'I'm not here to plod': Celtic talisman not satisfied with haul as he sets out aim for next season

James Forrest wants to achieve more at Celtic.

The 31-year-old signed a new contract with the club to keep him at Celtic Park until 2025. He has been with the Glasgow giants his whole career, playing 444 games and winning 20 trophies.

However, he found it tough to cement his spot in the team under new manager Postecoglou during the last campaign as a series of injuries and form of other players made it difficult for him to get a sustained run of games.

Forrest is out in Austria as part of Celtic’s pre-season training camp and believes he is in good shape to force his way into the starting XI when the cinch Premiership campaign begins at the end of the month.

“I’ve started well this pre-season and hopefully, I’ll take that into the season ahead,” Forrest said.

“I turned 31 on Thursday, I love being at Celtic and wouldn’t want to be here if I just wanted to plod along at this club.

“My aim is to keep trying to help the team, keep trying to win stuff, and play as much as I can.

“I’m looking forward to the season just as I did with last season.

“I remember over different spells throughout my Celtic career, every spell when we’ve done really well, the squad has been really good with strength in depth.

“You look at the amount of international players and the young boys coming through as well, we’ve got a big squad over here and the standard is really good in training.

“That’s good for the players and its obviously very good for the manager as well.

“We even said as soon as we got here, for all of the boys that did so well last year, it starts fresh, everything kind of gets forgotten about.”

Continuing in an interview with the Scottish Sun, Forrest added: “I think that’s the best way to look at it, you can’t look back on what you’ve done before – you need to keep going on and trying to improve. It doesn’t matter what age you are, that goes for everyone.“All players want to play, your age doesn’t come into it.

“I think it’s good when the players in your position are doing well, because it makes you want to keep impressing to get a game.

“Everybody gets better when there’s competition for places.”