AMIDST the five goals, wild celebrations and wonderful football, one thing which may have been missed on Tuesday night at Celtic Park was the club’s record transfer at work.
It would have escaped the attention of most but there was a £8m-plus man running about to great affect in green and white hoops. Perhaps an explanation is required.
That was the fee Manchester City paid for Scott Sinclair five years ago when he moved from Swansea City, plus add-ons which never kicked in because he didn’t play enough for the UAE’s favourite football club.
It has been a while since Sinclair felt like an £8m player and that includes last season when he swept every board imaginable,
But on Tuesday, the Englishman produced a stunning individual performance against Astana when he scored two goals, both finishes were classy and cool, he left players in his wake as he dribbled past them on a night which by the end he was unplayable.
After a quiet-ish end and to last season and the beginning of this one, Sinclair was outstanding in Celtic’s triumphant Champions League play-off in Glasgow. The 5-0 result makes what most believed would be a treacherous journey to Kazakhstan n ow a routine trip.
And while Brendan Rodgers didn’t have a single failure on the pitch, Sinclair was the man who really stood out with two cool finishes.
“Personally, this is why I came to Celtic,” said Sinclair who wore the boardest of smiles. “I had aspirations to play in the Champions League, to get to the group stage and play against Europe’s best. This is what you want as a footballer.
“For me, it’s taken time to get back to my top level, which I showed against Astana. When I look back now to the time I moved from Swansea to Manchester City, this is the player that they bought. Now I’m here at Celtic, I’m enjoying it and you can see I’m back to normal on the pitch.
“The Champions League is still new to me. At City I got the odd five minute or I was on the bench. I’m a real part of this team, I am so happy to be here and now I know what it’s all about, and know a lot more about the level of this competition.
“It was a great night. We maybe could have played better in the first 15 or 20 minutes but once we settled into the game, we defended well and the game-plan was to win and not concede. So we would take five goals ever time.
“For me, these are nights which is about when you’ve set yourself goals. One of mine was to start performing in the Champions League, to step up my game and play the best football you can imagine. Just enjoy these nights and play out of your skin.”
In some ways, the hard work has been done. Reaching the group stage was always the aim. How Celtic do over six matches is a worry for another day.
However, the way Rodgers has set-up his team, and with Patrick Roberts perhaps on his way, Celtic will be in far better nick than a year ago.
Indeed, there is an argument to suggest this is the club’s best squad about to enter the group stage since Martin O’Neill, Henrik Larsson, Chris Sutton and the rest.
“I think we are more relaxed. We went through this last year and we’ve come on so much since then,” said Sinclair. “We are all enjoying it, we played with a lot more calmness on Wednesday and gelled as a team.
“I’m sure the gaffer will come up with something for the second-leg. Personally, I think we should go out there and play our normal game and make sure we play as well again.
“Someone said to me after Tuesday’s match that it had been easy – it wasn’t easy. We made it look like that and now have one more away game to go. It’s great we have a five-goal cushion, for the fans, for everyone, and we will be confident going out there.”
A brilliant statistic came out of the game. Because two of the five went down as own goals, which was particularly harsh on the excellent Leigh Griffiths, UEFA revealed Celtic had three shots on target and won 5-0!
“In the league, you might get five chances and score three,” said Sinclair. “In this competition, you might only get one or two at the most and you have to put them away. I’m not sure how many shots on target we had (he laughed when quoted the stat) and so you have to be ruthless in front of goal because you’re not going to have as many.
“Those stats you tell me actually goes to show what the Champions League is about. We didn’t have 15 shots on target, it was right, but at the same time we did great.”
And this was without Deryck Boyata, Erik Sviatchenko and Moussa Dembele.
“That shows the depth we have,” said Sinclair. “The players who come off the bench are just as good as the starters. That’s great competition for everyone.”
And the Champions League is a somewhat great competition for this Celtic team.
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