Martin O’Neill clearly knows a good centre forward when he sees one. Working with the likes of Henrik Larsson, John Hartson and Chris Sutton during his first spell at Celtic qualifies him to spot a top quality striker when he sees one…
So when the veteran Irishman talks up a player, you have no other option but to take his word on the matter.
18 year old Shim Mheuka who recently joined Celtic on a year long loan deal from Chelsea is a player who Martin reckons has all the attributes to go to the very top of the game.
The youngster introduced himself to the Celtic supporters from the bench against Aberdeen in midweek, and again in the 2-1 win over St Mirren on Saturday evening, scoring with a fine finish only to see it dubiously ruled out after a VAR fiasco which Willie Collum will have to explain on his VAR Review round-up this coming Friday.
offside. Photo Vagelis Georgariou
The powerfully built youngster, also possess terrific technical ability, and knows the way to goal, so is very much a Martin O’Neill type of centre forward, and with a hectic run of games coming up, he could well get a chance to start in the midweek clash against St Johnstone in Perth.
Martin O’Neill is convinced that Mheuka is going to make a great impact in the game.
“He is, honestly,” the Celtic manager began at his post match media conference on Saturday evening. “He could be a proper player in time.”
The Celtic boss also believes that the 18 year old could become a regular starter, reiterating his belief that he will learn more about his more inexperienced players when they’ve been thrown into the mix, and spoke about his pep talk with fellow new signing Mika Baur.
“I could see him starting, very easily. This is the whole point, we’ve got a couple of players who deep down you don’t really know exactly what they can do. Of course, we’ve studied them, but we know more after they’ve been thrown into these games.
“I was speaking to wee Mika Baur afterwards and I said: ‘Mika, these games are hard.’ He’s played in the Bundesliga Second Division, he just got into the big league. Sometimes they don’t realise how hard they are. But Big Shim looks as if he wants to adjust to it.”
High praise indeed from a legend of the game, Martin O’Neill. We could be about to see much more of Shim Mheuka who is extremely highly rated at Chelsea and looks set to have a great career ahead of him.
A year working with Martin O’Neill and playing for Celtic will help propel him forward to reach his own targets in the game. For us we look to have a huge talent on our hands, temporarily at least, so lets’s enjoy watching him in the Hoops while we can.
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
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