Viljami Sinisalo has opened up on his long-term vision at Celtic as he revealed the one derby moment with Rangers he has ‘never experienced anything like’.
Brendan Rodgers swooped to bring in the Finland goalkeeper from Aston Villa in a deal in the region of £1million. On his arrival he penned a five-year deal and is currently number two to first choice Kasper Schmeichel. The youngster is yet to taste any competitive action with the Scottish champions as he updated the Finnish media on the plan down the line that will see him becoming the main man between the sticks. He also spoke about his start to life in Glasgow and admitted the same old message about not realising the magnitude and size of the club until he was in the building.
Speaking to Finnish outlet MTV Uutiset, he said: “When Celtic was a concrete option, you didn’t have to think about it many times. We are talking about one of the biggest football clubs in the world, and such an opportunity does not come up many times in a career, if ever. After the way those five years were described to me, it would have been stupid not to get involved.
“The pattern is pretty much as simple as it looks. Even at the age of 37, Kasper ( Schmeichel ) is still a top goalkeeper, who signed a one-year contract, which seems to include the club’s option for an additional year, but the plan is very far that I will be Celtic’s future number one. I have to be ready for that
“You have to be realistic. You don’t jump directly from League One to Celtic’s starting goalkeeper, but I already know that this season the responsibility is coming. Certainly even more next season. If I’m Celtic’s number one keeper at the age of 24-25, I’ve succeeded in my plan, and after that we’ll talk about a little bigger things.”
On his first few months at Celtic and his first experience of the build-up and being involved against Rangers, he added: “The beginning has been great. And best of all, we took a big derby win at the weekend. As I’ve said before, you don’t necessarily realise how massive a football club is until you get there. I’ve never experienced anything like You’ll Never Walk Alone playing before a game and a crowd of 60,000 singing it.”
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