NADIR CIFTCI insists he is up to the task of being Celtic's number seven.
The Turkish striker has been handed a four-year contract after sealing his £1.5million move from Dundee United and his new manager Ronny Deila will now look to the 23-year-old to fire the goals that take his team to the Champions League group stages.
Ciftci will wear the number seven jersey made famous by club icons Jimmy Johnstone and Henrik Larsson, but insists he will not let the burden of that honour weigh him down.
"It's a favourite number for me too," he stated. "I've been wearing it everywhere else I've been, but I know what it means to this club and the players who have worn it before, so it will be a pleasure for me to wear it here as well."
Ciftci could make his Hoops debut in Friday night's pre-season friendly with Real Sociedad in Paisley. His competitive bow is then likely to come next Wednesday as Deila's team kick-off their attempt to reach the Champions League group stages when they take on Icelandic minnows Stjarnan in their opening qualifier, but he may have to wait for his domestic introduction after he was charged with biting Dundee's Jim McAlister in United's final game of last season.
He faces a Hampden hearing on July 20, but was prevented from discussing the accusations by the Celtic media team as he was paraded at their Lennoxtown training base.
Ciftci, meanwhile, sees no problems on the horizon with Celtic captain Scott Brown.
He escaped a ban last term despite appearing to plant his knee into the Scotland midfielder's face during a fiery Tannadice clash back in March with Brown claiming after the final whistle that Ciftci had "blatantly" kicked him in the head.
"We are professionals and, on the pitch, you do your job for the team you play for," stated Ciftci, who collected 11 bookings and one red card with United last season,
"Scott is a very big professional and everybody would love to have them in their team. I have him in my team right now, so I will only learn from guys like him."
Ciftci was offered the chance to link up with former Celtic defender Gary Caldwell at Wigan Athletic, but rejected the move as he waited for a transfer to the Ladbrokes Premiership champions to materialise. He was made to sweat, though, as United chairman Stephen Thompson knocked back two bids from Celtic Park before finally giving him the green light to open negotiations on Tuesday.
"Celtic was always my first choice," he said. "Everybody knows how big a club it is. I knew it before I even came to Scotland.
"I've played two years against them now, but you really see it once you sign for them.
"I hope I can bring a lot to the team. I'm fit to play, so it's up to the manager if I play or not."
Ciftci also thanked United for providing him with a platform to shine after signing him from Dutch club NAC Breda.
"I had two great seasons at United and I'm really thankful for that," he said. "Everyone at the club - the staff, the fans, my team-mates - made me really welcome.
"It's obviously really tough to leave a club like that after two beautiful seasons, but I'm looking forward to a new chapter."
Ciftci will have to dislodge Leigh Griffiths if he wants to claim a starting spot at Parkhead, but, after hitting 33 goals in 82 games for United, he is ready to take the next step.
"I hope we can get into the Champions League," he said. "That's the biggest stage and where Celtic belong. I want a taste of that.
"You get a lot of pressure put on you here and it's nice to have that. You will always be remembered here, especially if you do well. I'm here to do well and be remembered for doing my best."
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 hereComments are closed on this article