MARIAN SHVED turned his season around in December after the scathing words from his loan club’s manager about his attitude and application towards the team.
Many people were pointing to his attitude to explain why Neil Lennon didn’t give the player a proper go at Celtic. The former Celtic manager mentioning on one occasion he needed to train harder.
The winger was toiling in Belgium before Wouter Vrancken came out all guns blazing on the Celtic loan player. Instead of digging his heels in further, Shved took the comments on board and went hell for leather.
The midfielder has now become a star at Mechelen with many of their supporters hoping to keep a hold of him beyond this summer.
Celtic fans would be interested to see the winger come back in and put his newfound application to use in a new look Celtic set up.
Speaking to the media this week, Shved made it clear what was the turning point:
“When manager Wouter Vrancken gave an interview in early December in which harsh words were said about me, I changed my mentality. It motivated me and suddenly I felt that I could make a difference here. I trained harder and thus gained the coach’s confidence.” The Celtic winger told Nieuwsblad
“I suddenly gave 100% on every sprint and went 100% for every ball. it made a big difference.
“That gave me more chances to play and even more motivation. Now we play the quarter finals of the cup and we have a view of the play-offs, which motivates me even more.”
There’s so much up in the air at Celtic right now, we’re unsure where Shved will land come the start of next season. We need a management team in place before any playing staff decisions can be made.
Shved could get lucky and find himself among the first team squad if he does return without a deal being thrashed out with his loan club.
Shved is on the bench for Mechelen this evening as they take on Genk.
1️⃣1️⃣ I Dit is onze basiself voor de cup match tegen @KRCGenkofficial.
Je kan de kwartfinale in de @Croky_Cup volgen via VTM 2 ?#nomatterwhat pic.twitter.com/ZhZwlRIWrn
— KV Mechelen (@kvmechelen) March 4, 2021
All sounded great till the comment at the end about him being on the bench tonight!