Celtic player turnover laid bare as 2019 signing left in 'bizarre' position

Developments at Celtic this season seem to have put years on Greg Taylor.

It isn’t that the full-back has been burdened by helping his club regain their league crown. Instead, it is that the departures of the long-serving pair Tom Rogic and Nir Bitton have significantly altered his status within a squad comprehensively rebuilt by Ange Postecoglou.

Taylor may have arrived at Celtic as relatively recently as September 2019, joining then in a £2m move from Kilmarnock. The monumental turnover in the champions’ playing personnel since then, though, means only James Forrest and Callum McGregor have racked up more games for the club than the defender. That fact, he jokes, has seriously aged him - even as the manner he has matured under Postecoglou’s stewardship, which has required him to become a full-back capable of building the play from the middle of the pitch, resulted in easily his best campaign for the Glasgow side.

“I’m 24 years old and I’m classed as the old guard so it is a bit bizarre,” Taylor said. “But I think it is a pressure and a responsibility that I have enjoyed this year, being looked at as one of the more senior players. Hopefully, I can continue to do that – try to help the others, and try to improve myself. I think I have had a successful season personally but that only becomes possible with the collective – everyone playing their small part in the team.

“If you all do that then you normally get decent success and I think we have done that this year. Whether it is the goalie, full-backs, midfielders – everyone has played their part and that is the reason that we have been successful together. It has been a new way of playing [for me] but it has been one I’ve enjoyed learning. I continue to try and learn