Opinion: Multiple treble winner’s best Celtic days may be behind him

Celtic winger James Forrest has had an incredible career with the Hoops. The 30-year-old winger has won many trophies with the team, including three trebles.

The player is the longest serving player at the club, and deserves to be considered as a modern day Celtic great. However, there has to be a concern that the attacker might not be able to reach the heights he once reached at Celtic Park.

He started for the Bhoys in the 2-0 loss to Bodo/Glimt and didn’t have the best of games, he was quiet aside from one excellent cross, and you have to imagine that when the Hoops are back in action at the weekend against Hibernian, Forrest will be on the bench and Jota will be back in the starting line-up.

To be fair, it isn’t Forrest’s fault that he is struggling to recapture the form he showed in the past. The player has had a number of injuries in the last few seasons, and they are always going to take their toll, especially on a winger.

As it stands, Forrest will likely be a substitute for the majority of Celtic’s games in the title run-in. That does not mean that he can’t still contribute for the side, but unless his form improves when he gets a chance for the first-team he is likely to be behind Jota, Liel Abada and even Daizen Maeda in the pecking order.

Looking at Forrest’s Celtic career overall, he deserves to be considered as one of the Hoops’ best players of the last 25 years, and has won 19 trophies, with hopefully a 20th on the way if the Bhoys can go on to win the Premiership title.

It is a pity that he has struggled over the past year, and it will be interesting to see what happens with his contract, which expires at the end of next season. Maybe it will be a similar situation to Scott Brown, who didn’t extend his contract his the Hoops after a very successful period at Celtic.

Would it do Forrest good to leave Celtic when his contract ends? Only time will tell. It will depend on his fitness to an extent. If he can get fit and recapture his best form for the Hoops, then he might well have earned a new deal for Celtic.

But at the moment, it looks as if the player’s time at Celtic could come to an end sooner rather than later. That would be a shame, but Forrest’s time at Celtic has still been incredibly successful.