NEW BHOY JENZ KNOWS ALL ABOUT HIS CELTIC HISTORY
MORITZ IS ALREADY WELL INFORMED THANKS TO O’RILEY AND GRANT
MORITZ JENZ has arrived at Celtic without requiring to undergo the time-honoured crash course in the club’s traditions, history and expectations. He became immersed in those from a distance some time ago.
An academy player at Fulham, the German defender was educated in all things pertaining to the Glasgow institution by one Peter Grant.
Then, after moving to French side Lorient last season, his bulletins on the steady progression of Ange Postecoglou’s side were delivered by a former team-mate at Craven Cottage, Matt O’Riley.
The 23-year-old may be the new Bhoy in town but, largely thanks to the input of both his best friend and former coach, he has checked into Celtic already schooled in the enormity of what he has signed up for.
‘We kept in touch every day since I went to France and Switzerland,’ said the former Lausanne and Lorient player of O’Riley.
‘We text every day and he told me the atmosphere at Celtic Park was amazing. I watched the games and got jealous because it’s Celtic and so famous. Everyone knows what it’s like to play for Celtic, so it’s a dream to play with Matt because he’s my best friend.
‘I followed the league and saw the start wasn’t the best. It was difficult because of the changes in the team. Then I followed them and they got gradually better, won the derby and played in three European competitions. So I know everything that’s happened over the last year.’
If O’Riley provided the blow-byblow accounts last season, it was former Celtic midfielder Grant who educated the teenage Jenz in the club’s travails down the years.
‘I asked him a lot of questions,’ he added. ‘He also told me that Andy Thom played here, and he was also German. Then I spoke to his sons, too, because they are also Celtic fans and they would always be telling me about the club.
‘So it was in my brain and now I’m here. It’s incredible. I’m extremely happy to be here.’
Given his journey to date, the challenge is unlikely to faze him. His move to Brittany a year ago put him on a collision course with Paris Saint-Germain’s galaxy of stars.
He recalls waiting anxiously to see the visitors’ team sheet before first locking horns with them in December. He would not be disappointed.
‘I remember that, because the game was before Christmas, I thought: “They are not going to have all their superstars. It’s going to be okay”. But ten minutes before, they showed the team sheet and they had everyone with them.
‘Then you get excited because these are the people you have been watching since you were small. These are the top guys at the top level. In the warmup, you just forget.
‘You don’t care who is next to you, if it’s (Sergio)
Ramos or if it’s (Lionel) Messi. On the football field, we are even. Maybe they have much better qualities. But if you work hard and make it difficult, you have a chance. In the end, you just focus.’ His strategy paid handsome dividends that day. Only a stoppage-time goal prevented PSG stumbling to a shock defeat. A reunion in the Champions League should hold no fears then? ‘Yes, but the coach will help me out with his ideas as he will decide how we play and who will play,’ smiled Jenz. ‘I can add a little bit to it as I’ve experienced a situation against PSG. ‘Messi was just fantastic. For me, he’s just the greatest player. It’s impossible to man mark him because he knows exactly where to be between the players. He gets the ball every time and you can’t get close to him.
‘Also (Kylian) Mbappe is very quick, so it’s very difficult if the ball goes in behind you. You need to have good cover and communication. So you learn more about how to organise and how to be tougher and make it quite nasty for them.’
He needs no-one to tell him that, despite his brush with the superstars, he will now shoulder far greater expectations on a weekly basis. Lorient finished 16th in Ligue 1 last season — an acceptable campaign by their standards. Celtic’s ambitions are somewhat higher.
‘At Lorient, the target is to stay in the league and finish in a good position in their eyes,’ said Jenz.
‘But at Celtic you have to win, you have to win trophies, you have to be first, you cannot have a draw because a draw is a disaster and a loss is even more of a disaster.
‘It’s where you want to be as a player. If you want to become a top player you have to play on a level where you are always 100 per cent in a game.’
The Champions League is perhaps the one environment where expectations in terms of results have to be tempered.
But although Celtic are likely to be up against it as a pot-four team, the defender sees no reason for self-doubt.
‘We should not go into games with anything to fear,’ he insisted. ‘Because Celtic are very brave — attacking football, possession football.
‘Last year we played Leverkusen for example, and against them over there we were brave. Celtic could have won the game.’
Jenz feels his style of play should prove a hand-in-glove for the kind of football Postecoglou demands.
‘It’s the style I enjoy the most,’ he offered. ‘In France we had to play more defensively and try to get a result. But I really enjoy having the ball at the beginning, dictating the tempo, picking the passes.
‘I would consider myself two-footed. I worked on it as a kid because, in the academy at Fulham, they used to tell me it was good to have both feet, because then you can play both sides and it gives you more options to play.’
Celtic’s new loan signing is a student of the game — but that doesn’t mean he is motivated by its materialistic trappings. A professed environmentalist who likes to spend his spare time in museums, Jenz is very much his own man.
‘It’s nice because it is relaxing for your mind after a stressful game or a stressful week,’ he explained. ‘You go to a museum, or see something new and it’s just calming.
‘I wouldn’t say I care much about the lives you sometimes see with footballers these days. You see guys on a yacht or on a jet, jetskis or whatever. I try to keep my life simple. I’m quite private. If you have the brain and a good wife to keep you grounded, then you are in the right place.’
His first task is to impress sufficiently enough under Postecoglou that Celtic exercise the option to buy after his loan expires next summer. International ambitions are also on his agenda.
‘I qualify for Germany and Nigeria but I would prefer Germany because that’s where I grew up,’ he said. ‘But I need to do my best for the club first.’
CRYPTIC CLUES ACROSS
12 City in Alabama cultivated hope about
new communications device (6,5) 13 Curious phrase for mountain guide (6) 14 Pub trade’s not half changed?
That’s sudden (6) 16 Be in charge of thing connected
to a computer (4) 17 Look like fake rogue wearing
worthless material beside leading lady (4,5) 18 Break second of objects
with terrible rust (5) 19 Caribbean clerk’s covering
part of a candle (4) 20 Popular guy taking off uniform
repaired pre-school children’s facility (9) 22 Fraudulent pounds kept
in safe possibly (5) 23 Useful extra item for one
supporting criminal (9) 27 Fellow creating groan about
entrance to marina is suited diver (7) 30 Robin, maybe, also with
no time for jinx (6) 31 A group of players showing no
end of kindness for assistant (4) 32 Destiny making one more
mellow, it’s said (5) 35 Sparkling wine from California
and Virginia (4) 36 Councillor consuming coffee
makes discordant sound (7) 38 Unsophisticated country person
left out as burden (4) 39 Raise on reflection leading
monetary prize (7) 42 Mind latter part of a sentence (6) 45 See regular characters taking
part in crawl in pub (5) 46 Ordinary Australian put in
side is too old (7) 47 Stiffly formal premier embracing
religious instruction (4) 48 Team following cheers move
slowly after landing? (4) 50 Opportunist caught by European
entering fancy ranch (7) 52 Untrue thing about roughage (5) 54 Moderate fury (6) 56 Ambassador after accepting various
toils is far from friendly (7) 57 Stylish U.S. city in the
past overlooked (4) 59 British actor meets executive
in legal proceeding (7) 61 Precious metal guarded by
Mongol dynasty (4) 64 Piece of furniture close to
dresser up to now (2,3) 66 Insinuation virtually guaranteed
to constrict liberal (4) 67 A military force belonging
to us in protective gear (6) 69 Decline shown by a chaplaincy
when disheartened? That’s mistaken notion (7) 72 I tote name given
abuse formerly (2,3,4) 73 Experienced in the Home Counties
relief from the sun? (5) 74 Matt jeers after getting buffeted in
meandering air currents (3,6) 79 Some cover brilliant part
of speech (4) 81 Women in department take here
initially type of measurement (5) 82 A French copper stopping a very
short prank is kindly (9) 83 Work in a bakery, we hear,
as a requirement (4) 85 Guy’s first to lessen angry look (6) 86 Sprinkle water on last of posh
ring of flowers (6) 87 Nervousness on boards? (5,6)
DOWN
1 Plastic bollard is working in confines of close (4) 2 Female in vain fashion keeps duke proving awkward to handle (6) 3 Fine trees blown around getting to rot? (6) 4 Phase UK developed for reorganisation (5-2) 5 Ken’s a staggering telltale (5) 6 Form of literature and restricted films supported by Conservative (5,5) 7 Priest given award requires thorough investigation (5) 8 Arab cried out for makeshift obstacle (9) 9 Small pastry later cooked in middle of batter (7) 10 Bird and bovine animal fringing river (4) 11 Cuts perm surprisingly showing range of colours (8) 15 Note in pub sport upcoming element (6) 21 Part of irregular variant in form of an insect (5) 24 Drink when accepting change of policy? That gets to make sense (5,2) 25 In turn, refer to work of verse (6) 26 Raucous laughter? There’s lack somehow within walls of college (6) 28 Eat on the move in town in Essex, reportedly (5) 29 Curve in hatrack seen at intervals (3) 33 Chart produced by a university making pictorial impression (7) 34 Normal section of hospital for a mother, maybe (6) 37 It helps to draw lines for leader in government? (5) 40 Give a view enthralled by Chopin etudes (5) 41 Thick sort of fuel having disastrous consequences? (7) 43 A nob is excited about first sign of entertaining jollification (5) 44 Please stickler after removing jacket (6) 46 Not partial to a large lot of internal meat parts (5) 49 Progressing like rail passengers en route? (2,5) 51 Surprised expression shown by squaddies in court, group born in the same year (6) 53 Withdraw from forepart of
a ship in public (3,3) 55 Magnate is unusually glum
around front of office (5) 58 Copy a chart that’s confused
group of bus travellers (5,5) 60 Consume when cycling hot drink (3) 62 Not altogether finely crafted
lightweight fabric (5) 63 What successful mountaineers
have to do in retreat (5,4) 65 Fighter takes part in the only manoeuvring that’s improvised (2,3,3) 68 Average person required
at a seance (6) 70 Racing official set off with
attraction held up (7) 71 Bring up, for example, old record
on variable study of the earth? (7) 75 Second Dutch footballer lacking essential piece of style is dishevelled type (6) 76 Source of contamination in broken
drain that’s smelling unpleasant (6) 77 Lustre in southwest
London suburb (5) 78 A pleasing accent (5) 80 Shout in dance broadcast (4) 84 Sound that reverberates
from city house (4)
QUICK CLUES ACROSS
12 Communications
device (6,5) 13 Mountain
guide (6) 14 Sudden (6) 16 Precede (4) 17 Resemble (4,5) 18 Rupture (5)
19 Candle part (4) 20 Pre-school children’s facility (9) 22 Fictional (5) 23 Useful extra
item (9) 27 Suited diver (7) 30 Jinx (6)
31 Assistant (4) 32 Destiny (5) 35 Sparkling wine (4) 36 Rattling sound (7) 38 Oppressive
burden (4) 39 Large monetary
prize (7) 42 Mind (6) 45 Nearby
resident (5) 46 Too old (7) 47 Stiffly formal (4) 48 Cab (4) 50 Opportunist (7) 52 Roughage (5) 54 Moderate (6) 56 Opposed (7) 57 Stylish (4) 59 Legal
proceeding (7) 61 Valuable
metal (4) 64 Up to now (2,3) 66 Insinuation (4) 67 Protective
gear (6) 69 Mistaken
notion (7) 72 Formerly (2,3,4) 73 Hue (5) 74 Meandering air
currents (3,6) 79 Part of speech (4) 81 Extent from side
to side (5) 82 Kindly (9) 83 Require (4) 85 Angry look (6) 86 Garland (6) 87 Actors’ nerves (5,6)
DOWN
1 Plastic bollard (4) 2 Awkward to use (6) 3 Worsen (6) 4 Reorganisation (5-2) 5 Telltale (5) 6 Literary form (5,5) 7 Thorough
investigation (5) 8 Makeshift
obstacle (9)
9 Small pastry (7) 10 Bird (4) 11 Band of
colours (8) 15 Thread (6) 21 Immature
state (5) 24 Pile high (5,2) 25 Of verse (6) 26 Raucous
laughter (6) 28 Scrape (5) 29 Curve (3) 33 Vivid picture (7) 34 An older
relative (6) 37 Monarch (5) 40 Give a view (5) 41 Having disastrous
consequences (7) 43 Jollification (5) 44 Amuse (6) 46 Edible internal
organs (5) 49 Progressing (2,5) 51 Group born in
same year (6) 53 Withdraw (3,3) 55 Magnate (5) 58 Group of bus
travellers (5,5) 60 Hot drink (3) 62 Lightweight
fabric (5) 63 Retreat (5,4) 65 Improvised (2,3,3) 68 Middling (6) 70 Flight
attendant (7) 71 Earth science (7) 75 Dishevelled
type (6) 76 Stale (6) 77 Lustre (5)
78 Severe (5) 80 Shout (4) 84 Resounding
noise (4)