CRAIG Gordon, the Celtic goalkeeper, admitted last night that he had feared his career at Parkhead was finished when he was dropped by Brendan Rodgers, his new manager, earlier this season.
Gordon was replaced by new signing Dorus de Vries after helping the Scottish champions to qualify for the group stages of the Champions League for the first time in three years back in August.
The 33-year-old has managed to force his way back into Rodgers’s side since then and performed superbly in the Group C match against Barcelona at Celtic Park on Wednesday night.
However, the Scotland internationalist, who was left out due to his unfamiliarity with the ‘sweeper keeper’ role that Rodgers wanted his goalie to perform, confessed that initially he thought he may have to leave.
“That was the obvious first reaction,” said Gordon. “I was probably like a bear with a sore head for two days. Then I thought ‘let’s do something about it’.
“I’ve been enjoying it here. It’s been great. The manager has come in and the place has got a big lift. We’ve played some great football, scoring a lot of goals. It’s been good to be part of and I didn’t want to lose that.
“I didn’t want to throw it away, I wanted to give myself every opportunity to get involved and be part of it.
“Very soon I came round. Woodsy (Celtic goalkeeping coach Stevie Woods) was good with that too. He told me: ‘You’ve got two choices. What are you going to do about it?’ There is only one choice I was ever going to make and that was to work as hard as I possibly could.
“Everything was the same as it was when I had my injury. It was a case of ‘let’s do all I can and if it doesn’t work then fine’.
“It was back to the drawing board to do all I could do to make myself available for selection to get back in and if I do get back in take my chance. But if I don’t then at least I’ll know I’ve done all I could to make that happen.”
Gordon, who has not conceded a goal domestically in eight and a half games, produced several outstanding saves, including one from Luis Suarez in the first half, in the Barcelona match on Wednesday evening.
The 45-times capped player, who won back his place in the national team in the Russia 2018 qualifier against England at Wembley earlier this month, believes he is a better player than when Sunderland signed him from Hearts for a then record £9 million fee in 2007. “I’m a better all-round player,” he said. “I would say I’ve probably got more now than I had then.”
The 2-0 defeat which Gordon and his team mates slumped to against Luis Enrique’s side ended their hopes of progressing to the knockout rounds of either the Champions League or Europa League.
Yet, the Scot, who fulfilled a lifelong ambition by playing in the group stages of Europe’s premier club competition, believes Celtic will be better equipped to compete in the tournament next season as a result of their experiences.
“There were quite a lot of players in the squad who hadn’t played Champions League football before so to have that taste and the knowledge of how to play in these is definitely going to help the group having that next year, should we get there,” he said.
“That’s the challenge. We’ll have to wait, we’ll have to get our heads down and work hard for the remainder of this season and do as well as we possibly can to make sure we get another crack at it next season.”
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