McGeady wants Petrov to stay

Celtic midfielder Aiden McGeady admits the potential loss of Stilian Petrov will hurt him as a fan of the club.

Bulgaria international Petrov is poised to join Portsmouth, according to Fratton Park chairman Milan Mandaric.

Petrov, 27, handed in a written transfer request at the end of last season as he set his sights on a move to the Barclays Premiership.

But, if the 27-year-old does leave Celtic Park, McGeady will understand how the supporters will feel over the loss of his influential team-mate.

He said: “I would like to see Stilian stay because he is a quality player and we need quality players at Celtic.

“He has handed in his transfer request and that is his prerogative.

“If he goes, he goes but the players have not taken much notice of it and he has just been training as he normally does.

“As a Celtic fan, I would like to see him stay and, as a Celtic player, because he is a class act.

“He is such an influential player, scores a lot of goals and it would be sad to see him go.”

The possible loss of Petrov will further weaken Celtic manager Gordon Strachan’s squad after a summer of reshuffling.

McGeady admits the Hoops are not as strong as they were last season as he prepares for the Bank of Scotland Premier League opener against Kilmarnock on Saturday.

Celtic have toiled during pre-season, winning just one of their six friendlies, with McGeady scoring the winner in a 1-0 win over Everton on Sunday.

The departures of Roy Keane and John Hartson have been offset by the arrivals of Jiri Jarosik, Gary Caldwell, Derek Riordan, Kenny Miller and Evander Sno, who are still settling into the side this summer.

But now, ahead of the visit of Manchester United for a friendly tomorrow, the Republic of Ireland international has warned other title challengers that the team will be fully prepared when the season starts.

McGeady said: “Just now, the squad is not as strong as we had last season because the new players are still getting accustomed to the way we play and are trying to gel into the team.

“But, over the next couple of weeks, I think you will see us getting a bit stronger.

“Every one of the new signings has done well. Evander has played well, Kenny has brought a lot to team as have Derek and Gary.

“Gary has played every single game and, apart from the DC United game, he and Stephen McManus have been pretty solid at the back.

“We are getting there. The games in America went okay towards the end of the trip but we didn’t start off the best against DC United (Celtic lost 4-0).

“Against Everton though, I felt we defended a bit better, got the win and hopefully we can build on that against United tomorrow, although they are a class act as well.”

McGeady featured in 24 games last season and hopes to make a bigger impact during this campaign.

He added: “I’d like to be scoring more goals. I did okay last season in terms of goals considering the amount of games I played.

“But it’s something I want to add to my game because, even when I was younger, I always scored a lot of goals.

“Every season I play at Celtic is a big season for me, it’s just another season where I want to be playing every week.

“I said the same thing last season, but, obviously, it didn’t happen for me. But I still have two years here.”