their domestic that fair? FThe former Celtic midfielder Scott Allan understands fan frustration but points to the return of Tierney on a free transfer as an example that is being somewhat overlooked."The fact that they were able to get Tierney on the free papers over the fact that he's a player of immense quality," he told BBC Scotland. "The only concerning thing is the fact that Brendan Rodgers actually spoke about players coming in and not necessarily getting in as starters. "I think Celtic fans are looking at players who can come in and affect the team now and that's where the concern is growing from." Long-term transfer strategy paid off, but should Celtic bow to fan demands? Celtic's long-term transfer strategy has delivered time and time again and must be the envy of many clubs. Huge profit has been brought in for the likes of Matt O'Riley, Jota and spent big last summer on midfielder Arne Engels and striker Adam Idah. 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The question is whether that will be enough to satisfy him and a support desperate to enjoy continued domestic success and see their team build on a successful Champions League campaign last term, with that play-off hurdle crucial."I can totally understand his Rodgers' frustration," Allan said. "He spoke after the Bayern Munich exit about evolving every year. That was probably looking ahead to this window."There were a lot of questions asked when Kyogo left. Daizen Maeda did a job as number nine, but I think there's no question Brendan Rodgers prefers him on the wing. "He's wanting to evolve the team, he's wanting to go longer in Europe and that comes down to getting quality in."In Rodgers' own words, Celtic have work to do in this window with significant challenges coming over the horizon.
