Cast your mind back to December, and you may remember we brought you a couple of reports on the struggles of Celtic youngster Maryan Shved.
The Ukrainian winger is currently out on loan at Belgian side KV Mechelen, having joined them in the summer in search of regular first-team football.
It’s his second loan spell away from Celtic since arriving at the club in a £1.8m deal in January 2019, with him having been sent back to Karpaty when that deal was initially concluded.
It was, presumably, hoped he could kick on in the Jupiler Pro League this year, but things seemed to be going poorly courtesy of his attitude.
Back at the beginning of December, we covered comments from Mechelen’s manager Wouter Vrancken, who took the unusual step to criticise the Celtic player to local media.
That was later followed by a report at the end of the month from Gazet van Antwerpen, who revealed it wasn’t just Vrancken who was not impressed with Shved’s attitude; his Mechelen teammates were frustrated as well.
Since then, there’s been little mention of the Celtic loanee, but Voetbalkrant pick up the mantle today, and it seems things have turned around.
They explain that Shved had joined the club with ‘high expectations’ in the summer, but he had a ‘few difficult moments’ at the AFAS Stadium.
Indeed, it appears he had ‘sold’ his chance completely, with Vrancken labelling the Celtic loanee ‘arrogant and introverted’.
That is why he barely counted for the club in December, but since then, the 23-year-old has kicked on and was ‘decisive’ for the team on several occasions in the new year, with two goals and an assist against Waasland-Beveren his standout performance.
He’s been injured for the last two games with a tendon irritation but has now returned to training, and it’s felt that can give the club’s chances of finishing in the top four a ‘solid boost’.
Shved is now considered a ‘star player’ in the team and was in ‘good shape’ before the injury saw him ruled out.
That’s a dramatic change from where he was back in December, with the Celtic man having seemingly sorted those attitude problems out and kicked on.
