With Brendan Rodgers serving a one game ban for Celtic’s game against Livingston yesterday, it was left to John Kennedy to complete the media duties at Almondvale.
Indeed, Kennedy is no stranger to such a thing as he has done this on many ocassions as the experienced Celtic coach has been in interim charge of the club before.
Kennedy was the man in the dugout at Livingston as he helped lead the team to a 3-0 win as Rodgers sat in the stand.
After the game, the assistant manager was asked how the Celtic players are feeling ahead of the the Ibrox Glasgow Derby when Kennedy said that the training ground is probably the ‘calmest place in Scotland‘.
But it was the message that Kennedy delivered to his players about the upcoming Ibrox game that really impressed former Celtic hero, Pat Bonner.
Bonner delighted with Kennedy’s Rangers ‘statement’
When asked if Celtic was a calm place before the derby in his day, Bonner said it wasn’t like that in his day.
Bonner said [Scottish Football Podcast], “I’m not so sure, it was calm. There was a bit of an edge when you get into those games.
“You’re looking forward to it. There was a wee bit of maybe nerves in the back of your mind. The one thing he did say, which was interesting was the emotions.
“If you let your emotions get carried away, I learned very early in my career from the great man Danny McGrain when I didn’t say to him one day leading into a Rangers game that I was nervous and so on.
“And he said to me, ‘There’s nothing wrong with being nervous. It gets your adrenaline going, but if you’re over nervous, it just drains the energy from you.’
“And that was a really good point from John. I’m sure most experienced players have been around this fixture for a while will be probably talking to the ones who haven’t been around and trying to give them that type of advice and when it comes from your assistant manager, he knows what it’s about.
“So that, for me, that was an important statement.”
The hype to the derby started as soon as the final whistle blew at Livingston yesterday afternoon and no doubt it is going to ramp right up as the week goes on.
To have a calm head around Lennoxtown will help the newer Celtic players stay focused and having people like Kennedy, James Forrest, Callum McGregor and even Brendan Rodgers around will be key.
All four of these guys have an immense amount of experience to draw on and they will help players like Hyunjun Yang and Nicolas Kuhn through the build-up to the fixture.
Thankfully both these players are in great form for Celtic right now and if they remain focused, they could have a huge say in next week’s result.