There aren’t many players in the history of our club who made the front page before their quality was ever evident on the back pages. This has been a weird start to the Celtic career of Saturday’s best player, Alexandro Bernabei, but he’s now arrived.
That was a great display from him, culminating in that sublime cross ball for the winner. He is one of the unluckiest players to pull on a Celtic shirt in a long time, essentially being kept out of this team by the guy he was ostensibly brought here to replace.
Neither he nor the manager could have predicted the rise and rise and rise of Greg Taylor, who has been a credit to himself even as he’s a credit to the club’s training and coaching regime.
As Ralston was one of the stars of last season, so Taylor has been one of this stars in this campaign so far.
It was a surprise to see Bernabei’s name in the starting line-up.
What a strange signing these appeared to be, but every time we saw him I thought it fairly obvious that he had something to offer.
His off-field antics got him headlines no player new at a club would want, but he did his penance and paid his internal fine and then knuckled down to the task at hand, and based on what we saw he is going to be a fine acquisition.
That really never was in doubt. He’s an Ange signing, and one we paid big money for. Those guys have tended to be big hits and he came with a sterling rep and a lot of hype surrounding him.
Like a lot of players, he’s needed time to settle into life at the club, and Ange picked his money to unleash him. He faces a challenge to keep his place, of course, because Taylor has been so excellent but he definitely has the stuff to rise to it.
We have another cracker on our hands here. This team is full of them.
Not too much of a surprise
Bernabei showed on Saturday why he should be first choice. Great performance, allowing for a couple of defensive lapses, in only his 2nd appearance. It has taken Taylor more than 60 appearances, he now has 70, to get anywhere near the level Bernabei showed on Saturday and he will only improve with more game time as he fully adapts to the system. Taylor has improved greatly recently, he really had to, he’s now in his fourth season. However, after Saturday I’m sure he’ll be 2nd choice by the 2nd half of the season.
Marko Viduka ?
He can get to the byline and his crossing was excellent on Saturday. We are not blessed in this dept. His distribution in the second half was erratic, first half he was great