It doesn’t seem so long ago since we were all celebrating in Glasgow City centre after a historic treble treble had been clinched. It doesn’t seem so long ago because it wasn’t that long ago! However, it’s now just 11 days until the bhoys head back to Lennoxtown to start pre-season training.
The Celtic players (excluding international participants) will reassemble at Celtic’s training base on Monday, June 17 with people who have played for their countries being given extra time for leave.
The club will then find out their first Champions League opponents just a day later with the draw for the qualifiers taking place on Tuesday, 18 June. After that, Celtic will hit the road to Austria and Switzerland for some friendlies before playing that first qualifier on July 9/10 with the return leg pencilled in for July 16/17. Depending on how far Celtic can go in the competition, more midweek games will come thick and fast taking the bhoys up and past August and the start of the season which kicks off August 3.
To say Celtic don’t have a lot of time before the serious stuff starts is an understatement. The club need to oversee personnel change, as well as the manager adjusting the current squad to his own methods on the training field and on the park.
It’s going to be a hectic few months.
