THE VITALS:

Team: Celtic

Brand: New Balance

Era: 2018-19 (Used for the 2018-19 Scottish Premiership Season, the 2018 Scottish League Cup Final, and the 2019 Scottish Cup Final)

Name/Number: -

CONDITION: VERY GOOD

This article comes to you in very good condition with the shirt material and club crest standing in great order, there is however, some wear and peeling to the respective sponsor decal and New Balance decal.

DIMENSIONS:

Size: Small

Pit to Pit Measurement: 19 inches

Shirt Length: 27 inches

Made by New Balance in their ‘NB Dry’ range of shirts which they introduced in 2018; the dimensions of this shirt would suggest that this shirt would also fit someone who normally wears a size medium shirt.

DESCRIPTION:

After the gold themed centenary shirt New Balance produced for the 2017-18 season; the fourth home shirt made by New Balance for Celtic returned black and white accents for the use of the sponsors to compliment the classic green and white hoop base. New Balance would also use a henley collar, while the stripes were inverted from the previous season’s effort – echoing memories of the classic home shirt made by Umbro for the 2003-04 season. The 2018-19 season would represent a bridge between the club’s present and past as Brendan Rodgers left the club to be replaced by former manager – Neil Lennon, and for a third season in a row; Celtic would win the domestic treble – the league title being their 50th! This would be the last home shirt to be worn by Moussa Demeble when he left for Lyon just 1 game into the Scottish Premiership, while club legend – Emilio Izaguirre returned to the club alongside Odsonne Édouard and Timothy Weah who joined the club on a season long loan!

THE SEASON:

While not the 106 point romp to the title in 2016-17; Celtic were still imperious in the 2017-18 season as they completed a double domestic treble – becoming the first side in Scottish football history to do so!

While Moussa Dembele was signed by Lyon just a game into the new season and Stuart Armstrong was signed by Southampton; Celtic would dip back into the French transfer market to bring Odsonne Édouard to the club, while Emilio Izaguirre made a sensational return to the club after leaving the club back in 2017.

The 2018-19 season began with a 3-1 win over Livingston, however, their poor form which blighted the end of the previous season continued to rear itself in the early stages of the season with Brendan Rodgers’ side winning just 3 of their opening 3 league games. Of those 3 wins did come an Old Firm Derby victory over Rangers on 2^nd September, and after defeating the previous season’s runners-up: Aberdeen 1-0 on 29^th September; this win would set up an unbeaten streak of 9 games where the team rattled off 7 wins to lead the way by 7 points after 17 games. An incredibly congested December 2018 saw the Scottish Premiership host 7 fixtures! Celtic would win 4 of those games, losing twice and drawing the other and the fallout of the hectic final month of 2018 saw Celtic fall 1-0 to Rangers on 29^th December to close the gap to 3 points at the top of the table.

After a long 4 week break, Celtic returned a team who most certainly benefitted from the extended rest as they put together an 8 match winning run which was part of a wider 16 match unbeaten start to the year! Brendan Rodgers’ last stand as Celtic’s manager would be guiding the team to a 4-1 victory over Motherwell on 24^th February. Neil Lennon returned to the club to take his place and guided Celtic to a win over Hearts in his second debut in the Celtic hot-seat. His second tenure would begin with a 9 match unbeaten run – the last of those games being a 3-0 win away versus Aberdeen to seal the title! While there was a disappointing 2-0 to Rangers in the penultimate game of the campaign, they would end the season with a 2-1 win over Hearts to win their 50^th league title by a 6 point margin!

On the domestic cup front, everyone was gunning for ‘The Bhoys’ as Celtic held an iron grip on both the Scottish League Cup and Scottish Cup in 2017-18. Unfortunately for the pretenders to the throne, neither trophy would be leaving Celtic Park as Celtic completed a second successful defence of both cups – beating Aberdeen to defend the Scottish League Cup on 2^nd December, and then to draw the curtain of the 2018-19 Scottish season; Celtic would beat Hearts 2-1 on 25^th May!

The European front would be less successful as Celtic missed out on the Champions League Group Stage after braving the first and second qualifying rounds after beating Alashkert and Rosenborg; they would fall in the third qualifying round versus AEK Athens. After being relegated to the Europa League, they would easily overcome Suduva to reach the Group Stage where they would join Red Bull Salzburg, RB Leipzig and Rosenborg in Group B. A split of 3 wins and 3 defeats enabled them to finish in 2^nd place and reach the Round of 32; however, their European journey would end here as they were beaten 3-0 on aggregate by Valencia.

The notable players that season(s) were:

Leigh Griffiths, Moussa Dembele, Odsonne Edouard, Oliver Burke, Timothy Weah, Scott Sinclair, Olivier Nitcham, Callum McGregor, James Forrest, Ewan Henderson, Mikey Johnston, Karamoko Dembele, Eboue Kouassi, Tom Rogic, Scott Brown, Daniel Arzani, Nir Bitton, Jonny Hayes, Ryan Christie, Kieran Tierney, Anthony Ralston, Kristoffer Ajer, Filip Benkovic, Mikael Lustig, Derdyck Boyata, Cristian Gamboa, Jozu Simunovic, Emilio Izaguirre, Jack Hendry, Jeremy Toljan, Scott Bain, Craig Gordon