Brendan Rodgers has been thrilled by the development of resurgent Celtic winger James Forres in the last few months.
It may not be any exaggeration to suggest that James Forrest is in the form of his life right now. The winger has scored successive braces within the space of four days against Ross County in the league and Dundee in the cup, meaning he is already just two goals away from matching the most prolific season of his Celtic career.
Like Stuart Armstrong, Kieran Tierney and co, homegrown talent Forrest has taken his game to a whole new level since Brendan Rodgers replaced Ronny Deila in 2016 – something the Northern Irishman puts down to an individual training programme.
“(Forrest has) been absolutely brilliant for us, stood in for us over the course of the summer in the Champions League campaign where he played and got some really important goals (in qualifiers against Rosenborg and Astana),” Rodgers told the Scottish Sun.
“He’s been outstanding for me.”
And this is certainly in stark contrast to Rodgers’ message from June last year. Forrest had endured a miserable few years with injuries and, with his contract expiring in December 2016, his new manager laid down the gauntlet and told the Scotland international that he had six months to save his Celtic career, per the Daily Record.
Just a matter of weeks later, however, Forrest had already done enough to convince Rodgers to hand him a deal until 2019. And the manager’s faith is now being rewarded with some of the finest performances of the 26-year-old’s career.
In fact, you could argue that Forrest is the most improved player at Celtic since Rodgers took charge.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
