David Turnbull on the one-to-one office chats with Neil Lennon that led to him making his Celtic breakthrough

The playmaker, a £3.25m acquisition from Motherwell back in August, has been a ray of light amid the gloom. Since being brought into the first team in the Europa League match against Lille in December, he has been an ever present in the starting line-up. The Premiership game against Aberdeen at Parkhead yesterday, too, was his 26th consecutive appearance.

He has scored some important and spectacular goals during that impressive run. There have been calls for many of his team mates to be shown the door as they have struggled domestically and flopped in Europe. He, meanwhile, has been tipped to force his way into the Scotland squad for the Euro 2020 finals this summer.  

“It has been a weird situation this year,” said Turnbull earlier this week. “On a personal level it has been good. I have got a lot of games under my belt and have had a lot of good games. It is a team game, though. We want to win every game we can and get as many good results as we can. We have not done that enough.

“Since Lille I have been involved in every game so obviously I have enjoyed that. It has been a good experience. Now I just have to look to kick on and get even more under my belt now.

“It is good getting praise, but it is about the team. It is not really about being stuck in the middle, it is just about doing your best for Celtic. As you would imagine, there have been some highs and some lows, but I have enjoyed every minute of it.”

Turnbull’s strange campaign took another twist on Wednesday when Celtic announced that Neil Lennon, the manager who signed him, had resigned and would be replaced on an interim basis by John Kennedy.

The Northern Irishman’s abilities as a coach have been called into question, despite the fact he became the first man ever to complete the treble as both a player and a manager in December, in recent weeks. But his summer signing has revealed how their one-to-one chats had helped him to finally make the breakthrough at the Scottish champions after months on the sidelines.   

“He was always great with me since I first came,” he said. “After games he would take me into his office and give me wee tips here and there. How I could maybe do better and stuff like that. From the first moment he said to me to shoot from distance. He encouraged me, he must have seen that from my Motherwell days.”

Statistics published before the Aberdeen match showed that no other player aged under 23 in a top division in Europe had played as many key passes as the 21-year-old this season. He had made 76. Mason Mount, the Chelsea and England midfielder, was some way behind him with 62.

Turnbull showed he had the ability to unlock an opposition defence on numerous occasions during his time at Fir Park. But he admitted that being encouraged by Lennon to take chances in the final third had helped him.  

READ MORE: Scott Brown opens up on his Celtic future following talks with Parkhead chief executive Peter Lawwell

“That is my game,” he said. “I try to score as many goals as I can and create as many chances as I can. He was always stressing to be positive in terms of getting into position on the pitch to make things happen.”

Turnbull was always confident he would make a full recovery from the knee injury that scuppered his move to Celtic in 2019, get back to the level he had been at and complete his transfer to Parkhead. But he is still grateful to Lennon for returning for him last summer and was sad to see him depart.  

“I thank him for bringing me here,” he said. “But the fact he did so was also down to my getting back performing well. That was what I was always aiming towards. So I do thank him for bringing me here, but I feel it is down to me as well.

“Obviously, it is not the way he would have wanted to have gone or how the players would have wanted it to happen. But as a group we need to take full responsibility for the season and the way it has gone on. I am sure the boys will do that.”

READ MORE: Scott Brown: John Kennedy nurtured the world's best left back - Celtic are lucky to have Kieran Tierney's mentor

Turnbull has enjoyed working with Kennedy, who was Lennon’s assistant, and is hopeful they can show more consistent form under him between now and the end of the 2020/21 campaign and increase his chances to getting the role full-time.  

“I think Kendo is a great coach,” he said. “He has been good with me since I have been here. I have loved working under him. I work with him every day. He will maybe try and implement a few wee things here and there just to get results. Hopefully we can do that under him. I think it is up to him if he wants to continue in the role.”