Nicolas Kuhn has shrugged off transfer talk and insisted his sights are set on continuing his blockbuster season at Celtic.
The wide man bagged a double in Sunday’s 3-0 victory for Brendan Rodgers’s men against St Mirren to bounce back from the Old Firm pain game at New Year. Kuhn took his tally to 16 for the season and he has also pitched in with 11 assists to blast ahead in the race for the player of the year awards. The 25-year-old’s sizzling form has attracted attention from England and beyond with the likes of Brentford keeping tabs on the winger. Record Sport revealed last week Celtic are planning new deal talks with the winger this month.
But Kuhn – who was left with two black eyes after a thud on the nose against Rangers – is fully focussed on his Celtic mission.He said: “I have a long contract! I think that it’s the best (season), but it’s also the best team I’ve played in yet. All the teammates, the staff, make it a lot easier for me, and I’m just happy to be here.
“I’m not so focused on the numbers, we just have to perform well, and that’s what I try to do. For me the most important thing is to stay fit, that’s what I have always said. And in the end it’s about winning trophies. I’m not so focused on the numbers. I think it’s just the surroundings, I feel really good, I’m happy to be here, and everyone makes it easy for me. I’m just enjoying playing.”
Kuhn took a sore one in the derby but he insisted the Old Firm defeat hurt more than the bash on the beak.
The Celtic ace was left nursing a couple of cracking shiners after being caught by Gers defender Jefte in the 3-0 drubbing.
Kuhn was feeling a bit tender but it didn’t spot him getting stuck in to the Saints to banish the Govan blues.
He said: “I don’t know if my nose is broken. It’s a little bit painful, but we’ll be fin “I’m still a little bit dizzy, but, yeah, it’s going to be fine. The loss was more painful. Yeah, there was also a kick, but as we said, it was not our best game. The situation, I don’t decide, and we have to keep going. I didn’t realise what happened in the moment, so afterwards I didn’t know if it was yellow or anything else.
“That’s not the most important thing. The most important thing was that we showed a reaction on Sunday, and now we focus on the next game.
“We had to show a reaction after the last game, and that’s what we did. We’re happy that we got the three points.
“The previous game was not too good, but I’m glad that I keep going where I finished last year.
“We’re not used to losing, and against St Mirren we did much better, scored some goals, and were happy with the three points.”
Kuhn admitted the Old Firm shock came out of the blue – but he insisted Celtic have shown they can bounce back from the occasional bad day at the office.
He said: “Yeah, 100 percent. It was not enough from everyone, and we had to show a reaction. We always have to be 100 percent, and that was a lesson for us against Dortmund, and we were glad that we showed a reaction.
“I think that was just not us, and Sunday we did much better. Obviously we now want to keep that going in the next games.”
Celtic went down to their old foes but emerged from the festive campaign even FURTHER ahead of Rangers.
Philippe Clement’s side spilled points against St Mirren and Motherwell and stumbled again at Hibs before Celts went out against Saints.
Kuhn insisted the Celtic squad had no idea the Ibrox men were toiling again – but are only focused on taking care of their own business.
He said: “No, we heard about it afterwards. We have to focus on our game, and for us the most important thing was to get the three points, and now we have another game in three days.
“All we know is we don’t want that to happen again, so we just have to keep working and be 100 percent in every game. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Rangers or anyone else.
“We just keep going and we just have to win our games. As long as we do that, everything is good.”