Celtic face Azerbaijani champions Qarabag in the first leg of their penultimate round of Champions League qualifying at Celtic Park on Wednesday before beginning the defence of the Scottish title against Ross County on Saturday. As time went on, the fans got behind me and the team and supported me really well last season.
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According to reports, former Arsenal youngster Stokes is one of those who has been told told he can look for another club having failed to feature in pre-season or the Champions League qualifiers for the Hoops.
“I am absolutely delighted to extend my contract with Celtic, such a fantastic football club”, said Gordon on Celtic’s official website.
“The tie is definitely not won yet but I believe in my team and we have put ourselves in a good position”.
He has admitted, however, that he wants to reduce the size of his first team squad to make room for academy players.
“We saw it last night (against Qarabag) where they brought on Kris Commons, Leigh Griffiths and James Forrest, those types of players who never started, so they have got the squad to handle it all”.
“That’s part of the motivation for getting out there every week and trying to improve and play at the highest level I possibly can”. They lost just four games all season and ended up 17 points in front of Aberdeen in second place. We have to take the positives with us but there is also other things to do better.
The former Dundee United striker starts a six-game domestic ban – a further two games are suspended – after being found guilty of biting Jim McAlister during a Dundee derby on the final day of last season, with left-back Izaguirre suspended after going through the disciplinary points total last season.
At that time he was also “pretty sure most of the Celtic fans weren’t overly enamoured” by his signing for reasons distinct from his physical condition.
“We knew it was going to be tough and the most important thing was to get 100 per cent effort”.
It was as close as either side got in a cagey opening half, but Celtic came out with renewed objective for the second period and were well on top early on. “When I travelled with the team to the first game in Europe away in Iceland, I stepped off the bus and I got a bit of stick for coming up for that corner”, explained Gordon.
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Gordon is a goalkeeper of English Premier League class at the peak of his powers, and it says enough that Fraser Forster has not been missed after he was flogged to Southampton for around £10m.
