Landon Emenalo finally made his Celtic debut on Sunday during a huge 7-1 win over Hearts after joining the club from Chelsea on loan – but Celtic fans believe he is going to need time.

Emenalo, who is the son of former Chelsea sporting director Michael, starred for Chelsea during pre-season. Xabi Alonso is said to have been impressed during the summer tour of Australia and Asia.

The American-born teenager was used regularly by Alonso in the summer while Jorrel Hato was at the World Cup and Pep Chavarria hadn’t been signed. But following Chavarria’s arrival, he joined Celtic.

Celtic fans discuss Landon Emenalo cameo in big win v Hearts

Sunday’s clash saw Hearts return to Parkhead for the first time since their emotional defeat towards the end of last season, which resulted in Celtic pipping Hearts to the title. On Sunday, Celtic won 7-1.

How would you compare Chelsea’s sporting directors to their counterparts at other English clubs? Have they really been that bad? 🤔

While Shim Mheuka was left on Martin O’Neill’s bench, Emenalo came on to make his Celtic debut. The teenage left-back replaced Kieran Tierney, finally getting his debut after overcoming an injury at Chelsea.

But Celtic fans were not overly impressed. One said on TalkingPoints that he was “well off the pace”. Many feel it will take some time for Emenalo to get up to speed, while others doubted if he has enough quality.

There were serious question marks about his fitness. One fan suggested, “It might be Christmas” before Emenalo is fit enough to make a serious impact at Parkhead. Yes, he was injured, but he needs to be fitter.

Another posted on X: “Slow as treacle. Hopefully he gets up to speed with more games,” while another said: “he looked blown”. One fan even questioned his positioning: “Anyone wanna tell him he plays lb.”

The verdict is quite harsh. Not only because Celtic fans will know he has spent the best part of six weeks going through rehab, but also because it was the Cobham graduate’s first-ever senior professional game.

Emenalo has not played for Chelsea’s senior side competitively, and the defender has gone on loan for the first time. Plenty of time needs to be afforded to the defender, and maybe he will come good.

The positives are that Emenalo will get plenty of game time. Celtic are in European football this season, while fighting on four separate fronts. Tierney is injury-prone, and Emenalo will get the chance to shine.

More so than Mheuka, who was an unused sub on Sunday. The striker has plenty of competition ahead of him in the pecking order, and it would be no surprise to see his season-long loan cancelled in January.