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The first day of pre-season always brings a renewed optimism and the arrival of Ange Postecoglou means it’s even higher for Celtic fans.
There might be supporters who aren’t sold on the Greek-born Australian boss and it’s hugely unfortunate for the club and him that he won’t be there for the first day of pre-season.
Celtic return to training on Friday and Postecoglou won’t have completed his quarantine in time to take charge of the players who will be there.
John Kennedy and Gavin Strachan will take on that job and it should make for an interesting day with a real lack of first team players set to be there.
Returning loanees Boli Bolingoli, Marian Shved, Olivier Ntcham and Vakoun Issouf Bayo could be there – although at least one of them is expected to complete a transfer away from Celtic in the coming days.
Ntcham has reportedly agreed personal terms with AEK Athens so there is a good chance that he won’t be there, but until that is confirmed he is expected to be there.
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There’s also an injury to Christopher Jullien so although it’s likely he’ll be at training, he’ll be continuing to do his own fitness work to try and rehab his knee.
Players who played in international games are also not expected back until slightly later, meaning that as well as the six players currently in the Scotland squad at the European Championships, Kristoffer Ajer and Odsonne Edouard won’t be back yet, and neither will Conor Hazard, Stephen Welsh or Luca Connell who were all on national duty.
There’s also still question marks over Leigh Griffiths’ future and whether the extra year was taken up or if he’ll be allowed to leave for free, but with no announcement made by Celtic, you’d expect him to there on Friday.
But it still leaves plenty of room for new players with some of these still expected to leave or have very little impact on the squad next season.
New boy Liam Shaw arrived from Sheffield Wednesday earlier on Tuesday and he’ll be there, but the likes of Anthony Ralston, Shved and Vakoun Issouf Bayo are highly unlikely to be sticking around at the club for much longer.
Of the 16 who would be expected to be back, only a handful could be deemed regulars last season and even then, two of them were goalkeepers who people aren’t impressed with.
Other youngsters such as Adam Montgomery could also make up the numbers when training starts once more.
Here’s a full list of players expected to be at Lennoxtown on Friday, including the injured players.
Goalkeepers: Vasilis Barkas, Scott Bain.
Defenders: Anthony Ralston, Christopher Jullien, Boli Bolingoli
Midfielders: Ismaila Soro, Nir Bitton, Tom Rogic, Mikey Johnston, Marian Shved, Liam Shaw, Ewan Henderson, Karamoko Dembele, Olivier Ntcham
Strikers: Albian Ajeti, Vakoun Issouf Bayo, Leigh Griffiths
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