John Kennedy speaks to Celtic TV as Bhoys begin to return to Lennoxtown | OneFootball

With the Scottish Premiership fixtures for season 2024-25 being released yesterday, Celtic Assistant Manager John Kennedy did a couple of broadcast interviews, one with Sky Sports which we covered yesterday, and the other with Celtic TV which we’ll have a look at now…

Looking ahead to the new season John Kennedy talked of the excitement in the camp as they look forward to getting back to business, full of hope and expectation for another successful season.

“I think we’re all excited. It was an amazing scene we’ve seen a few times now, but it certainly doesn’t get old when you win trophies and you go back to Celtic Park,” John Kennedy told Celtic TV. “There’s just that moment when everyone comes together and you can celebrate, because there were challenges as it was a tough season last year at times, but it was certainly worth it in the end when you see everyone come together.

“And again, going forward as always, the manager has said, we are as one, we’re as strong as anyone out there. So the message from the off is we are going out to do the business again and that’s always going to be there with the support of the Celtic fans.”

Celtic open with the now customary Flag Day at Celtic Park, this time against Kilmarnock, and the Celtic Assistant  Manager recognises he significance of the day. “It’s two things,” he said. “It’s to celebrate the achievement of the previous season, which is always nice with the flag being unfurled and still remembering the work that was done last year and what we achieved.

“But it also then draws a line under that and it’s the start of a new and exciting season, so we’re looking forward to that.’

“There’s a lot of work to be done before that comes around, but especially for the fans with the fixtures coming out today, they’ll be getting excited about the football coming back around and looking forward to seeing the players and the team back on the pitch again.”

Kennedy also talked about the change in the pre-season schedule this year and the decision to initially stay at Lennoxtown then cross the pond to visit the United States for a three match tour, rather than head to the usual training camps in Austria or Portugal.

“It’s a bit different for us this year, we normally go away to Austria, last year we were in Portugal and had a camp out there where we started the games, whereas this year we’re going to the States.

“We just thought this year, we’ve got a great facility here, the way the players are filtering back in, it’s probably best that we base ourselves here for a couple of weeks before we head off, so with that it then gives us the chance to play local games here in Scotland.

“It will be good for us and it’s just building blocks as we’ll get the work in with the training, but, again there comes a point when you have to start getting the match-time as it’s a different type of fitness.

“It’s a really important phase when you start getting into that match routine, the prep for the games, you execute how you want to play and then the review process starts with that as well. It’s important for us regardless of the opposition, we’ll get the minutes in early doors, and obviously when we go to the States we’ve got some challenging games which is again another step forward.”

Celtic are back in action a week today with the sold-out match down at Somerset Park against Ayr United, whose manager is of course the former Celtic captain Scott Brown.  That’s on Friday 5 July, with a 7.45pm kick-off.  Then there’s the second pre-season match on Scottish soil, this time against Queen’s Park at The City Stadium (Lesser Hampden) on Wednesday 10 July, again with a 7.45pm kick-off (there’s no tickets available for that one folks but these two games, plus the three in the United States are all live on Celtic TV).

The America Tour details are as follows

DC United v Celtic – Sunday 21 July at 00.30am, Wednesday 24 July at 00.00 against Manchester City and Saturday 27 July at 21.00 against Chelsea. All five games are live on Celtic TV and if you don’t have a subscription you can subscribe for the season HERE.

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