Growing up as a Celtic fan gave me a sense of identity. I was always in a mixed crowd of friends including Rangers, Kilmarnock, Aberdeen and St.Mirren fans. Even though I was in the minority I felt supporting Celtic meant more to me than any feelings my mates had for their respective teams.People who spring to mind immediately would be Paul McStay, Peter Grant, Tommy Burns (RIP), Roy Aitken and George McCluskey.
The common denominator between these players is the fact they came through the Celtic Boys Club. In other words fans of the club who were good enough to make the step up to play for their favourite team.
I believe that this can only be beneficial for the team as they have a never say die attitude which means that they hurt both as a player and a fan. As a case in point more recently there were several imports during the Mowbray era that showed no signs of pain during defeat. To me this is all too common nowadays as the days of testimonials for club loyalty are almost non existent.
This brings me onto the subject of Lennoxtown and previously Barrowfield. Has the game changed so much now that we have to rely on ‘foreign talent´? With hindsight are some of the foreigners who have played for us in the last five years or so necessarily any better than the crop of kids coming through the ranks at that time.
Unfortunately we will never know as a percentage of them move on each season never having been given a first team place.
The production line has dried up and although there will be occasional successes you must dig deep to find them. I’ve looked at some who have and have not made the grade with the first team in the last ten years.
Aiden McGeady- can be classed as one such player having played for us for close on 6 seasons and latterly was sold to Spartak Moscow for £9.5 million making him the most expensive export in Scottish football history.
He struggled like most of the team in his last season at the club under the stewardship of Tony Mowbray. Juventus are currently showing an interest in signing him although he maintains he is happy where he is.
John Kennedy- would have undoubtedly been a success had he not suffered the horrific injury he sustained whilst playing for Scotland against Rumania. Just remember his outstanding performance in the Nou Camp against Barcelona and you will realise the potential he had.
John made several comebacks from injury before finally breaking down for the last time against Shaktar Donetsk in a Champions league game in 2007. He is now part of the scouting network at Celtic Park.
Stephen McManus- started rather shakily at the start of his Celtic career but proceeded to be made captain highlighting in a goal against AC Milan in the Champions League of 2007.
He lifted the league championship trophy at Tannadice on 22nd May 2008 which in turn proved to be a memorial to Tommy Burns who had sadly passed away a week earlier.
Stephen joined Middlesbrough in 2010 for £1.5 million where he is still plying his trade.
James Forrest- is another Celtic Boys club product who could turn out to be quite a find.
He is a productive player who has now played for Celtic at all levels and also in Europe.
The signing of Kris Commons has meant James was used sparingly towards the end of last season. However he has plenty to look forward to and can be encouraged by his first full season with the first team which culminated in a full international debut for Scotland against Republic of Ireland in May 2011.
Paul McGowan, Paul Caddis, Craig Beattie, Simon Ferry and Scott Cuthbert are familiar names to us who never quite made an impression on the team despite good reviews when coming through the ranks.
My ideal scenario would be a team of Celtic supporting players who know what it feels like to follow our great club.
Unfortunately those days will never be although I continue to hope that Lennoxtown will provide our next batch of players as home grown talent is such a rare commodity today.
As usual any comments would be appreciated, please let me know of your success and failure stories.
Couldn’t agree more.
I believe that the U16’s this season coming, are the first age group to come through Lennoxtown system that TB(rip) envisaged.
Mainly trying to follow the French way. Training together before and after school, they reckon it takes 15000hrs to produce a top level player, from boy to man.
Hopefully more knowledgeable Tims will put me right on this.
YNWA (U19’s)
Committees, workgroups, politicians, journalists etc have been debating this for the last 20yrs, what happened to the talent Scotland used to produce every year? I haven’t seen one player in the last 20yrs come anywhere close to a Mcstay, Nicholas, dalglish, etc. Look at Celtic from 65 through 85, full of homegrown players. Btw, the u19s and 17s still train at barrowfield I’m sure
“I believe that the U16’s? this season coming, are the first age group to come through Lennoxtown system that TB(rip) envisaged.
Mainly trying to follow the French way. Training together before and after school, they reckon it takes 15000hrs to produce a top level player, from boy to man.
Hopefully more knowledgeable Tims will put me right on this.
Aye this is the case at the present moment. Having been at school with these players I can vouch for this system creating an extremely high calibre of player.
Every day they were training together, getting to know each others strengths, weaknesses and general style of play. It also allows them to grow as individual footballers as well as a solid team unit.
Results in the Next Gen tournament clearly show the progress that Celtic youths are making in this day and age. in my personal opinion it will be the boy Paul George who will become a massive player for Celtic in the upcoming years, and will have this system to thank for his development on top his sheer raw talent