Ruthless streak needed in the loan market

Having had a look over the size of our squad, I feel that we are pushing towards a number that is getting a bit silly.

This article gives my thoughts on loan players going out from Celtic to other clubs, why I think it’s a bad idea and what I think should be done instead.

Most years, we let some of our younger players go out on loan, they tend to come back, go out on loan again, then come back then leave for another team.

I know it must be a horrible job to have to tell a player that they have no future at the club – especially when it’s a younger player but I think the club maybe need to be a bit more ruthless on this front.

Over the last few years, there haven’t been very many beneficial loan deals. By that, I am referring to players going out on loan from Celtic.

Either the players are good enough or they’re not, that call is up to the coaching staff to make. Would they pick them regularly in the first team? Can they do a job if a guy one ahead of them is suspended or injured of has a loss of form? If not, get rid of them.

I know we have had a bit of a mixed bag as far as incoming loan players are concerned – Craig Bellamy did well, Robbie Keane won nothing but also did well.

Edson Braafheid and Diamansy Kamara- did they enhance our team? I don’t think so.

My main gripe is the number of young players who are given the false hope of going out on loan then come back to find out that they are not going to be good enough for our first team.

I’ve highlighted a few guys over the past few years who have gone out and loan but should have been sold sooner.

Niall McGinn – You could argue all day whether or not you think he is good enough, maybe the death threats affected him this year and I can fully understand why.

Prior to the death threats, McGinn wasn’t a regular starter, when he came off the bench, he wasn’t the type of player who you’d look at and think that he’s a potential match winner. Even as a starter, he was a decent enough player but never really looked a stand out, I can’t remember many man of the match performances.

Now, I’m not saying that a player has to be putting in man of the match performances but I feel that McGinn, at a few weeks short of his 24th birthday, isn’t likely to become a regular for us so why punt him out on loan?

Next up is Graham Carey, signed from Shelbourne in 2005, played v Rapid Vienna in Europe and was never to be heard from again.

Instead of someone at Parkhead making the decision to move him on or sell him, we sent him to Bohemians, St Mirren and Huddersfield on loan and then he left to sign for St Mirren.

I could go on all day but I don’t want to bore you with too many examples but another one that I can’t understand is Darren O’Dea, like most players who have pulled on the hoops, you can argue all day whether or not he’s good enough.

Darren played 49 first team matches for us, moved to Reading on loan and played eight times then was shifted out to Ipswich and made a further 20 appearances. Now we are hearing that he no longer has a future with the club.

Morten Rasmussen and Jos Hooiveld are another two guys who, at their age, should be playing first team football. For reasons unknown to me, things haven’t worked for either of them at Parkhead. Most teams just sell them and let them get on with their careers but we don’t.

The point that I am making is that players going out on loan, in recent times, really has not benefited our club in any way so why bother? Is it just a case that the club are unsure of the abilities of the players? Is it the case that the guys going out on loan are very close to being first team players and just need a little bit extra added to their game?

Unlike most blogs I’ve written on here, I do actually have quite a viable solution this time so I’d like to hear your opinions on what I am saying.

I would love to see Celtic enter a team into the lower leagues of Scottish football. If, for example, we were able to enter a team into the second or third division, we could have age restrictions on the players that could be used or say that the players in the Celtic B team cannot play for the first team for the season.

Almost the same as them being out on loan – once they are gone, they are gone.

I would be more than happy to go and watch a Celtic B team play in the lower leagues if the first team were playing at a different time which does happen a lot.

The club could even make cash from it – something like a TV channel showing all first team matches as well as B team matches – similar to the way that Celtic TV used to work before we lost Setanta.

In Spain it happens, Barcelona have a second team playing in the lower leagues, they cannot be promoted but surely doing that must be a better option than sending young guys on loan to some obscure team down south.

To summarise, I think someone, I don’t know who, at Parkhead should be making the decision to sell some players instead of loan so many of them out – especially when they are in their mid/early twenties.

I know we have a “development squad” I’m not so sure what the point of that actually is so it’s time to scrap the development squad and get a second team into the lower leagues.

From there, if the players are not doing well enough in the lower leagues, it’s an easier decision to move them on. If they are a stand out in the lower leagues, then the next step would be to get them involved in a couple of friendlies or training sessions with the first team.

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