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Two years in, Elvis has no intention of leaving the building

THERE will be a few folk around Celtic who still remember the state Steven Pressley was in back in the summer of 2007, although to be fair he did a pretty good job of hiding it at the time.

Pressley is never short of an opinion or two but he says he has learned to judge players as people rather than by what they do on the pitch. Picture: Ross Brownlee/SNS
Pressley is never short of an opinion or two but he says he has learned to judge players as people rather than by what they do on the pitch. Picture: Ross Brownlee/SNS
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Michael Grant

Pressley was dead on his feet. The end of his first season at Parkhead and the end of his tether arrived simultaneously.

The first half of his 2006-07 had been spent fighting with Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov until that tumultuous day when he publicly challenged how the club was being run. He sensed that doing so would seal his departure from Tynecastle, and he was right. The pressure didn't end there. He immediately switched to Celtic, burdening himself with the responsibility of winning over supporters who saw him as not only a Hearts man but a Rangers one. When the season reached its end he was too exhausted even to play for Scotland in a June Euro 2008 qualifier. He pulled out of a squad and the story was put out that it was because of a back problem, although now he is prepared to reveal that the real reason was mental fatigue.