Celtic’s development squad are set to get the best of both world’s in the new season- playing for the hoops in the newly renamed Development League AND playing on loan at the weekend.
In January Celtic sent Joe Chalmers, Lewis Kidd, Mikey Miller, Paul George and Stuart Findlay on loan to Championship clubs which left the u-20 squad a little on the light side.
Celtic battled away to win the title on the final day of the season at Tannadice but can now plan for the season ahead knowing that they can continue to work on players in the Development League while giving them vital first team experience on loan at lower division clubs.
Kidd and Miller were released by Celtic at the end of last season but have been fixed up with Queen of the South and Morton.
The new style loans will benefit a whole range of players at different stages of their careers. Denny Johnstone and Jamie Lindsay would be too old to play in the u-19 Champions League, should Celtic qualify, meaning that going out on loan to a Championship side would be more appealing.
The development loan scheme is about to be finalised by the SPFL who published their 2014/15 fixture list earlier this week with Celtic opening up at home to St Mirren on August 5 followed by a visit to Dundee United the following week.
Sixteen team will take part in the league featuring all of the top division clubs plus Hearts, Hibs, Sevco and Dunfermline as the hoops set off defending the title they have won for the last five seasons.
Ronny Deila has played a number of last season’s u-20 squad during the pre-season trip to Austria with Findlay, Eoghan O’Connell and Calum Waters playing the full 90 minutes in the 5-2 win over LASK Linz while Aidan McIlduff was introduced as a substitute.
The development squad have two pre-season friendlies arranged, away to East Kilbride on July 19 and away to Turriff United on July 26.
CLICK HERE for Development League fixtures
