Caley Thistle midfielder Ryan Christie remains in the dark about Celtic’s intentions, but will be more than happy to stay in Inverness until May if that’s what Hoops manager Ronny Deila wants.
The Norwegian has the option of taking his young Caley Thistle signing south in January or extending Christie’s loan stay in the Highland capital until the end of the season.
Inverness’ performance in the 1-0 home defeat to St Johnstone underlined the 20-year-old’s importance as the Scotland under-21 international’s talents occasionally lit up a turgid match.
Christie signed a four-year deal with the champions on September 1 but said: “I’ve had no word as to when they might want me to go down. I’ll just have to wait and see.
“I’m happy either way. If I go down after Christmas, then great, but everyone has been saying to me it will do no harm for me to stay here in Inverness for another full season of first team football.
“I am playing with more confidence now and that partly comes from signing for Celtic, but also with this being my second season playing first team football.
“Last season was about gaining experience, but I look at myself now as a first team player, whatever my age.
“I need to perform week-in, week-out. I’ve been trying to get my consistency levels up and that’s something I’m working hard on.
“I would always watch Celtic’s matches anyway, being a supporter, but I’m now keen to watch them to study the way they play.
“I can learn from how they play and the formations they use, so that when I do go down I’m ready.
“They always like get the ball down on the ground and that suits me. I don’t think there is anyone at Celtic who doesn’t know how to do that. That’s Celtic’s tradition and I hope it will suit me.”
Christie was less than impressed by his own performance in Saturday’s disappointing defeat as St Johnstone won through Liam Craig’s last-minute penalty despite having captain Dave Mackay sent off early in the second half.
Christie said: “From the start we were off our pace. Maybe only in the 20 minutes before the end of the first half we played the way we want to play.
“Ten minutes after the sending off, we just seemed to drop our tempo and against 10 men you need to do the opposite, you need to speed it up.
“I don’t think we deserved to lose that game but that’s what happens if you don’t concentrate for the full 90 minutes.”