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Du Wei set to stay after impressing manager
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-12-25 19:47
Celtic manager Gordon Strachan looks set to extend the stay of Chinese
international Du Wei at the Scottish club.
Celtic manager Gordon Strachan looks set to
extend the stay of Chinese international Du Wei (C) at the Scottish club.
[AFP] |
The 23-year-old defender has not featured for the Scottish Premier League
leaders since joining from Shanghai Shenhua in August but his performances for
the reserve side have impressed Strachan and he is now on the verge of making
the breakthrough to the top team.
When Du Wei moved to Celtic he signed a four-year contract but a clause was
also agreed to allow either the player or the club to walk away on January 15 if
things did not work out.
However, with the player having said he wishes to stay, Strachan has given
his biggest hint yet that the club are also happy to extend the relationship.
He said: "Du Wei is improving all the time and his communication is getting
better too. He's doing well in training and for the reserves and he's getting
plenty of good practice by taking a battering from John Hartson and Chris
Sutton, so that's helped.
"Just getting used to the culture has been a huge difference for him and he
seems happy being here, but if the rest of the boys are doing their jobs
properly, I can't just give him a game.
"He's not far away from playing in the first team, but I wouldn't like to
leave someone out after just one bad game and he'll just have to hang on in
there."
For Celtic's last two games of the year, at home to Hibernian and away to
Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Du Wei has been named on the substitutes' bench -
the first occasions he has made the first-team squad.
And with first choice central defender Bobo Balde due to be on international
duty with Guinea in the African Nations Cup next month, the Chinese player looks
as if he will soon get his chance to stake his claim for a regular game.
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