Celtic had a solid summer transfer window. After making the moves for Jota, Cameron Carter-Vickers, and Daizen Maeda permanent, the Hoops decided to add more reinforcements. Alexandro Bernabei came in to compete with Greg Taylor. In the process, he also became the club’s first ever Argentine player.
Having agreed to a five-year deal with Celtic and arrived for a significant transfer fee, hopes were that Bernabei would hit the ground running at Parkhead. That did not turn out to be the case though.
It was not an easy start to life for new Celtic signing, adjusting in a new league and completely different environment. As a result, we have not seen him feature much till now.
But things have started to turn bright for Bernabei, as he has started to make his presence felt now and is making a very positive contribution on the pitch, especially looking like a real threat going forward.
Why Bernabei was struggling at Celtic explained
It looks like the style of play at Celtic as well as the fact that Bernabei does not speak English well, were the reason behind the Argentine’s early struggles at the club, although it appears that he is improving. As reported by The Herald, Josip Juranovic said regarding his teammate:
"“I’m trying to give him advice about settling in and our style of play but he doesn’t know English very well, but will learn.“But you can see that he’s played a few games and is now doing very well. He made an assist on Saturday and that’s the most important thing.“He’s doing well away from the pitch also. He’s a great person and I know that we will see more good stuff from him this season.“It’s difficult [to play as a full-back with Celtic] because it’s all about going inside and outside, talking with our number six.“But it’s because of those demands that we are at Celtic. We want to achieve everything and we will do that.”"
After the initial struggles, the full-back has finally started seeing some regular minutes under the management of Ange Postecoglou. He is showing that he deserves those minutes as well and has had a direct impact on some recent games, assisting important goals for the club.
Now, the important thing for Bernabei is to kick on and use this as a platform to nail down his spot in the team. Of course, that won’t be easy, as he is competing with Taylor at the moment, with the Scottish full-back in the form of his life and one of Celtic’s most consistent players this season.