Celtic have lost countless players to the Premier League over the years but James Forrest has remained largely absent from the gossip columns.
Of all the Celtic players to take their game to a completely new level under Brendan Rodgers, the progression made by James Forrest in recent months is perhaps the most dramatic.
The homegrown winger has enjoyed arguably the best season of his career to date and capped a superb run of form with a scintillating performance in Celtic’s 2-1 Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich on Tuesday.
The Hoops more than held their own against the Bundesliga champions but Forrest went one better. He actively terrorised the Bayern backline and ran David Alaba into the ground on the right-hand side. Forrest’s well-worked assist for Callum McGregor’s second-half equaliser was just rewards for a Man of the Match display described by Brendan Rodgers on BT Sport (31st October, from 7pm) as ‘outstanding’.
On this form, it seems only a matter of time before Forrest encourages firm bids from south of the border. Clubs in England have long since utilised the Scottish market as a way of unearthing gems on bargain prices and Celtic have been forced to accept losing their key players to some of the Premier League’s more middling clubs.
And while the 26-year-old Forrest has spent his entire professional career with Celtic, making over 250 appearances since debuting seven years ago, the Scotland international may just have confirmed against none other than Bayern Munich that he deserves to follow in the footsteps of Victor Wanyama, Virgil van Dijk and co.
Forrest’s loyalty to the green and white, however, means you can expect to see the reborn winger jinking down the flanks at Parkhead for years to come.
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