BOLI BOLINGOLI says that he can emulate Kieran Tierney’s success at Celtic despite an inconsistent start to life with the Scottish champions.
The left-back’s performances have been somewhat erratic since being brought in as a possible replacement for Tierney following the Scot’s £25m to Arsenal, with manager Neil Lennon praising his signing last week while adding the caveat that he sometimes gives him ‘the heebie-jeebies.’
Bolingoli though is steadfast in his belief that he has what it takes to become as big a hero to the Celtic support as Tierney was before he left in August.
"I know my qualities and I want to show them,” Bolingoli said.
“Every player is different, and I know Kieran Tierney was a big player at Celtic, and to replace him is a big honour for me.
"I want to emulate Kieran and the things he did for the club.”
To do that, Bolingoli will have to hold off the challenge of fellow new arrival Greg Taylor, who has yet to make his debut for the club since his £3m move from Kilmarnock because of injury.
With Taylor nearing full fitness and Jonny Hayes also pushing for a start at full-back, Bolingoli knows that he will have to become a more reliable performer, but he isn’t shying away from the task.
“For sure, I welcome that challenge,” he said. “Even when Kieran Tierney was here I said it would be a big challenge for both of us if he stayed here.
“With Greg we're working hard every day, the coach can only choose eleven players but it's a positive competition, because Jonny Hayes is doing well as a left-back.
“We try to motivate each other and try to be ready for the team. We'd want someone of quality to come in and make the difference if they are required to play.”
The lowest point for Bolingoli since his move to Scotland was the night that he was left out of the starting 11 as Celtic crashed out of the Champions League qualifiers to Cluj with midfielder Callum McGregor filling in at left-back, but not for solely selfish reasons.
“For me the disappointment wasn’t that I wasn’t playing but that we were knocked out of the Champions League,” he said.
“I was on the bench that night but I really, really wanted us to qualify for that competition.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here