Why James Forrest thinks Luke McCowan is the best deal of the season: what he saw in his first Celtic training session

After all, James Forrest knows that this could be his last season at Celtic, so he’s going to enjoy every minute.

Not long ago, he thought he might never play soccer again with the club he loves. Forrest’s contract ends at the end of this, his 16th season, and he will be 34 years old in the summer, so his future is unclear.

Despite this, the attacker would rather focus on the moment. In his 24 major titles won at Celtic, Forrest has seen it all. This season, he has a chance to catch and maybe even beat Bobby Lennox’s record of 26 titles, which he won with the Lisbon Lions. Forrest is determined to make the most of his time, no matter how long it lasts, so all of that is put on hold for now.

“I’ve been asked about what comes after this season a few times, but right now I’m just focusing on being with the team,” he said. Just focusing on the present moment makes me enjoy it even more than before.

“Perhaps I’ll think about it after the season is over, near the end.” I’m just having fun with it right now.

“I might have wondered if I’d ever play for Celtic again during that time when I wasn’t on the team.” Don’t take anything for granted from now on. You look at the end of last season and see that they won the league and the Scottish Cup.

“Even going away again during the off-season.” That doesn’t mean it’s a second chance, but you might have thought you were done. That’s likely why I’m having so much fun with it. Is it a matter of taking it in? Without a doubt, 100%.

“That spell out, I don’t think I’ve ever had that in my job before.” “If I go back, I want to make sure I enjoy it and take it all in,” I said.

The way Celtic has started the season is great in many ways. The Celtics haven’t lost in the league all season and are easily in the running for the next round of the Champions League. As summer approached, Forrest could tell that the Celts were getting ready for something big.

He told her, “It’s been great.” Looking back at preseason results and games played, we’ve really stepped it up in the league and the Champions League.

It’s a lot of fun to be a part of it. It’s important that we focus on ourselves. Keeping an eye on what other teams are doing can be hard.

“This is something that the manager and staff always impress upon us.” We need to do our jobs without regard to the person we are playing.

“You saw that in the games after Europe.” The manager moved some players during the games, but we still won. Trusting his team is good for everyone.

Forrest knows that he is now one of the main backup acts in the group, but he still has a lot of room to grow because Brendan Rodgers needs to rotate his players because his team is fighting on so many fronts. The Hoops, on the other hand, have a lot of good players, so even new ones can immediately contribute.

People like Luke McCowan. The midfielder could play against Dundee, the team he used to play for, and Forrest is sure that the player, who joined from Dens for £1 million on the last day of the transfer window, could be one of the best deals of the season. When McCowan has been given the chance, he has always done well. He scored at Fir Park over the weekend. And Scotland might call soon.

“All of the new players have settled in off the field,” Forrest said. “We knew they would do the same on the field from the first day of training.” Luke’s first training session was the day before the Rangers game. He came in and looked very sure of himself right away.

“You could tell he was thrilled to have signed.” He just turned it up. He has settled down in the locker room, and you can see his shows in the park. Could he be one of the best deals of the year? Of course.

“You can see it already from how well he’s played off the bench, and it was good for him to start the other day.” He doesn’t look out of place now that he’s a Celtic player. He’ll want to keep going and make this better.

“If you asked Luke, I think he’d say that focusing on this is the most important thing for him right now. If he keeps doing what he’s doing, he has the skills, confidence, and character to be involved with Scotland.” He made the jump to Celtic, and if he gets called up, I have no worries about him.

Even though he had to miss the last meeting because of a small injury, Forrest hasn’t given up on his dreams of making the national team. For now, he’s determined to keep Celtic going, and he’d love to repeat his heroics against Dundee last season, when his amazing double on Tayside won a crucial win in the run-in for the title.

Forrest said, “Yeah, I remember that one well.” This week, it would be great to play it again because it was an important game in the late season.

“It was decent.” I think I started that game because I scored against Aberdeen in the semi-final, so I was feeling good. It felt great to score a few goals in a big win and help the team.