JAMES Forrest has won every honour in the Scottish game five times over, played on some of the greatest stages in Europe, established himself in the national team and been showered with awards during his career.

There is, then, little if anything for the Celtic winger left to achieve in the game in future.

Yet, he still returned to training at Lennoxtown yesterday to start preparations for the 2020/21 campaign with the same sense of excitement as he had when he first broke through at the Glasgow club 10 years ago last month.

The 29-year-old is looking forward to the new season greatly for a number of different reasons. There is, of course, the chance to be a member of the first team in history to win 10 consecutive titles. He is also keen to get back to the Champions League. There is an opportunity to help Scotland qualify for Euro 2020 as well.

But he is really relishing the prospect of squaring up to his brother Alan for the first time ever at professional level. His younger sibling has spent the last seven years playing for Ayr United and their paths have never crossed competitively. But this summer the attacking midfielder joined top flight Livingston.

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“He played with Ayr since he was 16,” said Forrest Snr. “Every single year and every cup competition, you are always thinking about maybe being drawn against him in the cup.

“It’s been close sometimes. They have been in the quarter-finals a couple of times, but have either landed Rangers or Aberdeen instead of Celtic. We’ve always been looking for it.

“Obviously, next season it is going to happen. It’ll be strange and it’ll be a different experience, but it’s something I’ll look forward to happening.

“Greg (Celtic left back Taylor) had it last season. He played and then his brother (Ally) came on later in the game (against Kilmarnock at Parkhead in February).

“I remember him saying that his family and everyone around them was buzzing. It doesn’t happen all that often, so you can understand the family is buzzing with the two of them playing together.

“There is five years a difference between us. To be fair, when we were younger, he’d join in with us, but never professionally has it happened. It’s a positive and something to enjoy.”

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Forrest has, aside from a spell during Ronny Deila’s time in charge when he struggled with injury and lost his way somewhat, maintained a remarkable consistency for a wide player during the past decade.

There is little chance of him failing to replicate his past form in the forthcoming campaign despite the extended lay-off due to the coronavirus crisis what with so much to play for with Lennon and team mates like Scott Brown constantly driving him on. 

“You need to always be better again every day,” he said. “Every manager that has been at Celtic has said it. There are that many games in a season and so much competition for places, you need to be at it with standards high even in training every single day. That has shown over the past few years. Those standards are high and it has translated onto the performances on the pitch.

“They are all great players and everyone talks about Broony in that regard. And rightly so. If you ask anyone who has played alongside him or been around him, they will say exactly the same thing about his influence in all of the changing rooms that we have had through the years.

“You will hear it that quite a lot of people need to focus on themselves and concentrate and that helps the team. But the amount that Broony does for everyone, as well as keeping his own game up, is something that you cannot buy.

“If you think about trying to look after some people, whilst also still focusing on your own game and keeping your levels so high, there are not many players that could do it.”

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Odsonne Edouard has attracted interest from clubs around Europe after scoring 28 goals in all competitions before football was suspended due to the Covid-19 outbreak in March and Kristoffer Ajer and Callum McGregor have also attracted admiring glances from further afield.

But Forrest, who has shown with his performances in the Champions League and Europa League over the years that he is capable of playing anywhere, has no desire to depart as he knows that, while the financial rewards could possible be greater, the grass isn’t always greener elsewhere. 

“I’m 29 in July and want to play for as a long as I can here,” he said. “You hear about lots of boys leaving and they all say when they go how big Celtic is. As the years go on you do realise that more and more.

“I just want to keep trying to be a part of Celtic for as long as I can. I don’t know for how long that will be, but I’ll keep trying and I’ll working to do so.”

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Forrest was set to play in the Euro 2020 play-off semi-final against Israel at Hampden in March before football was suspended because of the coronavirus crisis. Winning that rescheduled fixture and taking Scotland through to their first major tournament since France ’98 is an ambition going forward.

He is likely to be joined in Steve Clarke’s squad by his Celtic team mates Ryan Christie, Leigh Griffiths, Callum McGregor and Taylor and hopes they will be able to transfer their success with their club to their country and book a place at next summer’s rescheduled finals.  

“It’s good to have the Scottish boys playing for Celtic with a lot of them successful and able to take that onto the national team,” he said.

“I think the boys are all humble and they are not out there. That’s great a lot of the boys are like that and it’s great they take things onto the international level from club level.”