Celtic's Midnight Runner

Dedryck Boyata’s work late into the night at Lennoxtown is now beginning to pay dividends with some impressive, match-winning performances for the Hoops in recent weeks.

- Martin Dalziel

WE didn’t sign Denayer, but it doesn’t matter because we got Boyata’ Sing those words to the tune of Billy Joel’s We didn’t  Start the Fire and you’ve got yet another instant classic from the Celtic fans in praise of just one of the many stars who have emerged (or re-emerged) under Brendan Rodgers this season.

The reworked version of Supertramp’s The Logical Song in honour of Scott Sinclair has arguably been top of the supporters’ charts for most of the season, but after scoring his second match-winning goal in a week, Dedryck Boyata’s chant is climbing up there.

Now, if you’d said nearer the start of the season that the Celtic fans would be singing the Belgian’s name by February 2017 – not only that but lauding him over fellow former Manchester City star and ex-Celtic loanee, Jason Denayer – most people would have been dubious.

Because not only was the 26-year-old injured when Brendan Rodgers took over the Scottish champions in the summer, but he was also low down in the pecking order of central defenders. Erik Sviatchenko, Jozo Simunovic and Kolo Toure were all ahead of the stopper in the queue for a starting berth, and that remained the case for the first half of the season.

However, behind the scenes, away from the public eye and at times even under the cover of darkness, Dedryck Boyata was working hard to get back in the first-team.

To say he was putting hours in at the gym was an understatement. As he revealed last week, the Belgian defender would often find himself on the treadmill at the club’s Lennoxtown training centre well past midnight, even if he had been included in a matchday squad, as he waged a one-man battle on his fitness in a bid to get into the manager’s starting XI.