Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I’LL KLIM LADDER
Pat wants to hit heights at Celtic
PATRYK KLIMALA has been heading for the hills in his spare time and hopes Odsonne Edouard can now help him scale dizzy heights at Celtic.
The Pole needed just four minutes to open his account for the season after climbing off the bench to complete the scoring in the 5-1 romp over Hamilton last week.
Hat-trick hero Edouard (below) made way for the 22-year-old with the Frenchman’s work for the afternoon already done.
Klimala admitted hot property Edouard’s sizzling form means it will be difficult to dislodge him as Neil Lennon’s first choice striker.
But the Polish U21 international is convinced they could form a deadly two-pronged attack if Lennon opts to play with two up front.
Klimala is still adjusting to life in Scotland both on and off the park and today’s trip to Rugby Park will be another test as he faces his first outing on a plastic pitch.
Despite arriving in
January from Jagiellonia
Bialystok, the striker is also exploring Scotland and enjoying walks in the mountains with fiancee Milena.
He said: “I watch
Odsonne and I like to see how he plays. We can work together of course.
“I learn a lot from him and if we play with two strikers we can score a lot of goals. Odsonne plays more with his back to goal. I can do that too but we can’t both play with our backs to goal if there are two strikers. I can play wherever you want.” Lennon is still in the hunt for more firepower with Vakoun Bayo heading for the exit and Steven Fletcher, Albian Ajeti and Lyle Taylor linked with moves to Celtic.
But Klimala is calm about more competition up front and said: “I don’t see any problems with that. I don’t know what I can tell you because I have no problems, Celtic can take another striker.”
With things looking up on the park, Klimala is also enjoying life away from Parkhead.
He said: “I like Glasgow. You have really nice views. I like life here. The weather doesn’t matter, sometimes you have sun and sometimes you have rain.
“Me and my fiancee often walk in the hills. We don’t have these sorts of hills in Poland. I like to go there and just chill. We go walking with our dog.”
Klimala admits it’s an ambition to break into the full Poland team but added: “It’s difficult because they have Robert Lewandowski and Arkadiusz Milik. Now I am focused on the U21s.”