Neil Lennon is looking for Marian Shved to kick off his Celtic career at the third time of asking.
The Ukranian became the farewell signing of Brendan Rodgers a year ago but the former manager quickly distanced himself from the deal with his ‘millions of wingers’ comment.
Backing up that view Shved was instantly sent back on loan to Karpaty Lviv before returning to Celtic for pre-season training.
Despite scoring on his Celtic debut away to Karpaty Lviv the 22-year-old managed just 35 minutes football over two appearances in the first half of the season but that could be about to change after impressing in Dubai.
The Daily Mail reports:
“He’s doing good,’ said Lennon. ‘He’s training well. He’s looking lively and has been a wee bit of a bonus this week. It’s an opportunity to just explode onto it. He’s looked very healthy and I’ve been pleased with him.
“It’s not easy for guys to adapt sometimes, especially if family is not there as well. He’s a bit of a slow burner, but he’s still young and I’ve really liked what I have seen of him. He’s been good.
Short of alternatives to James Forrest on the right flank Lennon still hopes Shved can share some of the workload. “If not, we’ll have to look at maybe bringing someone in as well,’ he added.
Shved has the incentive of a place at Euro 2020 to look forward to if he can make the breakthrough at Celtic.
In November he was called into the Ukraine squad to play Estonia in a friendly but will require regular club football to stake a place in Andriy Shevchenko Euro squad.
