It's a sign of James Forrest ’s longevity as a Celt that he is the only player on the Parkhead who can remember training and playing with Artur Boruc. And Forrest’s assessment of the larger than life Legia Warsaw keeper, who will play the final match of a fine career at the age of 42 against Ange Postecoglou’s team tomorrow night in the Polish capital, is somewhat at odds with the public perception of Boruc, who often hogged the headlines during his five-year spell at Parkhead which ended in 2010.
In fact, the Hoops winger revealed it was Boruc’s ability to make young players who were breaking through feel welcome – Forrest was one of them – that shaped the manner in which the Scotland international treats newcomers when they arrive in Glasgow’s East End.
"I was young at the time, coming through, but I heard a lot of the players talking about him,” Forrest said on Monday after being part of a club open training day in front of season ticket holders at Celtic Park. From what I remember everyone liked him. There were a lot of stories about him but he was really quiet in the changing room and around the place.
“Any time I met him he was always really good with me as a young boy. There were so many big names there at the time, a lot of big personalities as well. It’s always good for young players coming through to learn off the big players who have played in the Champions League and internationals.
“It’s always good to be around big players like that and big characters, you always take bits off everyone and it helps your game as well. For the ones who have come through here, like Callum (McGregor) as well, when you see younger players you always take an interest because you have done it as well.
“Everyone has been young and come through the youth system to get to the first team. It’s good for them to train with the first team boys and see what it’s like every day, and hopefully they get to that stage themselves some day.
“Artur did so well here and it will be a good testimonial, a good game for him getting Celtic. He has to be right up there (in terms of great Celtic keepers). If you ask a lot of fans about what he did here he was just so well liked.
"For him, playing against Celtic is perfect, he couldn’t have picked a better team to play against. Hopefully it’s a sell-out for him and a good night.”
Forrest was part of the squad who did all it could to welcome Celtic’s Japanese quartet of Kyogo Furuhashi, Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate and Yosuke Ideguchi to Scotland last season and although the latter had injury problems, the three others had hugely successful opening campaigns.
And now, with a campaign under their belts, Forrest believes they can be even more successful next time out.
The 31-year-old added: “They have come in and done really well. Kyogo right from the start of last season came in and did really well and then the other Japanese boys came in January and they just started straight away, just like Kyogo.
“They all work hard and they fit into the Scottish game really well. They have all been here a wee while now so they can all speak better English and they all get on with all the boys as well and that is a big thing.
“They have all performed really well and they can all kick on again.”
Postecoglou’s success in the transfer market last season means he’s only had to tweak things this time around and Forrest believes the Aussie has earned the trust of the fans and Board in that respect.
With Australian international Aaron Mooy looking set to be the latest acquisition, Forrest believes that whoever comes in will be an asset.
“If you look in the past, sometimes one or two new signings do really well,” he said. “Last year, I don’t think you can come up with one who hasn’t made an impact.
“It’s always good to add quality players as well. It’s only going to help the team and help to build it stronger.
“If he’s said he’s going to sign another two or three then definitely it’s going to help the squad.
“Obviously with the Champions League, it’s a good attraction to get players in when we can offer those types of games.
“The fans are behind him (Ange) but also the players as well as all of his staff. Rightly so after how good last season was. He wants to keep building and be a part of that.”
And if that means Forrest doesn’t play every week, he is experienced enough to deal with it and look at the bigger picture.
“It’s always been a case of taking my chance when I get it,” he insisted. “In those parts of the season when it’s more than one game a week, I don’t know what he’s going to do but he rotated the front line quite a lot last year.
“He likes to change the attackers up to freshen things up. With the amount of subs we could use last year as well that worked in a favour.
“It was maybe only at the end of the season when it was one game per week that he didn’t change things as much.
“When you’ve got a big squad with a lot of players it is good to have that strength and depth.”
