Celtic’s new Bhoy says all the things you want a new signing to say.

One of the things you hear over and over again from those who don’t think the board can do any wrong is, “You can’t get good players to come and sit on the bench.”

Well, that’s precisely the problem with the argument. I don’t want good players to come here to sit on the bench. I want every single player signed by this club to arrive with the desire to play, the expectation to play, and the determination to fight for their place in the team.

That’s why it was such a pleasure listening to Luke McCowan yesterday. He’s a player many think was signed to be a bit-part squad member—a guy content to just be here and willing to sit on the bench every week. But he’s made it clear that he didn’t come here for that. This is the greatest opportunity of his career, and he intends to seize it.

More importantly, he believes he has the talent to do just that. He’s confident he can make the most of this opportunity, crack the first team, and be a success. And as far as I’m concerned, I wouldn’t have it any other way. These are exactly the kinds of sentiments you want to hear from a brand-new player at your club, especially one many presume won’t get much game time. He wants opportunities, and he intends to prove he’s worth them.

What’s even more impressive is that he’s trying to break into the area of the team that is going to be the toughest to crack. Callum McGregor, Paulo Bernardo, Reo Hatate, Arne Engels and Odin Thiago Holm are all competing for the same three places, and I think many just assumed McAllen would be the backup. But he has no intention of playing that role.

We’ve seen this before, of course—players who come to the club, where everyone expects them to be bit-part players, but they have different ideas.

They want to stake a claim, and some have done it very successfully. I look forward to seeing how this boy handles it. He’s got a big job in front of him: two new summer signings, including our record signing, are part of that midfield. The captain’s part of that midfield. Hatate has been a revelation this season under Rodgers, scoring goals, getting assists, and looking every inch the quality footballer again, no matter what his international coach might think.

So it’s a challenge, a big challenge.

But McCowan sounds ready for it. He sounds like he’s raring to go. And that’s exactly how it should be. I want to hear the same determination from Valle at left-back, Adam Idah up front, and I want to be reading about how Liam Scales and Trusty are fighting for the central defensive spot. They should all know they have to be at their best to get into the team and stay there.

It’s great to have competition for places, but competition only exists if you have genuine competitors. It’s all too easy to pack your squad with filler players who are content to just be there—players willing to sit on the bench and who don’t seize their chances when they come along. But real competition means everyone is sharp, everyone knows that when opportunities arise, they have to be taken. That’s the environment we seem to have right now, and it’s why some players have upped their game—because they know if they don’t, they won’t be in the team.

McCowan is one of those players who has come up the hard way. He’s done the hard yards. He’s performed at various levels in the game and climbed the ladder steadily to the point where he’s now ready to be a Celtic player. That is a huge leap from where he has been before, but it’s not one that intimidates him in the slightest.

I used to think that for David Turnbull, the biggest issue was that mental leap—from being a player at Celtic to being a Celtic player. I suspect that was a jump he never quite managed. Turnbull was strong and capable mentally; he proved that by coming back from injury and getting into the side in the first place. But I’m not sure he was ever truly convinced of his own status. I’m not sure he ever looked in the mirror and said, “I am one of the best midfielders in the country,” which he absolutely was. I was disappointed to see him leave, but he hadn’t made the progress we wanted, and he never looked likely to bed in and be a permanent member of the team.

It’s a difficult thing to do, that mental jump.

It’s what every player who comes to this club has to overcome. They all need to look in the mirror and say, “I’m a Celtic player. I belong here. I’m good enough not just to be here, but to play.” I like the way McCowan comes across. Don’t get me wrong; he still looks amazed at the sudden turn his life and career has taken and you can’t blame him for that.

But he’s already well past that moment of realization that he’s made it here. But more importantly, he already believes he belongs. He’s already talking about the impact he intends to make.

Rodgers has said he wants to look every player in the eye and make sure they have the right mentality. Just listening to McCowan talk, you can tell he has it. Now all he has to do is wait patiently for his chance, and when it comes, take it.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what he does when that moment arrives.

We all talk about the importance of having a good core of young Scottish players in this side. McCowan might be a little older than some of the others, but he’s arrived ready. The experience he’s had so far will stand him in good stead as he moves forward, and the passion and affection he has for Celtic is obvious, impressive and feeds in to what I wrote the other day about McGregor, Brown and others, those guys who do get it.

You can never have enough of those sorts of players.