Bodo/Glimt could be shorn of stars and their manager by the time they face Celtic, according to a Scot who has made Norway his home.
The Parkhead giants were paired with one of European football’s most progressive and fast-improving sides in the UEFA Conference League on Monday.
The Norwegian side have created their own Leicester City miracle over the last five years. Promoted in 2017, almost relegated in 2018, to the highs of winning their first Norwegian title in their 104-year history in 2020. They’ve become one of Europe’s most exciting teams, and made it back-to-back league titles with a 3-0 win over Mjondalen on Sunday afternoon.
But former SPFL centre-forward David Weatherston – who made the move from Glasgow to Trondheim, Norway five years ago – reckons Bodo/Glimt could lose highly-rated coach Kjetil Knutsen before they take on the Glasgow side in February.
Well, Knutsen and players.
Weatherston – who turned out for the likes of St Johnstone, Queen's Park, Queen of the South and Falkirk – has given Record Sport an insight into what Ange Postecoglou’s side can expect when they face the team from the Article Circle next year.
He said: “They won their first league title in their history last year and a lot of it was to do with a culture of promoting from within and they are very, very keen to have a local theme around the club and that’s really important. They’ve got a captain who has come up through the youth system and Patrick Berg, who is one of their most promising players, dad and grandfather also both played for the club as well.
“Over the last couple of years, everything seems to have clicked for them and all the players who came through at the same time have turned out to be good and it looks as if they are going to make it to the next level and become Norwegian internationals. It’s not through money at all as the likes of Molde, Rosenborg and SK Brann have a lot more resources."
Manager Knutsen has masterminded all of the clubs’ success and he was strongly linked with the vacant manager's job at Norwich City in the Premier League last month as well as being part of the short list of potential candidates to replace Steven Gerrard at Rangers.
And Weatherston is a big fan, adding: “His style of football has a lot to do with it.
"People will look at the success he had against Roma and last year as well with the number of goals they scored as that’s what these teams are looking for. It’s really exciting football to watch and I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t there come the Celtic game.
“They’ve had the best defence by far in the Norwegian league by far this season, conceding just 25 goals in 30 games, but I don’t think they’ve defensively come up against many teams that play the way Celtic do and it’ll be interesting as both sides like to dominate the ball. The most impressive thing last season was the way they transitioned offensively with super-quick counter attacks as they scored 103 goals in 30 goals which is insane if you think about it."
Bodo/Glimt are renowned for their homegrown talents and the Scotsman picked out some key players that Celtic should be wary of ahead of the fixture in February and gave his prediction of how he thinks the Norwegian champions will get on.
Weatherston added: “There is a lot of talent within the team. Fredrik Bjorkan has already signed for Hertha Berlin and there is a very, very good chance that Patrick Berg will be leaving as well. Ola Solbakken is the one player who has really stepped up this year and become their main threat. He's left-footed, quick, very direct and scored a lot of very important goals last season. If he’s still there, he’ll cause Celtic problems with his pace.
"Bodo/Glimt don’t have an official game until February so that’s a massive issue. I think there will be goals in both games and both teams will score in either fixture. I can see them beating Celtic here in Norway but I think Celtic will be too good and have enough to beat them over two legs, mostly down to what time of year it is and I think there could also be a few key players departing from Bodo over the next few months. It’s definitely not going to be easy for Celtic and if they’re not at it when they come to Bodo, they will get beaten.”
