Source: Team_Talk
Grant: Hoops need big players
Grant will form part of the new management team at his former club along with boss Tony Mowbray and his assistant Mark Venus, and his experience of what it takes to be a Hoops player is unquestionable.
He had the best part of 15 years in the Celtic midfield in the 1980s and 1990s, when they mostly played second fiddle to Old Firm rivals Rangers, before moving down south to play for Norwich, Reading and Bournemouth.
Grant was an assistant at West Ham and also managed Norwich, before being invited on to the coaching staff at West Brom by Mowbray, and he returned to Glasgow this week well aware of the main characteristic needed by anyone who pulls on a green and white hooped shirt.
"Ability is a massive part of it but if you don't have the mentality to play for Celtic - or Rangers - you don't have a hope in hell," he said. "That's a fact because demands are second only to Manchester United.
"Mentality is the biggest thing. That is what I learned when I went to England.
"I used to wonder why so many players came to Celtic and Rangers and really suffered. It wasn't because of their ability but they didn't understand that it is 24/7 up here, there is no switching off as a Celtic or Rangers player.
"Celtic have got to win every game. There is no saying, 'We have to do this or we have to do that' - we have to win every game and we have to try to play well every game.
"That is the nature of the beast and it is only when I went to England I realised that. Outside Manchester, there are no bigger clubs.
"If Celtic and Rangers were in England then there is no doubt that they would be challenging the Manchester Uniteds of this world within four or five years."
Grant watched in pain as Rangers cruised to nine SPL championships in a row during his time as a player at Celtic Park.
He knows the first job will be to wrest the title back to Parkhead after it was recently surrendered to the Ibrox club for the first time in four seasons.
Like most of the Celtic fans who have welcomed Mowbray and his team, the former Hoops player hopes to try to do it with some style but he accepts that simply winning it is the main aim.
He said: "Players will come and players will go, it's the same at every club.
"We will look to improve the squad. We will be looking for players who will excite the support and players who they will want to pay to see.
"But you have to remember that Tommy Burns - God rest him - got a standing ovation at the end of the season for losing one game when he was the manager and I said it would never happen again.
"I want to get a standing ovation for winning the championship this season and that is our ultimate aim.
"I went nine years without winning the title as a player which was a real, real difficult time but the club bounced back.
"We have had a blip last year but it is time to win it back again."
