Liam Shaw tipped to follow in the footsteps of Celtic duo as John Kennedy hails incoming signing

Assistant manager John Kennedy believes the strides forward taken by David Turnbull and Ismaila Soro this season demonstrate that Celtic can be a proving ground for new signing Liam Shaw.

Celtic assistant John Kennedy believes Luke Shaw will have the right pathway at the Parkhead club.(Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

The 19-year-old agreed a pre-contract this week that will see him move from home town club Sheffield Wednesday in the summer and Kennedy, who praised the club’s players for toughing out a 1-0 win over Aberdeen, believes the teenager can follow the trajectory Turnbull and Soro have experienced in the past month.

"Liam has been tracked and monitored for a little while now,” he said. “We knew his situation at Sheffield Wednesday and we are excited by him. He is young, athletic and has good qualities. He can play midfield and at the back, and is one for the future. We see him having a career in the game here and we think he develop like Turnbull and Soro have.”

Turnbull’s sixth goal for Celtic following his summer £3.5m move from Motherwell resulted from another sublime strike from distance from the 21-year-old that Kennedy believes will come into serious contention for Scotland’ squad fro this summer’s Euros.

"I wouldn't rule it out,” he said of the attacker yet to earn a full cap. “Maybe Steve [Clark] will be loyal to the guys that got him there. But David is doing everything he can in terms of performances to ask the question. That's all he can do but ultimately it's Steve's choice and decision. From a selfish point of view, we just worry about him doing well for us.

“He’s been great. He came in the summer but we wanted to bring him in a year earlier and it never happened for obvious reasons. But he came in and worked really hard on his game, getting up to the tempo of it and you can see his quality. We’ve seen it a lot in recent games and getting his goal tonight, you saw him finding space in behind the midfield and driving into position where he can really affect the game. I’m really pleased for him, He’s a terrific guy who works really hard on his game, assess and reviews everything, and tries to implement things on the pitch. You can see that in his performances.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.