This season, the talk around Celtic has only been about Brendan Rodgers’ potential to take Matt O’Riley’s place should he depart in the summer.
After selling the Danish midfielder to Brighton for £30 million, Brendan Rodgers was able to sign Paulo Bernardo from Benfica.
Before Rodgers spent £11 million for Belgian midfielder Arne Engels, many Celtic supporters thought that the Portuguese player would take O’Riley’s place in the starting lineup.
Engels appears to be Celtic’s choice starter right now following outstanding showings against Hearts and Slovan Bratislava. For this reason, Bernardo might consider himself “extremely unlucky” at Celtic, according to Marvin Bartley.
Fantastic’ Bernardo is ‘extremely unlucky’ at Celtic
The Portuguese was a starter in the 3-0 wins over St Mirren and Rangers and played very well in both games which led to Bartley saying Bernardo has been harshly treated at Celtic.
Bartley told Premier Sports, “He’s been fantastic. He had to be patient when he first came in on loan and obviously, with Matt O’Riley leaving this season and in the St Mirren game I thought he was absolutely outstanding and then in the derby, he was the same again.
“So he’s probably the one player who can find himself in an extremely unlucky position because he got his opportunity, he took it and he was still replaced.
But when you bring in a centre midfielder for £11m, it happens. He’ll put on a clinic today. He’s a top, top midfielder and he’s only going to get better.”
Bernardo will be key for Celtic this season
Brendan Rodgers’ summer pursuit of the Portuguese midfielder proves that the Celtic boss rates him highly and at just 22, Bernardo has plenty of time to bed in at the club.
Playing alongside players like Arne Engels, Reo Hatate and Callum McGregor will only improve Bernardo as a footballer and with McGregor’s gametime likely to be managed this season, Bernardo will get minutes.
Being Portugal’s U21 captain also shows that at his age, Bernardo has pedigree and if he continues to develop at his current rate then Celtic will have a real player on their hands.
Read more news on
sportchannel.co.uk
Leave a Reply