Vasilis Barkas shouldn’t need an opportunity to prove himself - he should have arrived as a ready to go number one.
That’s according to Richard Foster, who reminded the Celtic keeper to “put his hands in his gloves”.
John Kennedy handed the Greek a start for last night’s 4-0 Scottish Premiership victory over St Johnstone due to Scott Bain’s injury.
Barkas has struggled for form since being signed for £5million last summer and in response to a caller on Go Radio saying he hadn’t had a fair crack of the whip, Foster responded: "It's an important position, of course it is.
"[Karamoko] Dembele coming in, he's young. He's 18, he deserves an opportunity to make mistakes.
"Barkas has signed for £5million, this is not a time to 'give him his opportunity'.
"He should be coming in as a number one goalkeeper. If you're getting signed for £5m you should be commanding, you should be dictating to your defence what you want them to do.
"We haven't seen any of that from Celtic, defensively they've been all over the place at times and that comes from having a goalkeeper who clearly doesn't speak. Or if he does, he doesn't tell the players the right things.
"They've lost so many goals at set plays. All the best goalies I've worked with are usually the loudest guys on the pitch.
"Because they can see everything and they can tell you what they want you to do, and they can tell you where to pick up and where your man is.
"It looked like this season they haven't had that and, like I say, you're getting signed to go to Celtic - not just any old club, one of the biggest teams in Scotland - that's not a time to 'get a chance', you should be in there as an established goalkeeper.
"And you should also remember to put your hands in your gloves..."
