Rangers fitness issues, Celtic star left ‘emotional’, Steven Pressley pressure - SPFL news

Celtic star left ‘emotional’

Kieran Tierney has admitted that his Celtic Park homecoming left him feeling emotional. The left-back made his second debut for Celtic in the 4-0 friendly win over Newcastle on Saturday following his return from Arsenal on a free transfer. Manager Brendan Rodgers handed Celtic fans the chance to acclaim the left-back when he brought him on for fellow summer signing Hayato Inamura 10 minutes into the second half. Tierney’s introduction generated the loudest cheer of the day as fans hailed the 28-year-old’s return.

Describing the moment, Tierney told Celtic TV: “Amazing. I didn’t know what to expect but that was just brilliant. What a feeling. I was quite emotional actually, running on to the park like that, but amazing. It was a great day for me.”

The Scotland international was quickly into his rhythm and set up the fourth goal when he crossed for Liam Scales to head home after playing a one-two with Reo Hatate. Tierney added: “They’re a great team so it just shows the quality that we have got. When we play like that we can give anyone a game. Some of the goals we scored were brilliant.”

Having had to win over some fans after returning to Celtic himself last summer, Rodgers was delighted to see Tierney receive the acclaim. “I wanted him to get a specific welcome back,” he said. “Just to get him back here at his age where he could easily be playing at the top end of the Premier League, to get a player of that level and that desire to play for Celtic is amazing for us.

“So, it was a great moment and another connection with him and the support. And then you see when he’s on there, he’s playing against young Anthony Elanga, who’s a brilliant signing for Newcastle. But Kieran’s got pace and power. And then you see how he created the goal with just that explosive speed and the quality. So, for us, it’s great to have him here and he’s still finding his fitness. But it was a great moment for him.”

Rangers fitness issues

Rangers are dealing with a number of fitness concerns ahead of their Champions League second qualifying round first leg tie against Panathinaikos at Ibrox on Tuesday. The match against the Greeks will mark the start of the Russell Martin era but the new head coach is confident that his side can overcome the fitness issues that are restricting his choices to get his tenure off to a positive start.

“The adrenaline, the crowd, everything else will help them through,” Martin told Rangers TV. “I feel like we’ve got a good enough base to build off and to win a game of football and to prepare us for that. I’m excited about what we’re going to see on the pitch. It’s by no means going to be complete. We need time to really embed what we want and for the team to really look how we want it. But we need to put in a performance that looks like us and gives us a platform to build off and to win a game. And to excite the crowd and to make them feel like this is going to be a team that they can connect with.”

Rangers are likely to start without strikers Cyriel Dessers and Hamza Igamane, who scored 45 goals between them last season.

“They’re both a little bit behind the group in terms of fitness,” Martin said. “Cyriel because of an injury and Hamza because of visa problems. But they’re here now and they’re working so hard to get back into shape. And they’re both going to be ready to help us, which is going to be really important. I’m looking forward to having them fully fit and firing very soon.”

Former Wigan and Luton midfielder Thelo Aasgaard is also a fitness doubt for the first leg.

“It’s disappointing for him and for us,” Martin said. “Everything we thought we were getting and more since he’s been here has been incredible. His understanding, his athleticism, the power he has, the technical capability, he really is an exciting player for us. Unfortunately, it’s a different level of intensity and it’s obviously high demands from pre-season. He’s picked up just a little something, so he’s going to be touch and go. We hope he can be involved, but if not, then we’re really hopeful he’ll be ready and raring to go for the second one.”

Winger Djeidi Gassama is also short of full fitness after arriving from Sheffield Wednesday last week.

Martin said: “He’s a little bit behind in terms of fitness because they went back a bit later than us and the pre-season he’s had has been a bit disrupted because he was going to be on the move. He’s not ready to start the game. But he is totally different to anything we’ve got. He’s unpredictable. He’s a fantastic one-on-one specialist. He has real individual talent.

“He has a lot of work to do physically and to get used to the way we’re going to work. But already his willingness to do that, how hard he’s working to catch up on fitness, has been really brilliant. So he’ll be in the squad. He’ll definitely be ready to go for the second game. The first game might have to manage his minutes and the expectation, but he’s going to help us a lot.”

Steven Pressley pressure

Steven Pressley is already a man under pressure after starting his tenure as Dundee manager with back-to-back defeats to lower league opposition in the Premier Sports Cup. Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Alloa followed the same scoreline at home to Airdrie and left Dundee with no chance of Premier Sports Cup progress. Games against Bonnyrigg Rose and Montrose in the coming week are now effectively pre-season fixtures for Dundee with Pressley already under pressure from fans to get things right ahead of the William Hill Premiership opener against Hibernian on August 3.

Asked how they respond, Pressley told Dee TV: “By accepting, by understanding that’s not good enough, and as a group, me, the players, have to show resilience and respond to that. It’s far from the ideal start, it’s not what we wanted, but you have to show character in these moments of time and that’s certainly what I expect us to do. They are a very good group. I have said we need reinforcements but that’s irrelevant because we have to do better than that.

“They are a good group, they want to do well, but it will take time. But we have to be better. I did see improvements. I saw improvements in our defensive principles, we were much better in those. But from a creative aspect we certainly have to be better. So, there is a lot of work ahead of us, but I know that.”