With pre-season just around the corner for Celtic – little over a month since their Scottish Cup heroics – the anticipation and excitement of a new campaign can now fully kick into gear.

With new players (hopefully) bound to walk through the doors at Lennoxtown in the very near future, the prospect of returning to training can be an intimidating one to existing players who may feel pressured concerning their position in the team. However, it can also be a period of opportunity, as a new season can mean a fresh slate, ahead of what is to be a gruelling and challenging year ahead for the double-winning side.

In light of this, the expanded fixture list may mean that the club will put more of an emphasis on their younger talents, particularly in the Scottish Premiership following their upcoming European escapades in the revamped Champions League. One young player who will hope for that to be the very case will be Bosun Lawal, who played out his first senior season at Fleetwood Town in League One, under the familiar faces of Scott Brown, Lee Johnson and – most recently – Charlie Adam.

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Former Celtic player Ross Wallace currently works as a first-team coach under Adam at the recently relegated side and helped Lawal in his debut campaign as a professional footballer. From the get-go, it is fair to say that his first impressions of the versatile play were positive. He said: “The first thing I noticed was that he was a big, powerful lad.

“His strengths were clearly in his athleticism and his power. When we first got to Fleetwood, he was all over the place in terms of his positioning on the park. He was playing at centre-back, but also at right-back and left-back, as well as in midfield. Our job was to find him a position and have him settled into it. Eventually, we played him in a midfield three and he was fantastic for us, in terms of winning the ball back and using his athleticism to run in behind the opposition’s defence.

“Despite being a centre-back, he grew into the position and was fantastic for us as the season went on.”

Fantastic is the word for Lawal’s contributions, for sure, despite suffering relegation with his temporary club at the end of the campaign. Making 46 total appearances for the English side, he managed to score six goals and assist a further two in all competitions, as he was a mainstay in the team, regardless of position. Despite their on-field struggles, it seems as if Fleetwood benefitted from this loan just as much as both Celtic and the player did.

For loan players, it has to be a good fit more often than not for an individual to thrive whilst at another club, whether that be a similar style or a good connection and relationship with his teammates and coaches. The latter was the case with Lawal, according to his former coach. Wallace said: “Both on and off of the pitch, he was absolutely brilliant.

“He continuously trained every single day, regardless of his situation in the first-team or position. I think that the main thing was to simplify his game a little bit, and we think that helped him. It helped him maintain a good shape and a good structure positionally to go and press, which he was very good at when he was at Fleetwood.

“When Bosun goes and presses people, nine times out of 10 he comes away with the ball.”

In a previous interview for The Celtic Way, we spoke to Omer Riza, who coached Lawal at Watford before he made his move up north to his boyhood team. Riza was full of praise for his former apprentice in the Watford academy, who compared his game and attributes to that of Everton midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure and Manchester City legend Yaya Toure. While Wallace sees the similarities, he does not want to get dragged into these lofty claims. He said: “Those are massive comparisons!

“What Bosun has got is massive physical capabilities. When we put him in midfield originally he struggled with his fitness in that position and struggled to see out games in the process. However, once he came to terms with the physical demands it was a different story. We kept telling him ‘You’ve got that physical presence, so go and use it!’.

“I don’t really like comparing players to other people. All I can say is that as the season went on and he started to use his body and frame to his advantage then things started to change positively.

“Once he got started, then he was very hard to stop at Fleetwood.”

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Signed as a defensive midfielder from Watford’s academy, Lawal has predominantly played as a centre-back for the likes of Tommy McIntyre, Stephen McManus and Darren O’Dea. He featured in this role at the beginning of his Fleetwood loan, before Adam moved him into midfield following his arrival as Johnson’s mid-season replacement.

It is clear that Lawal has thrived following his return to the deep-lying midfield role, though his former coach at Fleetwood reckons he has a decision to make. He said: “It's a tough one for Bosun, because it's what he wants as well as his coaches.

“We spoke with the set-up in the Republic of Ireland camp, who see him as a centre-half and the same goes for Stephen McManus at Celtic, too. For me, the way he played in midfield for us over the last two months of the season, I see him as a midfield player. If you get him near people and get him pressing the opposition, then it's a no-brainer.

“I’d much rather play him in midfield than at centre-back or in the defence.”

Thanks to Lawal’s good performances in League One, interim Republic of Ireland manager John O’Shea decided to call him up to the senior squad for the first time earlier this month, following an injury to Norwich City’s Andrew Omobamidele in the lead-up to their game versus Hungary. Despite not featuring – and returning to the U21s to face England – the young talent would have benefitted from the experience.

A stalwart in the U21s setup for his country, Lawal has managed 12 appearances at this level, scoring one goal in that time. For Wallace, Lawal’s breakthrough into the senior set-up at Ireland is no surprise to him whatsoever. He said: “Listen, if Bosun Lawal wants to go and play at the top level, then he is more than good enough to do so.

“That’s how highly I regard him as a football player. With that frame and size as a young kid, he’s already comfortable with his body physically, which is fantastic for him as he can now just go on and work on his game. He still needs to work on the technical side of his game, but he’s still only a young kid. That frame of his is so empowering on the pitch when he gets near people.

“Being in and around people like John O’Shea with the career that he had, they’ll take his game on leaps and bounds internationally.”

As mentioned before, pre-season brings about a fresh opportunity for players to make an impact on first-team proceedings, regardless of their situation in the previous campaign. With that being said, Lawal faces a battle to play in his preferred position as Celtic’s holding midfielder, with Callum McGregor almost exclusively plying his trade there and Tomoki Iwata acting as his back-up when required.

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Further back in defence, the likes of Gustaf Lagerbielke and Yuki Kobayashi may leave the club, whilst question marks remain on Maik Nawrocki and Stephen Welsh’s long-term futures at the club, despite being on lengthy contracts. With so many moving pieces in the more defensive-minded areas of the park for Celtic, Lawal’s former coach could see the player being shipped out again, despite his successes last season at Fleetwood. Wallace said: “For me, personally, I’d like to see him go back out on loan again.

“At 21, he’s still just a young kid in the world of football, and playing for Celtic is a very big ask for any player. It is a massive club and I think that it might be just a bit too much for him to handle at this moment. I’d like him to go out again on loan in the English Championship or at the top end of League One, which is still a very good level to play at.

“The kid just needs to play games, because he had hardly played any games at first-team level. He needs to continuously play. He cannot be sitting in the reserves with the frame he’s got at his disposal.

“Bosun needs to play week-in week-out until he is ready to make an impact for Brendan Rodgers and Celtic.”