I know that there are a lot of Celtic fans who would prefer that our players weren’t playing international football during this summer. I have lamented it myself. But I have to be honest; there is always a sense of satisfaction that I just can’t shake whenever one of them is doing well, and making his nation proud. That cannot but reflect well on our club.
Alastair Johnston is today basking in the warm glow of such an achievement, and I am delighted for him.
His Canada team has made the Quarter Finals of the Copa America, and written a little bit of history.
We have a lot of fans over in Canada. I have relatives over there. There must be a lot of Celtic fans walking about Toronto with their Hoops on and his name on the back today. That’s what it’s all about. That’s how you keep the name Celtic on everyone’s lips.
Alastair Johnston is a huge asset to this club, especially as one of our two players from North America, and even more so as Cameron Carter Vickers has inexplicably become a bit of a whipping boy for some in the press. Whoever they think they see, it’s not the player we’ve been watching for the last few years.
He certainly can’t be made solely responsible for the US team’s defeat against Panama, a game I watched, although for ten nerve-shredding minutes he seemed almost resolutely determined to give away a penalty through some rash challenges in the box, three of them on the same player, who after the first one started throwing himself around theatrically; had he simply let momentum do the job for him, CCV would have been in bother.
The US now needs something against Uruguay in the last fixture, and to hope that Panama don’t beat Bolivia, as appears more than possible. Many in our support would welcome Carter Vickers being on the earliest plane home. I still hope he gets his chance in that last group match and has a stormer and sends them through; that’s just me.
Alastair Johnston is, like Carter Vickers, a warrior here at home. His performances in critical matches have been exceptional. The kid who made his Celtic debut at Ibrox has never looked back from that high-pressure start. That Ange, who we all know can spot a player, had literally no hesitation in throwing him into that cauldron that day tells you all you need to know about his quality, but more, about his mentality and his strength of character.
One of the risks with putting him on the big stage is that there might be interest from other clubs.
That is possible, but that’s what happens when you have good players; clubs will come calling. Clubs will express interest in them, and Johnston is one of the best we have. He has grown into a key player for us, and will only get better the longer he is here.
He’s also one of our best ambassadors in North America, a market where we should be doing a lot more buying and a lot more spending not only on scouting but in growing the club footprint. We are not an EPL superclub, or some plaything of an oligarchy; that, actually, is our biggest strength, our status as a club with deep roots and a fairytale origin story.
We just need to market it better.
And you know what? Alastair Johnston could prove to be one Hell of an ambassador for us in that regard.
I wish he and his Canada team nothing but well.
Totally agree re AJ – his inner strength, self belief, mentality and character are beyond question and are what makes him the player he is. I also love that we NEVER see or hear of him except in regards to how he plays in matches, nothing about his off-field life which is as it should be!
Last season, for a large part, he definitely wasn’t at his best (2nd season season syndrome perhaps) but these things happen – form is temporary, class is permanent etc and to prove that point he was right back (excuse the pun lol!) to his best in the cup-final and along with CCV was match of the match by a mile for me.
I agree we need to keep tapping into the North/Central American market BUT ONLY for players who are playing for the countries at the World Cup or Copa America like AJ or Izaguirre back in the day NOT projects from the MLS teams a la Andrew Gutman & Manny Perez. The MLS with its league/play-off system is NOT a tough enough environment to be able to determine if a player has the right mental characteristics needed to play in the Glasgow pressure cooker!!
Personally I’d dump international football as I see it as just squeezing the last possible ‘pound’ from football supporters and endangering the future life of players due to playing too much high-intensity football. Of course, we’re all entitled to our opinion and that’s just mine.
“……….as Cameron Carter Vickers has inexplicably become a bit of a whipping boy for some in the press.” He plays for Celtic, he’s a top asset to our squad as we saw when he was out injured so he becomes a target for all the huns in the media to try to undermine. Sickening scum but that’s the Scottish media in a nutshell.
But they’ll fail, they always fail and soon they’ll be gone and we’ll still be adding trophies to our tally………that is our revenge, and we do it honestly, the opposite of their ‘darlings’, original and Tribute Act. Let them stew.
I’m the same as you TicToc in that it’ll always be Celtic over International Football fo me of it anyway for sure…
AJ is reasonably young but one I’d like to see retiring from The International scene for sure is Cal-Mac !
Agreed Clachnacuddin………what a name, sheer poetry! 🙂
Not the biggest fan of AJ, his positioning can be suspect and a very average past season, but opinions are part of what makes this game great
Just over a week ago, the DR ran an article on him and his Canada performance that was just as negative as the CCV one. Yep, nothin like a good negative report on either Celtic, or one of our players tae detract what’s happenin over at their favourites shambolic club. So predictable from these numbskulls.
They’ll be dead soon Kevan (The DR) – Won’t be a day too soon for any of us Celtic supporters either !
Cheers to you James. I’m Canadian and am very proud of AJ when he wears the hoops as well as the Maple leaf. I’m not sure if you heard the racist and bigoted remarks about the make up of team Canada. AJ put them in their place. Every player is the son of an immigrant in Canada.