Kelvin Wilson joins home guard

WHEN Neil Lennon stated he would give a more British Isles identity to his team last summer, the Celtic manager was mocked for subsequently hiring a Honduran, Mexican, Israeli and Swede. Yet everything is now pointing to Lennon having provided an accurate prophesy.

Englishman Kelvin Wilson pitched up on Friday, having inked a pre-contract agreement in January, as did another new signing, Welshman Adam Matthews.

With these players hailing from Nottingham Forest and Cardiff City respectively, Lennon has now recruited five players from the Championship. He has been linked with a sixth, Joe Ledley urging the club to see through their interest in his former Cardiff team-mate Jay Bothroyd. Meanwhile, Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given has let it be known how much he would love to revitalise his career where it began 16 years ago.

Were Bothroyd and Given to join a squad that already contains Championship captures Kris Commons, Gary Hooper and Ledley as first choices, and Mark Wilson and Scott Brown as the Scottish-scouted players in that bracket, it would leave Honduran Emilio Izaguirre, Israeli Beram Kayal and Swede Daniel Majstorovic as the only players from outside the British Isles who could be expected to earn a starting place for Celtic on any given matchday.

When it comes to levels of attractiveness and, importantly, wages, Celtic clearly still has a cache for capable players housed in England's second tier. That once might have been true of performers playing for clubs in the bottom end of the Barclays Premier League but the salary differentials have completely altered those dynamics, and ensured that even Championship players tempted north do so with the sneering of supporters ringing in their ears.

"You hear people saying 'why are you going up there?' but football people don't say that. It's just fans who maybe don't understand, but football people do understand why I'm coming up," Wilson said. "I expect the standards to be similar (Championship and SPL] but obviously I can't say that until I start playing. I have played with Kris Commons and against Joe Ledley and Gary Hooper and I think I played against Adam Matthews last season. But these guys have come up and done well and have had no regrets. Like I say, it's football people who understand why I have come to a massive club like Celtic, one of the biggest in Europe.

"Kris is flying. Everyone knows what Kris is capable of doing and he is fulfilling that now and I'm delighted for him. I played with him at Forest, then he went to Derby and I played against him. I get on well with him and have always done, but he's not a popular figure in Nottingham any more.He scored a few goals against Forest, but was on the losing side though! I remember playing against Joe Ledley a few times when he was at Cardiff and when I was at Preston and Gary Hooper at Scunthorpe. They are all good players and that's why they are here."

As Ledley admitted in enthusing about his first year in Scotland, they are here because playing in front of "more than 50,000 fans can't be beat" every other week, and when they face their Glasgow neighbours, it makes for an energising experience that not many clubs even in the English Premier League can offer.

"There were loads of Old Firm games this year and I have watched them all. You look at it and you think 'I'd love to be a part of that' and I'm really looking forward to it," Wilson said. "I spoke to Kris Commons and he said he'd never witnessed anything like it. I have also spoken to (my agent and former Celtic defender] Brian O'Neil and he told me the fans are amazing and I've seen that for myself. I've been to a few matches, but I have never witnessed anything like the ones here - passion and an amazing atmosphere."