USA in the summer seems to have caught the imagination of the Celtic support- especially the massive network of fans that form the North American Federation of Celtic Supporters Clubs.
An early afternoon tweet featuring the stars and stripes flag and Cameron Carter-Vickers got supporters speculating on where and when the hoops will be in action.
Running in tandem is the major question of who will actually be in the team with major surgery required after a campaign of getting by and discovering that there is very little depth in the squad and the departure of the Head of Scouting and Recruitment.
The USA was a fairly popular destination for Celtic under Martin O’Neill and Gordon Strachan will high profile pre-season friendlies and even winter breaks in Florida a regular feature.
With more and more EPL clubs having their ownership in the USA summer friendlies in the States have become the norm as clubs attempt to maximise income and take ‘soccer’ to the ultimate market-place.
As with many issues there are a few In The Know sources on message-boards that are one step ahead with details, quickly on Kerrydale Street Chelsea, Manchester City and DC United were put forward as the likely opponents.
Yer man Remy was ahead of the curve with Mark Lawwell’s departure, after hearing of it from a few folk he opted to share the information on Kerrydale Street three weeks ahead of Celtic’s announcement.
There is a fairly tight timescale for pre-season matches this summer, the final of the European Championships is on July 14 with the SPFL season starting on August 3.
The great unknown for Celtic is whether they will go into their pre-season matches knowing that they will be in the new look Champions League or facing four midweek qualifiers through August to reach the big prize.
Those are two very different scenarios.
Although Steve Clarke’s squad are likely to be on the beaches well before the final of the European Championships the major clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City are likely to have players involved deep into the competitions.
Organisers of pre-season friendlies are paying for the big names, sending over shadow squads doesn’t cut it but the make up of Celtic going into next season carries many variables.
In November Brendan Rodgers revealed that he was initially looking for four quality signings- next season he will be needing a new goalkeeper with Matt O’Riley likely to be attracting serious offers from European clubs.
In certain positions such as central defence and on the wings the Celtic squad is heavy on quantity but short on quality which are issues that the manager and Head of Recruitment will have to address.
Ireland was also flagged up as a pre-season venue, last summer a friendly with Wolves was hastily relocated to the Aviva Stadium, another friendly against EPL opponents seems likely for the Irish capital.
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