Celtic needs its best men. Time to call for The Closer.

Two seasons ago, after another poor and frankly embarrassing January window, Celtic went into the final stretch needing help. Not just from results elsewhere, but from inside the squad itself. Then we resurrected a player nobody really expected to see in that role again.

James Forrest.

The Celtic veteran. The player with years of experience, huge moments behind him and, as it turned out, just enough left in the tank to matter when the season tightened. Forrest helped get us to the double. Now the question is simple: can he roll back the years one more time?

I remember that feeling from the 2023-24 season. That hollow, frustrated anger that comes when a January window passes you by and leaves you exposed. Celtic did not come out of it prepared or significantly stronger. We came out of it looking like a team quietly hoping someone, anyone, would drag us over the line.

We needed a Closer.

Then, almost out of nowhere, came Forrest.

Not the version we had grown up watching. Not the electric winger tearing full-backs apart every week. This was something different. This was a player many of us had already written the final chapter for. I never really expected to see him leading anything again in a Celtic shirt. Yet there he was, calm, composed and almost understated, pulling us through when everything around him felt tight.

He did not just contribute. He delivered when it mattered most and helped take us to a double. And I remember thinking at the time that football has a strange way of circling back to players you think are finished.

So now I find myself asking the same question again.

Can he do it one more time?

On paper, his 2023-24 season does not immediately answer that. The numbers do not leap out at you. Twenty-eight appearances. Only eight starts. Seven goals and two assists. It reads like the output of a squad player, and for most of the campaign that is exactly what he was.

For long stretches, Forrest was on the periphery. Used carefully. Managed. You could see the shift at Celtic, with younger and quicker wide players taking priority. The game moves on, and it does not wait for sentiment. At times, it felt like Forrest was simply there to offer depth, to fill space and to be a reliable option rather than a decisive one.

If I am being honest, there was a point that season when I thought he might just fade out quietly. But football, especially at Celtic, rarely follows the script you expect.

Because Forrest’s season was not about how often he played. It was about when he played, and more importantly, what he did when he was trusted.

When the pressure began to build, when the title race stopped feeling comfortable and started feeling suffocating, Brendan Rodgers did not turn to potential. He did not turn to energy alone. He turned to Forrest.

That decision tells you everything.

There is a difference between a player who can perform and a player who understands. Forrest understands Celtic. He understands the weight of expectation and the the noise. He understands the tension that creeps into games where one mistake can change everything.

You cannot coach that. You cannot fast-track it. It comes from years of living it.

That is what he brought back into the team. Not raw pace. Not explosiveness. Clarity.

This was especially clear at Dens Park.

Late April. Tight margins. No room for error. The kind of game that does not look glamorous but can define a season. One sloppy moment, one lapse in concentration, and suddenly the whole narrative could shift.

Instead, we got Forrest. Two goals. Not spectacular, not headline-grabbing in the way modern football loves, but decisive. Clinical. Timed perfectly. A 2-1 win that felt far bigger than the scoreline. Because it was not just three points.

In that moment, the entire perception of his season changed.

Before that game, he looked like a veteran drifting towards the edge. After it, he looked essential. That is the thing about players like Forrest. They no longer dominate the narrative across nine months. They do not carry the team every week.

But when everything narrows, when the margins become unforgiving, they can still step into the story at exactly the right moment.

Seven goals across the season does not sound like much. But when you remember how few starts he had, it becomes more meaningful. It becomes efficiency. It becomes impact. Celtic did not need Forrest to be everywhere. They needed him to be right when he really had to be, and he was.

So, when I look at where we are now, I do not see a player who is suddenly going to rewind time and become the focal point again. That version of him is gone, and pretending otherwise does him no favours.

But I also do not see a player who is finished.

I see something more specific, and perhaps more useful. I see a player who can still influence the moments that decide seasons.

Those moments matter.

We have been here before and seen Celtic drift into dangerous territory. We have seen seasons wobble when they should have been controlled. All of us have watched games tighten, performances become nervous and decisions become rushed. In those moments, it is not always the most talented player who makes the difference. Sometimes it is the one who stays calm while everything else speeds up.

That is where Forrest may still have a role.

Not as a starter every week, not as the main man. Not as someone this team should be built around.

But as the player you trust when the moment needs calmness, timing and experience.

The question is whether, when Celtic need something in these final pressurised weeks, James Forrest can step forward again and deliver moments that shift everything.

Because he has done it before.

And if I am honest, part of me still believes he has that in him. Not constantly. Not predictably. But just enough. Just enough to matter.

That might be the real beauty of it. Football loves these quiet resurgences. It loves players who refuse to fade out on schedule. It loves those moments where experience cuts through the noise and reminds you that the game is not always about pace or power. Sometimes it is about understanding.

Forrest understands. He understands Celtic. He understands pressure. Most importantly, he understands timing. Stepping in. Taking responsibility.

And reminding us, one more time, that some players do not need to be everywhere across a season to define it. Sometimes, they just need to appear at exactly the right moment and change everything.

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