The former Hoops fans’ favourite has lifted the lid on his time in Glasgow
Ex-Celtic winger Patrick Roberts(Image: SNS Group)
Patrick Roberts is no spring chicken any more at the age of 28.
But the gifted winger reckons he played the BEST football of his career as a kid at Celtic.
Roberts was among the hottest prospects in English football when Man City shelled out £11million to land him from Fulham in 2015.
And it wasn’t long before Celtic and Ronny Deila managed to lure the rising star to Glasgow on an 18-month loan in January 2016.
With his dazzling footwork and ability to get bums off seats, Roberts became an instant hit with the green-and-white faithful.
Playing for a team where a draw’s a disaster and a defeat’s a catastrophe, the baby-faced assassin quickly learned about the pressures of playing for one of football’s most demanding clubs.
Now at Birmingham City, Roberts admitted it was a real baptism of fire as he said: “With Celtic, people here maybe never quite understand what comes with that, but there is pressure to win every game.
“Rangers came back to the top division in my first year there, so you had the derby game, which you have to win, then there is the expectation to win the league and the cups, and to do well in the Champions League.
“It is not a place where you go and if you lose a game, they accept it! You have to win game after game.
“That was where I got my first taste of the importance of that and where I learnt that real desire to win every game.
“That’s a good thing to get at a young age and I think that gets factored into the development of young players a lot more now, getting them out to play under pressure.
“You need to get all the experience you can from wherever you play, because getting into men’s football early is always beneficial.”
Roberts was also grateful to learn from an elite manager like Brendan Rodgers, who had current Blues boss Chris Davies as an assistant.
He told the Birmingham City website: “Brendan Rodgers was fantastic. He was known for bringing in young players at Liverpool and then when he came into Celtic, he still looked to do that whenever he could.
“Chris Davies was there as well. He was starting out in his first assistant role, and he was great to work for.
“He was really good with me, and I learnt a lot from both of them and the players at Celtic.
“I really enjoyed my time there, it was some of the best football I’ve played.”